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How
it Affects You: Your Body
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| The
Alcohol Pathway |
Alcohol is
a mood altering depressant drug that can reach every cell in your
body. When alcohol is swallowed it is not digested like food; instead,
a small amount is immediately absorbed directly into your blood stream
by the lining of your mouth and stomach. The rest is rapidly absorbed
in the small intestine. Within 90 seconds (a healthy circulation rate)
it will affect all the organs and systems in your body,
crossing even the blood-brain barrier, which normally keeps harmful
substances away from the brain.
Your body tries immediately to metabolize (break down) the alcohol
into non-harmful substances (water, carbon dioxide and energy). Ten
percent of the alcohol is eliminated through sweat, breath and urine.
Enzymes in your stomach and liver must detoxify the rest. This happens
at a constant rate of one-half ounce per hour (about half a standard
drink). Nothing will increase this rate and not all people can detoxify
that much alcohol in an hour.When the rate of alcohol consumption
exceeds the rate of detoxification, the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream
continues to build, with increasingly detrimental effects. Vomiting
and loss of consciousness, the body's last defenses against an alcohol
overdose, may occur prior to severe impairment of the brain. However,
if alcohol is consumed in large quantities and quickly (drinking games
and multiple shots) these life saving mechanisms cannot stop the blood
alcohol levels from climbing and death can occur from acute alcohol
poisoning.
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| Affecting
Factors |
How alcohol affects you
depends on how much is in your bloodstream - your blood alcohol concentration
(BAC). The BAC determines how much intoxication (depression of your
nervous system) will occur. Many factors affect your rate of intoxication,
including:
• The amount and speed of consumption
- if alcohol is consumed slowly, it allows the body to metabolize
it and limit accumulation in the bloodstream.
•
A full or empty stomach - Food, water, and fruit juice dilute the
alcohol and help to slow its absorption into the bloodstream (by up
to 50%). Carbonation works to speed absorption.
•
Body weight and composition - The body is 60% water and as fat holds
less water than muscle, those who are leaner and heavier have a higher
water content to dilute the alcohol, so the effects of alcohol are
less pronounced than in a lighter person who drinks the same amount
or those with a greater percentage of body fat.
•
Gender - Women absorb about a third more alcohol into their blood
stream than men as they have less of the metabolizing enzyme, alcohol
dehydrogenase. Women are much more vulnerable to the affects of alcohol
for many reasons, see Just for Women to find
out why.
• Setting, mood or atmosphere - What you
expect, the setting or location, your mental state, and other drugs
being used, can also alter alcohol's effects. If you are tired, upset,
depressed, excited or inexperienced you are more susceptible. Many
people become intoxicated on less alcohol merely because they have
that expectation before they begin drinking.
•
Age - As people get older they are affected more by alcohol
• Tolerance - The bodies of experienced drinkers have
adapted to alcohol being present in their systems, so it may take
longer and more alcohol to feel impaired. In severe cases of repeated
alcohol consumption, where brain or liver damage have occurred, the
person may become very sensitive to alcohol.
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