Health Alcohol Test

How does alcohol affect sleep?

Alcohol can cause problems with sleeping. It can interfere with someone's normal sleeping pattern and leave someone feeling tired and not refreshed when they wake up.

How does alcohol affect hormones?

Alcohol impairs the functions of the glands that release hormones and the tissues that respond to them. This can lead to issues with regulating blood sugar, infertility, and osteoporosis (softening of the bones).

What is wrong with an alcoholic's ability to break down food?

Alcohols often have poor diets and do not have enough essential nutrients. This is partially due to the fact that alcohol can interfere with the body's ability to break down food and absorb nutrients.

What are the factors that affect intoxication?

Amount of alcohol and speed of consumption, biological/genetic risk, gender, body size and composition, carbonated beverages, energy drinks, illness, marijuana, moods, over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, hormones, sleep, stomach content, and ethnicity.

How do carbonated beverages affect intoxication?

Carbonation speeds up the absorption of the alcohol, so it helps to get you drunk faster.

How do energy drinks affect intoxication?

Drinking energy drinks while you are intoxicated gives you the false sense that you are sober. Also, mixing energy drinks and alcohol can result in heart failure.

What are some characteristics of the middle stages of alcoholism?

Drinks alone, drinks in the morning, drinks at work or school, drinking is now a daily necessity, harder for them to become intoxicated, tries to deny how much they drink.

How does alcohol affect the digestive system?

Heavy drinking can cause food to stop moving to the stomach which causes stomach acids to back up into the esophagus, which can then result in esophageal cancer. Drinking alcohol is also associated with inflammation of the pancreas and inflammation of the stomach. It has also been known to cause cancer in other parts of the body, such as the mouth, throat, breast, colon, and rectum.

When is FAS most likely to occur?

If a pregnant woman drinks during the time period when her baby's brain is developing and growing the fastest then FAS is likely to occur. It has also been suggested that a single exposure to a liquid with high alcohol concentrations can cause FAS.

How does illness affect intoxication?

If you are sick or have just recovered from a sickness, when you drink, you tend to become drunk faster.

How does sleep affect intoxication?

If you haven't slept enough, you will become intoxicated faster.

What are some characteristics of the final stages of alcoholism?

Isolation from friends and family, lonely, live to drink, never eats, nervous, tense, irritable, tremors (shakes), hallucinations, weak, takes vitamins but they don't help.

What happens when someone has a low BAC level?

Low BAC levels affect the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex which causes them to feel relaxed. People with a low BAC level have more trouble with getting, storing, and using information. This can cause problems in school for young people and problems at work for adults.

What are some characteristics of the early stages of alcoholism?

Memory blackouts, personality changes, forgetful, irritable, increased tolerance to alcohol, drinks to relieve tension, and promises to quit but never does.

What are the symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)?

Mental retardation, developmental delays, and behavioral problems.

How do over-the-counter drugs affect intoxication?

Mixing alcohol with over-the-counter drugs can result in killing off liver cells and the alcohol that you drink is processed by your body slower.

How do prescription drugs affect intoxication?

Mixing alcohol with prescription drugs can you result in your becoming more drunk and/or drunk faster. It can also reduce your heart rate or drop your blood pressure to a dangerous level.

What is the path of alcohol?

Mouth, stomach, small intestines, bloodstream, brain, liver

When does a person's brain stop developing?

Normally someone's brain hasn't fully developed until they have at least reached their early 20s

How does body size and composition affect intoxication?

People who are smaller will become intoxicated faster than people who are bigger.

How does biological/genetic risk affect intoxication?

People with a biological history of alcoholism are at a greater risk for becoming an alcoholic.

How common is it to experiment with alcohol in high school?

Statistics show that 3 out of every four teenagers in high school have experimented with alcohol.

How does alcohol affect the heart?

Studies have shown that small amounts of alcohol can reduce the risk of heart disease. This does not mean that you should start to drink solely for this reason, because heavy drinking can damage heart tissue, produce an irregular heartbeat, increase the risk of stroke, and have other negative effects.

How likely is it to become an alcoholic when you drink as a teenager?

Studies show that 47% of those who drink before they are fourteen years old will become addicted to alcohol.

Why does alcohol have more of a negative effect on teenagers than on adults?

Teenagers' brains are still developing and alcohol will cause a loss of cognitive functions from alcohol's negative effects on the cerebral cortex. Basically, alcohol decreases the brain's ability to process information.

What happens when alcohol reaches the liver?

The liver breaks down the alcohol that has been consumed by turning it into water, carbon dioxide, and energy. The water is gotten rid of by sweating and peeing and the carbon dioxide is gotten rid of by breathing.

How does the amount of alcohol and speed of consumption affect intoxication?

The more alcohol and/or the shorter the time period it is drank in, the higher the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).

What is the cerebellum?

The part of the brain that controls coordination, muscular control, and balance.

What is the medulla?

The part of the brain that controls involuntary actions, like breathing, digestion, heartbeat and circulation.

What is the cerebrum?

The part of the brain that controls voluntary actions and the ability to reason.

What happens to someone's brain after they have had 3-4 drinks?

The performance and responsiveness of the brain are reduced. There is a reduction in judgement and reaction time to things are much slower. People feel more talkative and alert, but their systems are actually slowed down.

What is the purpose of the spinal cord?

The spinal cord sends messages to and from the brain and body organs

What happens to someone after they have had 8-12 drinks?

Their body temperature drops, blood circulation and respiration slows, and reflex actions are decreased. You may become unconscious. Drinking past 12 drinks can cause a coma and eventual death from alcohol overdose.

What happens to someone's brain after they have had 5-7 drinks?

Their senses (speech, hearing, and vision) are dulled. Their balance has been altered and their sense of pain has decreased.

What happens to someone's brain after they have had 1-2 drinks?

Their system begins to slow down and they feel relaxed and less inhibited. Someone who has had 1-2 drinks should wait an hour before driving.

How does ethnicity affect intoxication?

Typically, people of Asian or native american descent have less of the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol, so they will become more drunk and stay drunk for longer.

What are the negative effects of drinking while pregnant?

When a woman who is pregnant drinks, they can be exposing their unborn child to alcohol when it passes through their placenta. This can cause the child to be born with a birth defect called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

How does alcohol affect the liver?

When alcohol is consumed, the liver is the part of the body where it is broken down. Some of the products that are produced when alcohol is broken down are toxic to the liver. If these substances build up in the liver, the liver can become diseased.

What happens when someone has a high BAC level?

When people have a high BAC level, it means that they drank more and for a longer time than people with a low BAC level. These people start to show signs of brain damage. They are most often categorized as alcoholics, and when an alcoholic stops drinking then some of the brain damage can be reversed.

How does marijuana affect intoxication?

When you are drunk, your natural response is to vomit the toxins that are put into your body by alcohol, and marijuana takes away that nausea, so you don't want to throw up.

How does stomach content affect intoxication?

When you have food in your stomach, the rate at which your bloodstream absorbs alcohol slows down and it delays how fast you become intoxicated

Do men or women develop liver disease easier?

Women develop liver disease after a shorter period of time and with less alcohol exposure than men do.

How does gender affect intoxication?

Women get intoxicated faster and stay intoxicated for longer than men do.

Why do women react differently to alcohol than men do?

Women have less of the enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase) that metabolizes alcohol, so that alcohol stays in women's bloodstream longer than it does men's.

How do hormones affect intoxication?

Women who are on birth control often have a higher Blood Alcohol Content when they drink. This also happens to women right before they get their period.