Alcohol

Introduction

Alcohol is an addictive drink that can result in serious long-term damage. It was discovered thousands of years ago by humans who were tasting liquids that had become infected with yeast. It's proved that beer has existed since the Ancient Greeks and Romans when they drank beer as an alternative to the often contaminated water.

Today drinking is more than socially accepted. It has become a social phenomenon. Often we invite over some friends over a drink and most of us don't want to have a party without alcohol.

In the UK nearly one in 10 men and one in 20 women have alcohol problems. There are over 9 million persons in the UK that drinks an amount that puts their long-term health at risk.

Effects while drinking

Your need to go to the bathroom becomes larger when you drink alcohol. The reason is that alcohol is a diuretic, a substance that affects the urine process. Even though you think that you provide the body with some kind of drink you loose more water than your body is taking in.

If you drink alcohol with an empty stomach you will become drunk very quickly. That is because the stomach absorbs only 20 % of the alcohol.  The rest goes directly into the bloodstream. The smart thing to do before you will drink alcohol is to eat food with fat or protein, which prepares both your stomach and liver. What happens is that the stomach gets filled with food that leads to that the pyloric valve closes. That means that the alcohol is trapped in the stomach and your liver doesn't have to stress breaking down the alcohol. If you at some time want to get a quick effect your saviour is champagne. The bubbles in it affect the pyloric valve which result in that the alcohol goes to the part of the body where it is absorbed the best.

Hangover

When you have had too much to drink you'll get drunk. If you are not sure whether you're drunk or not, test yourself by finding your tip of the nose with your index finger. If you don't succeed, you know that your cerebellum is affected and you're definitely drunk.

If you wake up the day after your night out with a hangover you know that you drank too much. The headache is a result of the dehydration caused last night due to the large alcohol intake. Since you went to the bathroom a lot the night before your glucose level decreased along with the urine. That makes you blood sugar levels low and together with your late night out you will feel tired the next day. To prevent the hangover you have to drink a lot of water and not stay up all night.

Consequences

Long-term drinking can cause serious damage to your body. The organ that takes the most injury is the liver. As the liver gets used to a regular amount of alcohol intake you will need more alcohol for the same affect. That only contributes to a serious alcohol addiction. Your liver will become overactive as cells die and tissue hardens. The result is called Cirrhosis of the liver. There are of course other organs that take injury of long-term drinking for example the heart and the brain. You may suffer from heart disease, stro...