Alcohol affects
your brain
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It is impossible
to ‘speed up’ elimination of alcohol from your body.
Neither a shower nor a cup of coffee will speed it up, only
time will do the job.
The body can break down around 6 - 10 grams of alcohol an hour.
It will take an average person five to eight hours to rid the body
of the alcohol in half a bottle of wine or one and a half pints
of beer.
During this time
the alcohol has pronounced affects on the organs of the body, most
obviously the brain.
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Your
body clock
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| At 10.10pm:
After 10 minutes 50% of the alcohol consumed will have been
absorbed into the bloodstream. |
| By 11.00pm:
After one hour all the alcohol would have been absorbed. Absorption
is accelerated still further when drinking on an empty stomach.
Long drinks made with mixers will have a faster effect as they
enter the bloodstream much faster. |
| By 12.00am:
At midnight after an evening drinking there may be 200mgs /100ml
of alcohol in the blood. |
| By 7:30am:
On waking up there is still 90mg /100ml. You are still over
The legal limit and unfit to drive. |
By 12.00pm:
By lunchtime, elimination has continued to around 20mg/100ml
and under the current legal limit. But
your driving may still be affected and you could be
guilty of an offence. |
Effects on
the brain:
Not many people
realise that alcohol has a depressant effect upon the brain.
Parts of the brain that normally restrain our behaviour and which
stop us being silly and behaving in an antisocial and embarrassing
way are affected.
Later other
aspects of brain function are suppressed. We become less well co-ordinated
with a tendency to fall over, our speech becomes slurred and incoherent,
we become drowsy and go to sleep.
With very
high levels of alcohol in the bloodstream, the breathing centre
can become inhibited.
Taken over a longer period of time, alcohol can have a longer-term
effect upon the brain causing depression and dementia.
Women who are
thinking of becoming pregnant or who are already pregnant are best
advised to avoid alcohol completely so as to avoid any possible
effect upon the developing baby.
Effects on the body:
Alcohol
is a depressant drug. Some people take alcohol to because they feel
anxious or depressed and wish to be relieved of such negative feelings.
This relief is short term unfortunately, and alcohol is also addictive.
Alcohol has
an effect on many cells in the body, most importantly in the liver.
The liver first enlarges as it becomes fatty, then it will shrink.
People with
alcohol problems often neglect their diet and associated vitamin
deficiencies can occur. Veins around the throat and in the anus
dilate in an attempt to shunt blood around the liver. At times these
can bleed, leading to life threatening emergencies.
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