Surprising ways alcohol affects your body and brain
Kristoffer Trolle/flickrWe know different drugs make us experience the world around us in very different ways — and their after effects are often nowhere near as pleasant as the immediate results they produce. Alcohol, which two teams of addiction experts recently ranked as one of the five most addictive substances, can be especially dangerous when consumed in excess.
Here are some of the surprising ways alcohol affects our body and mind:
As a depressant, alcohol puts the brakes on our brain’s "excitatory" messengers and amplifies our "inhibitory" ones, making us feel sluggish.
Within minutes, it starts to slow our thinking, breathing, and heart rate.
While these effects can be a pleasant and temporary side-effect of moderate drinking, which is defined by the NIAAA as up to 2 drinks a day for men and 1 for women, they can be devastating if you binge drink, or have 5 or more drinks (if you're a man) in 2 hours or 4 or more drinks in that time period (if you're a woman).
Since alcohol slows down our breathing and heart rate, repeatedly drinking too much, too fast — and even in some rare cases overdoing it in one sitting — can kill.
But moderate drinking also has other pleasant side-effects. For example, it raises the level of an important chemical called dopamine in our brain’s reward center, which makes us feel good.
And while a drink or two might make you feel more relaxed (and even more creative), more than that can has been linked with less brain activity in regions of the brain like the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational thinking and decision-making.
Your brain also has trouble producing long term memories when you're wasted, which is one of the reasons you might have trouble remembering things from the night before. Another brain area alcohol affects is the temporal cortex, which includes the hippocampus. That region is key for making new memories.
And while you may begin to feel the effects of a drink nearly as soon as you swallow, the amount of alcohol in your blood won’t peak for another 40-90 minutes.
Plus, if what you're drinking is bubbly, the level of alcohol in your blood will rise faster — all that increased pressure on your stomach pushes alcohol into your blood quicker.
Speaking of stomachs — drinking on an empty one can be dangerous, since food slows down your body's processing of alcohol, meaning that if you haven't eaten in hours, your blood alcohol content will rise faster.
In general, the liver can only process one ounce of liquor each hour. Drinking more than that can dangerously and swiftly raise your the amount of alcohol in your blood.
Studies suggest that repeated bouts of heavy drinking — when continued over several years — may damage the links between brain cells and interfere with how we process information.
And more than 90% of people who drink heavily develop fatty liver disease, which can cause fatigue, weight loss, and pain.
SEE ALSO: What alcohol does to your body and brain
DON'T MISS: 11 common myths about the brain that need to be smashed
Recommended For You
These 8 little-known perks show why Amazon Prime is so much more than free shipping
We finally know what everyone is saying during Rey's strange vision scene in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
This genius 'Wheel of Fortune' contestant solved a puzzle with one letter and won $76,000
James Corden texted Leonardo DiCaprio from Jennifer Lopez's phone — and his response was hilarious
Step inside a Russian billionaire's son's insane $1 billion wedding
Recommended For You
Markets
Sponsored by
| Dow Jones | Last updated -
1:31:21 PM
|
17,695.92
|
62.81
|
0.40%
| ||
| Nasdaq | Last updated -
1:31:09 PM
|
4,863.53
|
16.91
|
0.30%
| ||
| S&P 500 | Last updated -
1:36:23 PM
|
2,061.14
|
6.13
|
0.30%
| ||
| FTSE 100 | Last updated -
11:35:29 AM
|
6,203.17
|
97.27
|
1.60%
| ||
| DAX | Last updated -
11:45:00 AM
|
10,046.61
|
158.67
|
1.60%
| ||
| CAC 40 | Last updated -
12:05:01 PM
|
4,444.42
|
77.75
|
1.80%
| ||
| Nikkei | Last updated -
2:15:02 AM
|
16,878.96
|
-224.57
|
-1.30%
| ||
| Hang Seng | Last updated -
4:01:22 AM
|
20,803.39
|
437.09
|
2.10%
| ||
| SSE Composite | Last updated -
3:59:50 AM
|
3,000.64
|
80.81
|
2.80%
| ||
| Gold ($/oz) | Last updated -
1:44:26 PM
|
1,227.12
|
-16.18
|
-1.30%
| ||
| Silver ($/oz) | Last updated -
1:44:26 PM
|
15.23
|
-0.13
|
-0.80%
| ||
| Oil ($/barrel) | Last updated -
3:59:42 PM
|
41.63
|
0.47
|
1.10%
| ||
| Natural Gas ($/MMBtu) | Last updated -
3:59:32 PM
|
1.81
|
-0.08
|
-4.20%
| ||
Most actively traded stocks
| BAC | Last updated -
1:26:02 PM
|
13.48
|
0.06
|
0.40%
| ||
| RIG | Last updated -
1:26:40 PM
|
8.69
|
-0.19
|
-2.10%
| ||
| FCX | Last updated -
1:26:54 PM
|
10.06
|
-0.08
|
-0.80%
| ||
| AAPL | Last updated -
1:28:02 PM
|
108.98
|
1.30
|
1.20%
| ||
| FB | Last updated -
1:26:54 PM
|
115.06
|
-1.08
|
-0.90%
| ||
| GE | Last updated -
1:26:46 PM
|
31.85
|
0.37
|
1.20%
| ||
| T | Last updated -
1:28:02 PM
|
39.44
|
-0.01
|
0.00%
| ||
| F | Last updated -
1:26:52 PM
|
13.27
|
0.07
|
0.50%
| ||
| PFE | Last updated -
1:26:41 PM
|
30.08
|
0.03
|
0.10%
| ||
| MU | Last updated -
1:26:31 PM
|
10.58
|
0.13
|
1.20%
| ||
