WHAT HAPPENS
IN DRINKING?
There is
still a widespread misconception that alcohol is a stimulant. Actually, it has
exactly the opposite effect. The gay chatter of a cocktail party, for example,
is not the result of drinking-induced stimulation but rather of the depressant
effect alcohol has on the nervous system which, in terms of behavior, may
remove inhibitions. Alcohol dulls the cerebral cortex, an area of the brain
that is involved in judgment, motor coordination, and self-control.
As a result
of the dulling-which, of course, will vary in degree depending upon the rate
and quantity of alcohol consumption-judgment and self-control are reduced, and
feelings and emotions may be expressed more freely.
As muscular control
decreases, reaction time becomes greater, so that a driver, for example, who
has had several drinks, is unable to stop or swerve in an emergency as quickly
as he would normally. With heavy drinking, speech becomes slurred, vision is
affected, hearing is impaired, and equilibrium is lessened. Continued intake of
alcohol slows the breathing rate and heart action and lowers blood pressure.
When
concentration in the blood goes beyond 0.4 per cent, there may be coma and
eventually death. Alcohol acts very quickly to affect thought, feeling, and
behavior because it can enter the bloodstream and begin to circulate within two
minutes. Unlike food, alcohol does not have to go through the process of
digestion.
Some of it is absorbed even by the stomach walls; the rest is
quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through the intestinal walls. Alcohol
taken on an empty stomach is especially fast-acting; when it is mixed with
food, the absorption rate is less rapid. In whatever form it may be consumed-as
beer, cider, whiskey, straight, mixed-alcohol's effects on the body are the
same.
