All people know that alcohol is bad for you- but how is it bad? One way this is so is dehydration. Dehydration is when the amount of fluid in someone’s body, which is necessary for the blood to be of appropriate liquidity, is low. The body sends messages to the brain saying, “We are thirsty.” Some of these messages might be “Do not urinate anymore” or “Do not sweat anymore.” This is because that is all the liquid the body has left to keep. When people experience dehydration, they need water or some form of healthy liquid. Dehydrated just means not enough water in a persons body. As Rojet’s Thesaurus puts it, dehydration is “lack of moisture.” Dehydration is not good for any person’s body because it causes your heart to work harder. This can cause blood clots, and it is harder to move oxygen in thick blood. When your brain is not getting enough oxygen, it can cause many life-threatening circumstances. Some examples are: stroke, aneurysms (blood vessels burst in the brain), and heart attacks. Alcohol is known as a natural diuretic, which means it flushes fluids out of your body. When people drink alcohol, it causes the kidneys to “let go” of the urine more than usual. That is what causes a hangover: the unbalance of salts in the water and blood of the body causing upset stomach and headache. Alcohol also acts as vasodilator, which means it causes the body’s blood vessels to expand. Although vasodilators help high blood pressure, it is not good to “use” them/it if you don’t need it. Alcohol weakens and damages the cerebral cortex in your brain, which controls your behavior. When alcohol goes into a person’s body, it slows down the process of the body sending messages to control the eyes, mouth, ears, and other senses. Other parts of ... ... middle of paper ... ...the second most dehydrating. The third most dehydrating alcoholic drink was the malt liquor, and the fourth was beer. The least dehydrating beverage, other than the control, was the rum, and the least dehydrating after the rum was the water. Works Cited http://www.drugfree.org/drug-guide/depressants http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/your_tap_water_is_probably_laced_with_anti_-depressants_partner/ http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/check-the-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/effects-on-the-body/alcohol-and-your-health http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/alcoholism4.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm http://thebrainbank.scienceblog.com/2012/09/02/the-science-of-a-hangover/ http://nihseniorhealth.gov/alcoholuse/howalcoholaffectsthebody/01.html http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body
Roger E. Meyer writes this article to explain the effects of alcohol and how it affects the body. Once alcohol is taken into the body it is absorbed from the stomach and the small intestine and into the bloodstream. If too much alcohol is taken in the stomach may secrete a mucous that will slow absorption. One tenth of the alcohol exits form the body as sweat or urine, as the rest is slowly broken down by the body. This article and information can be helpful to me because it will give me a background and information on alcohol and what happens when one consumes it.
The three basic nutritional components found in food--carbohydrates, proteins, and fats--are used as energy after being converted to simpler products. Some alcoholics ingest as much as 50 percent of their total daily calories from alcohol, often neglecting important foods. Even when food intake is adequate, alcohol can damage the mechanisms by which the body controls blood glucose levels, resulting in either increased or decreased blood glucose (glucose is the body's principal sugar. As a result, alcohol causes the brain and other body tissue to be deprived of glucose needed for energy and function. Although alcohol is an energy source, how the body processes and uses the energy from alcohol is more complex than can be explained by a simple calorie conversion value. For example, alcohol provides an average of 20 percent of the calories in the diet of the upper third of drinking Americans, and we might expect many drinkers who consume such amounts to be obese. Instead, national data indicate that, despite higher caloric intake, drinkers are no more obese than nondrinkers. Also, when alcohol is substituted for carbohydrates, calorie for calorie, subjects tend to lose weight, indicating that they derive less energy from alcohol than from food
Alcohol can be an addictive substance if abused on a daily basis or consumed in large quantities. Alcohol is technically defined as, “a colorless flammable liquid that has the active principle of intoxicating drinks” (HarperCollins Publishers 2009). One of the leading causes of death in the United States is deaths induced by alcohol. There are many types of alcohol that are produced and distributed throughout the country. Common alcoholic beverages that are sold regularly are vodka, beer, rum, wine, whiskey, and much more. Each type does as much damage to the body as the other one, though they differ in amounts, or percentage, of alcohol. It depends on a person’s body type how alcohol will affect them personally. Weight, height, family background, and gender are common factors associated with a person’s blood alcohol content (HealthCheck Systems 2012).
Alcohol affects the body in many different ways. On the website drugfreeworld.org the author tells us about the bad long term and short term effects of alcohol on the body. One long term effect is that it makes the liver work to hard causing it to fail. When the liver fails to function properly the body takes in toxins that harm it. These toxins harm the body in many different ways. One short term effect is that it causes decreased perception and coordination. The decreased perception of things causes things to appear closer or farther away than they really are. The decreased coordination make the people very clumsy resulting in injury. Some other short effects of alcohol on the body are vomiting, slurred speech, and headaches. Some other long term effects of alcohol are alcohol poisoning, Ulcers, and sometimes cancer of the mouth and throat (“Short Term and Long Term Effects”, 2014).
