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Effects of alcohol on the body
Effects of alcohol on the body
Alcohol and the central nervous system
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The Effects of Alcohol on 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 m...
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...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.
One of these vital organs is the kidney. Our kidneys filter harmful substances from your blood. One of these substances is alcohol. Alcohol can cause changes in the function of the kidneys and make them less able to filter your blood. In addition to filtering blood, your kidneys do many other important jobs. One of these jobs is keeping the right amount of water in your body. Alcohol affects the ability of your kidneys to do this. When alcohol dehydrates (dries out) the body, the drying effect can affect the normal function of cells and organs, including the kidneys, disrupting the body’s water balance, thus effecting the maintenance of homeostasis in the
The alcohol in which Fortunato consumed had drastic affects on the physiology of his body. In general, alcohol affects virtually every cell in the human body. When it is introduced into the system through consumption, it diffuses through both the stomach and the small intestines and enters the bloodstream. The alcohol travels through the blood and is metabolized by the liver. It takes approximately one hour for one drink to be broken down by ...
"Alcohol's Effects on the Body." National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. . (tags: none | edit tags)
Ethanol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. It is the principal psychoactive constituent in alcoholic beverages making it the most commonly available drug in society. Ethanol can cause alcohol intoxication when consumed in high amounts. Once consumed, ethanol diffuses rapidly from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. As ethanol is a small, uncharged molecule it can easily cross the blood-brain barrier (Chandra 2008). Ethanol affects neuronal activity by altering the function of specific proteins, and inhibiting neurotransmission. Ethanol primarily exerts its effects by potentiating the action of endogenous neurotransmitters at the inhibitory receptor GABAA, or via inhibiting the excitatory effects of glutamate on the NMDA receptor (Harris et. al. 2008).
Alcohol not broken down by the liver goes to the rest of the body, including the brain. Alcohol can affect parts of the brain that control movement, speech, judgment, and memory. These effects lead to the
Alcoholism accounts for more than 15% of health care costs in the elderly. It is associated with an estimated 100,000 deaths per year in the United States. Alcohol consumption can produce both benefits and risks. In terms of benefits, men who drink two to six alcoholic beverages per week have decreased mortality rates and lower cardiovascular disease when compared with abstainers. On the negative side, two studies of 300,000 men demonstrated increased mortality among those consuming more than 2 to 3 drinks daily. Women, are more affected by less alcohol than men, perhaps because they have a lower blood volume, and so it’s distribution and decreased activity for gastric alcohol dehydrogenase are increased.
Alcohol abuse can be very dangerous because it can come at a time when a person is going through the bad times in their life. The only thing drugs do is worsens people’s lives because the behavior of the victim can change dramatically. Many drink at social events, to celebrate or relax. The problem is that many of the drinkers end up drinking more than what the body can withstand. According to the National institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism (2014), alcohol enters the blood as soon as the first sip and affect the body in as early as ten minutes. The amount then increase depending on the amount of drinks and the effects range from impairment, breathing problems, slurred speech, and coma. Some can even experience death as a result of becoming intoxicated because of having too much alcohol in the bloodstream. National institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism (2014). A young adult is more likely to experience a change in their mood and behavior because they are goi...
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.
Once ingested, food must be digested so it is available for energy and maintenance of body structure and function. Alcohol inhibits the breakdown of nutrients into usable molecules by decreasing secretion of digestive enzymes from the pancreas. Alcohol impairs nutrient absorption by damaging the cells lining the stomach and intestines and disabling transport of some nutrients into the blood. In addition, nutritional deficiencies themselves may lead to further absorption problems. For example, foliate deficiency alters the cells lining the small intestine, which in turn impairs absorption of water and nutrients including glucose, sodium, and additional foliate. Even if nutrients are digested and absorbed, alcohol can prevent them from being fully utilized by altering their transport, storage, and excretion. Decreased liver stores of vitamins such as vitamin A and increased excretion of nutrients such as fat, indicate impaired utilization of nutrients by alcoholics.
This is the most common form of alcohol consumption, especially in youth under the age of 21. Just within the last month there has been 85 plus alcohol related incidents, and over half involved freshman according to the University of Mississippi’s crime report. Instances such as these could have easily resulted in death, hence 1, 825 college students die each year from alcohol. Drinking is not only harmful to students bodies, but aslo academic performaces. A personal testimony came fromer freshamn here at Ole Miss stating how drinking during the begining of his collge career resulted in missing class, doing poorly on exams, and haveing a lower grade in classses overall. According to many freshman students here at the University of Mississippi, alcohol is the way to have fun at social events such as parties and other night activities on campus, the beverage itself is believed to help break the
Assume the assimilation of alcohol in our gastrointestinal tract (stomach and intestines) is a process of first-order kinetics, which means that the alcohol assimilation rate in our gastrointestinal tract is positively proportional to the amount of alcohol in our gastrointestinal tract;
“When I was 13, my dad started drinking more and more. Every day he would come home from work and have beer, lots of it. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then he started getting more angry and violent. He would shout at my mom and me. It was like my father had gone and been replaced with another guy” says an anonymous kid who lives with an alcoholic parent in “How my dad’s drinking problem almost destroyed my family”. The kid depicts that he is so confused, angry and upset especially when his father got fired for going to work drunk. This is one of many children’s voices who suffers having an alcoholic in their family. Most of them are depressed because alcohol has destroyed their family. This is an addiction that does
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
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.
middle of paper ... ... Alcohol consumption needs to be taken seriously and always in moderation. It has not only short-term effects, but long-term ones as well. Alcohol can lead to serious problems with the central nervous system, blood, muscles, the liver, and more.