Sobering Thoughts About Social Drinking, Part 1

Drinking, like smoking, is bad for the health.

The obvious ill effects from excessive drinking, such as kidney damage, cirrhosis of the liver, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. are familiar to everyone. However, most drinkers believe that alcohol is completely harmless when taken in moderation. This misconception is even disseminated by many physicians and psychiatrists who see alcohol problems originated in the drinker and seldom in the bottle. But alcohol is a toxic chemical that can damage the body's cells even in small amounts.

According to the U.S. National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, alcohol was labeled the nation's most abused drug. Because objections to alcohol are generally confined to its influence on behavior, the effects of social drinking on health and disease are often ignored.

The speed with which alcohol alters consciousness in its ability to cause relaxation, light headedness, and drunkenness occurs because of its rapid solubility. Unlike foods, it is not necessary for alcohol to be digested. It is absorbed through the walls of the stomach and small intestines directly into the bloodstream. Once in the blood, it goes to all organs and cells in the body. The higher the fluid content of an organ, the higher the rate of absorption. This explains why the brain, with its high percent of water, responds so quickly to alcohol.

Drinking on an empty stomach increases absorption, causing at least 90 percent of the alcohol to enter the bloodstream within an hour. Once a maximum alcohol-blood level is reached, it remains fairly constant for about five hours.

The ability of alcohol to relieve tension, remove inhibitions, and provide a sense of well-being is due to its depressive action on the central nervous system. With the cerebral cortex dulled, there is an initial feeling of exhilaration, followed by the dulling of the senses and impairment of judgment. Eventually, if the intake continues, motor centers in the brain are depressed and muscle control is decreased. By this time, the exhilaration may be reversed and melancholy set in.

Brain damage in alcoholics is well documented, but Drs. Knisely, Moskow, and Pennington of the Medical College of South Carolina, told the 28th International Congress on Alcohol and Alcoholism, that even moderate social drinking destroys brain cells.

Dr. Knisely and his associates found that alcohol thickens the blood. The more alcohol present, the slower the blood flows in small vessels until they are plugged, causing the brain cells to die from a lack of oxygen. As many as 10,000 brain cells can be destroyed in a single drinking bout, and although the brain has 17 billion cells, the destructive effect of alcohol are cumulative.


(Part 2, which discusses the effects of alcohol on nutrition and exercise, will be posted on Monday, October 3, 2011)