The Effects of Alcohol

Almost immediately after it hits the stomach, alcohol is Almost immediately after it hits the stomach, alcohol is coursing through the bloodstream to the central nervous system, where it starts to slow down, or anaesthetize, brain activity. Though it is a depressant, the initial subjective feeling that it creates is just the opposite, as the barriers of self-control and restraint are lifted and the drinker does or says things that his well-trained, sober self usually forbids. Only later, after a number of drinks, are the motor centers of the brain overtly affected, causing uncertain steps and hand movements.

How quickly the alcohol takes effect depends on many factors. One person may be bombed after a glass, while another stays relatively sober after several. Because alcohol is diluted in the blood, a 200-Ib. man can usually tolerate more liquor than a 110-lb. woman. Food also retards absorption of alcohol from the gastrointestinal tract, and a few ounces taken with a meal are less powerful than an equal amount downed an hour before. By the same token, some drinks with food in them--eggnogs made with eggs, milk and cream, for example--have slightly less wallop than straight drinks. The tomato juice in a Bloody Mary or the orange juice in a screwdriver is not enough to make any appreciable difference.

The total quantity of alcohol in a drink and the rate of consumption determine the alcohol level in the bloodstream. Thus a Scotch and water would pack the same punch as Scotch on the rocks or a Scotch and soda if all three were drunk at the same speed; drinking more slowly gives the system a chance to eliminate some of the alcohol. The mixing of different types--beer, wine, whisky and brandy, for instance--might make a drinker sick, but it would not make him any more drunk than the same alcoholic measure of just one of these drinks.

So far medicine has found no cure for the hangover, although aspirin can alleviate the headache. Despite a plethora of folk cures (none of them really effective), the best policy is to avoid drinking in excess the night before. Actually, no one knows exactly what causes the hangover's unpleasant symptoms of headache, nausea, depression and fatigue, which many drinkers experience at one time or another.

Some recent research indicates that even social drinking can have both immediate and possibly long-range deleterican have both immediate and possibly long-range deleterious effects on the body. According to Dr. Peter Stokes, a psychobiologist at Cornell University Medical College, the liver becomes fatty and therefore less efficient after only a few weeks of downing three or four drinks a night. But in the early stages, at least, the condition can be reversed by abstinence. More moderate imbibing--two drinks a night with meals, say--almost certainly does no harm to most people. New studies link drinking to heart-muscle damage and deterioration of the brain. Research by Dr. Ernest Noble of the University of California at Irvine shows that alcohol inhibits the ability of the brain cells to manufacture proteins and ribonucleic acid (RNA), which some researchers believe play a role in learning and memory storage. After 20 or 30 years, says Dr. Noble, two or three drinks a night on an empty stomach may impair a person's learning ability. Both Stokes and Noble cite studies showing premature and irreversible destruction of brain cells after years of heavy drinking.

Such frightening studies of the results of drinking have not yet been accepted throughout the medical profession, but the physical effects on an alcoholic of very heavy drinking are beyond dispute. A pint of whisky a day, enough to make eight or ten ordinary highballs, provides about 1,200 calories--roughly half the ordinary energy requirement--without any food value. As a result, an alcoholic usually has a weak appetite and often suffers from malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. The slack cannot be taken up by popping vitamin pills; heavy alcohol consumption impairs the body's utilization of vitamins. At the same time, excessive intake of alcohol also affects the production and activity of certain disease-fighting white blood cells, giving the alcoholic a particularly

low resistance to bacteria.

Inevitably, the alcoholic develops a fatty liver, and his chances of developing cirrhosis, a condition in which liver cells have been replaced by fibrous scar tissue, are at least one in ten. A severely damaged liver cannot adequately manufacture bile, which is necessary for the digestion of fats; as a consequence, the alcoholic often feels weak and suffers from chronic indigestion. This may be made worse by gastritis, which is caused by alcohol irritation of the sensitive linings of the stomach and small intestine. The troubles of a heavy drinker do not end there, and through damage to the central nervous system and hormonal imbalance, alcohol may even cause impotence.

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