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Alcohol; Facts
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<h1>Alcohol</h1>
Alcohol is often not thought of as a drug - largely because its
use is common for both
religious and social purposes in most
parts of the world. It is an <a
href="addict.html">addictive</a> drug, however, and compulsive
drinking in excess has become one of modern society’s most
serious problems.
Beverage alcohol (scientifically known as ethyl alcohol, or
ethanol)
is produced by fermenting or distilling various fruits,
vegetables, or grains. Ethyl
alcohol itself is a clear, colorless
liquid. Alcoholic beverages get their distinctive
colors from the
diluents, additives, and by-products of fermentation.
<p>
Beer is fermented to contain about 5% alcohol by
volume (or 3.5% in
light beer). Most wine is fermented to have
between 10% and 14% alcohol content;
however, such fortified
wines as sherry, port, and vermouth contain between 14% and
20%.
Distilled spirits (whisky, vodka, rum, gin) are first fermented,
then
distilled to raise the alcohol content. The
concentration of alcohol in spirits is 40%
by volume. Some
liqueurs may be stronger.
<p>
The effects of
drinking do not depend on the type of alcoholic
beverage - but rather on the amount of
alcohol consumed on a
specific occasion.
<h3>How Alcohol
Works</h3>
Alcohol- is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream from the
small
intestine, and less rapidly from the stomach and colon. In
proportion to its concentration in the bloodstream, alcohol
decreases activity in parts
of the brain and spinal cord. The
drinker’s blood alcohol concentration depends on:
<ul>
<li> the amount consumed in a given time
<li> the drinker’s size, sex, body build, and metabolism
<li>
the type and amount of food in the stomach.
</ul>
Once the alcohol has
passed into the blood, however, no food or
beverage can retard or interfere with its
effects. Fruit sugar,
however, in some cases can shorten the duration of alcohol’s
effect by speeding up its elimination from the blood.
<p>
In the
average adult, the rate of metabolism is about 8.5 g of
alcohol per hour (i.e. about
two-thirds of a regular beer or
about 30 mL of spirits an hour). This rate can vary
dramatically
among individuals, however, depending on such diverse factors as
factors.
<h3>Effects</h3>
The effects of any drug
depend on several factors:
<li> the amount taken at one time
<li> the user’s past drug experience
<li> the manner in which the drug is taken
<li> the
circumstances under which the drug is taken (the place,
the user’s psychological and
emotional stability, the presence
of other people, the concurrent use of other drugs,
etc.).
<p>
It is the amount of alcohol in the blood that causes the
effects.
In the following table, the left-hand column lists the number of
milligrams of alcohol in each decilitre of blood - that is, the
blood alcohol
concentration, or BAC. (For example, an average
person may get a blood alcohol
concentration of 50 mg/dL after
two drinks consumed quickly.) The right-hand column
describes the
usual effects of these amounts on normal people - those who
haven’t developed a tolerance to alcohol.
<p>
<b>BAC
(ma/dL)</b>
Effect<br>
<hr align=left width=80%
noshade>
<b>50 </b><br> Mild intoxication;
Feeling of warmth, skin flushed; impaired judgment;
decreased inhibitions
<br>
<b>100</b><br> Obvious
intoxication in most people;
Increased impairment of judgment, inhibition, attention,
and control;
Some impairment of muscular performance; slowing of reflexes
<br>
<b>150</b><br> Obvious
intoxication in all normal people;
Staggering gait and other muscular incoordination;
slurred
speech; double vision; memory and comprehension loss
<br>
<b>250</b><br> Extreme intoxication or stupor;
incontinence;
sleepiness
<br>
<b>350</b><br> Coma;
Unconsciousness; little response to stimuli; incontinence;
low body temperature; poor
respiration; fall in blood
pressure; clammy skin
<br>
<b>500</b><br> Death likely
<br>
<hr align=left width=80%
noshade><p>
Drinking heavily over a short period of time usually results in a
<b>"hangover" </b>- headache, nausea, shakiness, and sometimes
vomiting,
beginning from 8 to 12 hours later. A hangover is due partly to
poisoning by alcohol and other components of the drink, and
partly to the body’s
reaction to withdrawal from alcohol.
Although there are dozens of home remedies
suggested for
hangovers, there is currently no known effective cure.
<p>
Combining alcohol with other drugs can make the effects of these
other
drugs much stronger and more dangerous. Many accidental
deaths have occurred after
people have used alcohol combined with
other drugs.<p>
Long-term
effects of alcohol appear after repeated use over a
period of many months or years. The
negative physical and
psychological effects of chronic abuse are numerous; some are
potentially life-threatening.
<p>
Some of these harmful
consequences are primary - that is, they
result directly from prolonged exposure to
alcohol’s toxic
effects (such as heart and liver disease or inflammation of the
stomach). <p>
Others are secondary; indirectly related to
chronic alcohol
abuse, they include loss of appetite, vitamin deficiencies,
The risk of serious
disease increases with the amount of alcohol
consumed.
<p>
light drinkers or
abstainers, particularly from heart and liver
disease, pneumonia, some types of cancer,
acute alcohol
poisoning, accident, homicide, and suicide. No precise limits of
safe drinking can be recommended.
<p>
<h3>Tolerance and
Dependence</h3>
People who drink on a regular basis become tolerant
to many of
the unpleasant effects of alcohol, and thus are able to drink
more before suffering these effects. Yet even with increased
consumption, many such
drinkers don’t appear intoxicated. Because
they continue to work and socialize
reasonably well, their
deteriorating physical condition may go unrecognized by
others
until severe damage develops - or until they are hospitalized for
other reasons and suddenly experience alcohol withdrawal
symptoms.
<p>
Psychological dependence on alcohol may occur with regular use of
even
relatively moderate daily amounts. It may also occur in
people who consume alcohol only
under certain conditions, such as
before and during social occasions. This form of
dependence
refers to a craving for alcohol’s psychological effects, although
psychologically
dependent drinkers, the lack of alcohol tends to
make them anxious and, in some cases,
panicky.
<p>
Physical dependence occurs in consistently heavy
drinkers. Since
their bodies have adapted to the presence of alcohol, they suffer
withdrawal symptoms if they suddenly stop drinking. Withdrawal
symptoms range
from jumpiness, sleeplessness, sweating, and poor
appetite, to tremors (the
"shakes"), convulsions. hallucinations.
and sometimes death.
<p>
<h3>Alcohol and Pregnancy
</h3>
Pregnant women who drink risk having babies with fetal alcohol
effects (known as fetal
alcohol syndrome or FAS). The most
serious of these effects include mental retardation,
growth
deficiency, head and facial deformities, joint and limb
abnormalities, and heart defects. While it is known that the risk
of bearing an
FAS-afflicted child increases with the amount of
alcohol consumed, a safe level of
consumption has not been
determined.
<p>
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<font size=-1>Copyright
(c) 1971
Revised January 1991
Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Research
Foundation, Toronto Canada
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