How does alcohol affect the body?
You are in college, you are at a party, and you are drunk. You, and the people around you, know you are drunk by your disorientated behavior but do they know what is causing you to act in this manner? Most likely not. Most people do not think about what the alcohol inside them is doing, the only thing they are worried about is the buzz that they get from it. Moderate drinking is alright but drinking excessively can wear out the body. Three important things to know about alcohol are how it enters and leaves the body, the effects of alcohol, and how the body responds to alcohol.
After the drink is consumed, the alcohol enters the blood stream. After it enters the blood stream it dissolves in the water in the blood and gets carried throughout the body. The alcohol then enters the tissues and dissolves in the water in the tissue; it does this for every tissue but fat tissue. Alcohol is not able to dissolve in fat so it is incapable of dissolving in fat tissue. This explains why women feel the effect, and get drunk quicker than men do. Women tend to have more fat, whereas men tend to have more muscle. Because muscle has more water, the alcohol becomes more diluted in a male.
Once the alcohol is absorbed into the body it leaves in three different ways: the kidney, lungs and liver. The kidney removes 5 percent of the alcohol in the urine. One of the duties of the kidney is to regulate the composition of blood in the body. Through this process the blood level is maintained by the removal of unwanted substances from the blood and into the urine.
Another 5 percent of the alcohol is exhaled through the lungs. Ever wonder how a breathalyzer works? When the blood enters the lungs some alcohol moves across the membranes of the alveoli (air sacs) into the air. This air is alveolar air; the concentration of alcohol in this air is relative to the amount of alcohol in the body. After the alcohol in the alveolar is exhaled, a breathalyzer can detect the blood alcohol content of the individual. Lastly, the liver takes care of whatever alcohol is left in the body. Alcohol in beverages is known as ethyl alcohol, more commonly known as ethanol. This ethanol is chemically broken down in the liver. The enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, strips electrons from the ethanol to form acetaldehyde. Another enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, with the help of oxygen, will convert the acetaldehyde into acetic acid. The acetic acid can be used for to form fatty acids or if further broken down into carbon dioxide and water.
The rate at which alcohol affects the body is determined by three things: the concentration of the alcohol, the type of drink, and whether the stomach is full or empty. The higher the concentration the faster the body absorbs it in the blood. When drinking carbonated beverages it tends to speed up the rate for the body to absorb the alcohol. Lastly, the more food in the stomach, the more time it takes for the alcohol to get absorbed. First off, the body responds to alcohol in a series of stages which correspond to an increase in the blood alcohol content (BAC). Blood alcohol content is the amount of alcohol that can be found in the bloodstream. The first stage is euphoria, which has a BAC of .03 to .12 percent. In this stage the person loses their judgment, they may look flushed and they have trouble with their motor skills, such as writing their name. The person may also seem more confident or daring and appear to have a shortened attention span.
The next stage is excitement and this is when the person's BAC rises to .09 to .25 percent. During the excitement stage the person may have trouble with memory, lose their motor skills, and their vision will become blurry. The person will also seem uncoordinated and have trouble balancing. The third stage is confusion, once the person reaches a BAC of .18 to .30 percent they will experience this stage. Slurred speech, confusion, dizziness and sleepiness are all signs of this stage. The person may become overly emotional in both extremes: very aggressive or extremely affectionate. Also during this stage a person may have a higher tolerance for pain than they would if they were sober.
Once the person has had enough alcohol to reach a BAC of .25 to .40 they will begin to enter the stupor stage. During this stage the person can not really do much but vomit. The person will most likely be unable to stand, walk, or respond to environment. The person may also me slip in and out of consciousness.
If the blood alcohol content continues to increase than the person may lapse into a coma. This stage happens when the individual has a BAC of .35 to .50 percent. During the coma, the person is unconscious, they breath slower, their heart will be slower, and the may feel cold to the touch. In this stage there is a slight chance the individual may die.The last and final stage and individual can reach is death. This is when an individual has a BAC of .50 percent or above. The person in this stage will sadly stop breathing and death occurs.
Alcohol mainly affects the nerve cells in the brain, causing interference between communication of these cells and other cells throughout the body. This interference restrains the activities of the excitatory nerve pathways and increases the activities of inhibitory nerve pathways. As the blood alcohol content increases, the number of centers of the brain which are infected also increase. Alcohol affects five centers in the brain in order: cerebral cortex, limbic system, cerebellum, hypothalamus and pituitary gland and the medulla.
The cerebral cortex processes information from your senses, does your "thought" processing and consciousness. The person will become more confident, more talkative, and will be less socially inhibited when alcohol depresses the behavioral inhibitory center. The alcohol will also inhibit the person's thought process; this is when a person uses bad judgment or can not think clearly. As the alcohol slows down processing information for the sense the person will appear having trouble seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. This also results in a higher tolerance for pain.The next center the alcohol effects is the center for memory and emotions, the limbic system. Observably in this stage the individual experiences memory loss and will also experience extreme emotions. These emotions can be strongly aggressive or even overly affectionate. Once the alcohol affects the cerebellum it impairs the movements of the body. The cerebellum deals with fine movements, such as touching your finger to your nose. When you are under the influence the finger is shaky or unstable, unlike when you are sober the movement is much smoother. When the cerebellum is affected, movements become much more uncoordinated. Balance is also impaired, resulting in the individual losing their balance and falling down.
The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are the next center of the brain that becomes infected. The hypothalamus controls the automatic functions of the brain and coordinates endocrine functions through nerve impulse actions on the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are affected in two noticeable ways increase in urine excretion and an increase in sexual behavior. Now on the contrary, as an individual's sexual behavior increases their sexual performance decreases, this is because of the depressed nerve centers in the hypothalamus. Alcohol also inhibits the pituitary secretion of anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), which makes the kidney reabsorb water. When the ADH levels decrease the kidney does not reabsorb the water which results in the kidney producing more urine. This explains why there are more bathroom breaks when someone is consuming alcohol. The medulla influences heart rate, breathing, consciousness and temperature. The person will become drowsy or even unconscious after the alcohol infects the reticular formation in the upper center of the medulla. A person may begin breathing slower, or stop altogether, and their temperature may decrease if the BAC gets high enough.
Alcohol is a drug and it is processed through the body as a drug. Alcohol affects almost every part of your body since the alcohol is circulated throughout the bloodstream. The affects of alcohol depend almost entirely on how high the person's blood alcohol content is. The most significant thing a person can do to avoid harming themselves is to pay attention to how much they drink, and how quick they consume the alcohol. The three important things to know about alcohol are how the alcohol enters and leaves the body, how the body is affected and what the body does in response to the alcohol. By knowing these three things a person can drink responsibly through the knowledge of what is going on inside their body. The next time you are out at a party pay attention to not only how much you drink but also keep and eye on your friends. But remember, you do not need alcohol to have a good time and it is definitely not the answer to your problems.