Explain the short- and long-term effects of alcohol use as well as what a blood alcohol concentration is and how its calcuated

Alcohol

For many people drinking alcohol is never a problem.  For a large number of our student drinking alcohol is not a problem because they don't drink.  However, there are some people that have an issue with alcohol.

In small amounts... typically 1-2 drinks a day... alcohol consumption in any form is ok (unless there is an underlying health issue).  Some researchers have even found health benefits when drinking smaller amounts of alcohol.  Click Here for an article on drinking alcohol and possible health benefits.  But you can also get the same benefits with a higher fiber, lower fat diet filled with fruits and vegetables.  But the "health" benefits of alcohol are not always stated as a proven fact, some research points out the flaws in this way of thinking: Article about no health benefits of moderate drinking

When we say 1-2 drinks, we mean that 1 drink is equal to the following...

Red solo cups contain more than 12 fl oz of beer... usually about 16 fl oz.  So they would be the equivalent of 1.33 drinks/red solo cup.

The way each drink affects your body in the short term is related to your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC).  Use this chart to determine how drinking alcohol would affect your BAC...

Besides your gender, weight, and number of drinks, your genetics may affect your ability to metabolize alcohol and lower your BAC at different rates.  Some individuals are able to drink more than what the chart says above and have a lower BAC because they can metabolize alcohol faster.  Whilst others do it slower because of their genes.  But there is no test to determine what type of genes you might have.  So erroring on the more cautious side might allow you to be a little more social and safe at the same time if you decide to drink.

Having those 1-2 drinks a day, for most of us, won't cause any harm to the body.  It is just when we start drinking a little more than 1-2, that is where we start to run into problems.  When a person drinks alcohol, his/her body sends the alcohol (which is a form of calories) to the liver to turn it into fat (again another form of calories or energy), so the calories can be stored as fat.  So if you drink a few beers or glasses of wine and you do so in moderation (1-2 drinks) then you would just have to deal with the extra calories in the diet.

If you really want to see how alcohol affects your BAC, you can complete the assignment from this week.  But a really nice tool to use (because it also works food in your stomach into the equation) can be found on this page (click the back to our page/site link in the box below):

Once you start to drink a little more than that amount, in the short term, alcohol can do the following to your body...

Plus your body will sweat more, your sexual performance will suffer, and you'll not be able to sleep as well because alcohol prevents a person from going into REM sleep.  For most of us, it is the items on this graph/image above that occur in the brain that we need to consider most.  This is especially for those who decide they want to "Binge Drink".  Binge drinking is defined for a male as having 5 or more drinks and for a female as having 4 or more drinks in one day/night of being social.  Those who Binge drink run into a whole host of more problems than those who drink light to moderate amounts.

Do you know of anyone that can be "classified" as a binge drinker?  Do you agree with the chart above... does that person experience these issues more often?

Those who binge drink... again depending on the BAC... can run into a host of problems

All of the above information is about drinking alcohol over a short period of time.  But for those that drink moderately to heavily over a longer period of time, weeks/months and most likely years, he/she may experience other health concerns:

Click Here for long-term effect of using alcohol

Not to mention what it does to a person's liver (this is what scar tissue looks like)...

or what it can do to your brain..

or another way of looking at it...

For those who don't drink alcohol, fantastic for you!!!

For those that drink light to moderately (less than 4 drinks), fantastic for you!!!

For those that drink in an area that is considered binge drinking, even if only "every once in a while", please look at the information above again.  I have more information to talk about in class dealing with this.