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| How Alcohol Affects You |
 Alcohol is a depressant.
Alcohol directly affects your brain and its ability to work properly. People who have been drinking often believe they are less affected by alcohol than they are and are unable to accurately judge their own driving skills.
If you’ve been drinking, judgment and the ability to think and make decisions are the first functions impaired by alcohol. Often, both illegal drugs and legal medications will also impair your brain function; it is even more dangerous if you combine them with alcohol.
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If you are taking medication, consult your prescription and/or over-the-counter medication instructions carefully before driving or operating machinery. |
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Alcohol Absorption.
When you drink, you immediately begin to absorb the alcohol in your mouth. Some alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach walls, but most is absorbed in the small intestine and then circulates throughout your body in the bloodstream. When the alcohol reaches your brain, you being to feel its effects. Once absorbed, your liver must process the alcohol and nothing will get you sober “fast,” not cold showers, fresh air, coffee or exercise.
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The effects of alcohol.
Effects vary from person to person and even in the same person at different times. A variety of factors can influence the way alcohol affects you:
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- the quantity you drink.
- what you are drinking (for example, beer contains about 4.5 percent alcohol whereas distilled spirits range from 40 to 50 percent alcohol).
- how long it takes you to drink it (four drinks in one hour will have a more obvious affect than the same four drinks in four hours).
- the physical size of the drinker.
- food in the stomach (food in the stomach slows the absorption of alcohol).
- prior experience drinking (tolerance level).
- the mood of the drinker (a person may tend to drink more at a party of if you are depressed).
- if you are drinking in combination with drugs, illegal and legal (prescription or over-the-counter).
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All contain about .6 ounces of pure alcohol or ethanol:
12 ounces of beer (5 percent alcohol)
5 ounces of table wine (12 percent alcohol)
1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor (40 percent alcohol)
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Alcohol generally affects your system
in the following ways:
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| Loss of concentration: |
Alcohol can make concentration difficult, affecting your divided attention, decreasing alertness and increasing drowsiness.
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Impaired visual function:
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Drinking can cause double or multiple vision, blurring, reduces eye movement control, and reduces your peripheral vision.
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| Decreased motor skills: |
Alcohol slows your reflexes and decreases coordination, balance/steadiness, reaction time, muscle and speed control; your speech may be slurred. |
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Poor judgment: |
Alcohol dulls the areas of the brain that enable you to process information and make good decisions; also logic and the ability to reason are impaired. |
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Driving requires the coordination of multiple skills at the same time
to change lanes, steer, brake, follow the rules of the road.
Regardless of age, gender or driving experience,
anyone driving with any one of the above critical areas impaired
(whether by alcohol, legal or illegal drugs or a combination of both),
is a danger behind the wheel. |
RESOURCES
California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control
http://www.abc.ca.gov
Center of Alcohol Studies
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
607 Allison Road, Piscataway, NY 08854
732-445-2190
http://www.dui.com/oldwhatsnew/Rutgers/effects.html
Emergency Nurses Association
Injury Prevention Institute
2055 South Whiting Street, Ste. 403, Alexandria, VA 22304
703-370-4050
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
MADD California State Office
P.O. Box 601008, Sacramento, CA 95860
800-I AM MADD
http://www.madd.org/madd_chapters/1,,90401,00.html?zip=90401
http://www.madd.org/home
National Commission Against Drunk Driving
1900 L St., N.W., Ste. 705, Washington, D.C. 20036
202-452-6004
http://www.ncadd.com
National Crime Prevention Council
1000 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
www.ncpc.org National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration
Department of Transportation
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol
Office of the Attorney General
State of California, Department of Justice
Crime and Violence Prevention Center
http://caag.state.ca.us/
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This page was last modified on
10/31/2007
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