The effects that alcohol has on the brain is that it can cause blackouts, memory loss, anxiety and psychological problems. “The brain continues to develop until age twenty-one, and that young brains can be irreversibly damaged by alcohol” (MacPherson). Alcohol may also cause inflammation in the stomach, causing ulcers or gastritis which prevents the absorption of food causing cancer in the stomach. Excessive drinking may also cause infertility in both men and women (The Effects of Alcohol). Alcohol affects almost every part of the body, many times resulting in death; in fact, alcohol is the cause of 75% of suicide deaths
Alcohol is a depressant causing the nervous system to slow down. When the nervous system slows down you lose coordination, reaction time, and you will be unaware of your surroundings. Once you take a sip of alcohol, it enters your stomach through your small intestine. When it reaches the small intestine, the small blood vessels transport it to your bloodstream. The alcohol will soon reach your brain being a depressant to your body. This is when you start to feel intoxicated and your body starts to slow down. Alcohol can stay in one’s body up to six hours depending on what you drink and your weight. (MedicineNet. com, Page
Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion. Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers with the most notorious being the liver. Drinking too much can weaken your immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink too much (Alcohol's Effects on the Body, 2017). Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows your body’s ability to ward off infections even up to 24 hours after getting drunk (Alcohol's Effects on the Body,
Most people think that de-hydration is something that only happens to individuals under extreme conditions.
Increased abuse of alcohol leads to physical damage to the body. Alcohol is absorbed directly into the brain, dulling one’s senses and weakling one's will power. According to the article from the Mayo Clinic Health Information, “Excessive use of alcohol can produce several harmful effects on your brain and nervous system. It also can severely damage your liver, pancreas and cardiovascular system. Alcohol use in pregnant women can damage the fetus” (Mayo 1). Continued ingestion of alcohol affects every organ in the body. Every organ in the body is affected. The liver has serious effects that may lead to cirrhosis and death.. At first the liver adapts and tolerates alcohol. It works harder and finally damages itself in time. Alcohol leads the liver to the inability to metabolize facts. Furthermore, it leads to increase in cholesterol and triglycerides leading to clogged arteries. Red blood cells are also affected leading the individual to become anemic.
Alcohol has direct toxic as well as sedative effects on the body, and failure to take care of nutritional and other physical needs during prolonged periods of excessive drinking may further complicate matters. Advanced cases often require hospitalization. The effects on major organ systems are cumulative and include a wide range of digestive-system disorders such as ulcers, inflammation of the pancreas, and cirrhosis of the liver. The central and peripheral nervous systems can be permanently damaged. Blackouts, hallucinations, and extreme tremors may occur. The latter symptoms are involved in the most serious alcohol withdrawal syndrome, delirium tremens, which can prove fatal despite prompt treatment.
Underage drinking causes people to make bad decisions, such as; driving while intoxicated, becoming pregnant, and making a complete fool out of themselves. While intoxicated, are just being a few instances that can and will impact your life forever. Some individuals don’t understand what alcohol really does to the body. Beer has empty calories that will make you gain weight. Which is why a lot of alcoholics have larger stomachs, or another term many people use for these large stomachs is, “beer belly.” Some people may say that alcohol helps you escape your problems and is a stress relevant. Alcohol will not only bring more stress onto your life, it will also bring more problems. As much as people may feel alcohol helps, it really won’t help.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that help transmit signals from one nerve in the brain to another (Drinkaware). Drinking decreases our mental sharpness and judgment. According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes” (NIAAA,). Another problem that affects us mentally is addiction. Alcohol is very addictive and people go through withdrawal. (Brittanica, Mark Keller). Alcohol affects human’s bodies and causes them to die at a young age. Alcohol harms your organs such as the heart, liver, pancreas, and the brain. (NIAAA). Also, there is an increase of developing cancer around the mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and breast (NIAA). Consuming alcohol came lead to people taking actions they might not have taken when sober. Regular drinking lowers the levels of serotonin in your brain. This leads to depression and
Many people could tell you what alcohol will do to you. Blurred vision, memory loss, slurred speech, difficulty walking, and slow reaction times are all very common side effects depending on how much one consumes (National Institute on Alcohol abuse, 2004). To most, there is nothing wrong with this. Party all night, have a good time, find somewhere to sleep, pass out, and wake up in the morning. A couple of Advil and a glass of water and you are good to go, no harm done. This is where many are wrong. These effects are not just short term, they all add up in the long- run. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety (National Institute on Alcohol abuse, 2004).
Alcohol has many terrible effects on a person’s health. Alcohol affects many different parts of the body, but first of all, alcohol affects the brain. A person’s brain is very important, it shows how someone thinks, makes decisions, and controls their body. According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Effects of alcohol are many and are all bad. There is not one good effect of excessive alcohol drinking, except what an alcoholic considers a good feeling after getting drunk. The alcoholics drink for many reasons, but the results are all the same. Alcohol has very bad effects on all human body organs; it causes disease and some of those diseases are dangerous and even fatal, and the most common diseases re...