Drivers Ed Chapter 21
When a person's body becomes accustomed to the presence of alcohol or drug in the bloodstream, his or her nervous system adapts to the drug's presence in an attempt to stabilize the body's functions. When the drug leaves the system too quickly or stays gone for too long, the user suffers from withdrawal. The symptoms of withdrawal depend on the person, the drug, and the way the drug was used. Often, the user will suffer effects opposite those of the drug itself—such as lethargy with stimulants, or overexcitement with depressants. Because the body has learned to counter the effects of the drug to adapt to its presence, when the drug is removed, the user feels the effects of the countering forces intensely.
A person suffering from withdrawal craves the withdrawn drug and often believes that he or she needs the drug to function normally. To some extent, this is the case: a person who has consistently kept a significant amount of alcohol in his or her bloodstream for a number of years may die if he or she stops drinking alcohol for too long.
While any level of intoxication can increase the chances of a fatal collision, drivers who are over the legal BAC limit are especially at risk of dying in a crash. In 2013, according to the NHTSA, 84% of the drivers involved in a collision after consuming some amount of alcohol had a BAC of 0.08% or higher, while 56% had a BAC of 0.15% or higher. Indeed, a BAC of 0.15% increases a driver's chances of causing a fatal collision by more than 300 times.
A study of drivers 16 to 19 years old determined how different BAC levels increase the driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision. The results suggest that: A BAC of 0.015% to 0.049% increases a young driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision 2.5 times. A BAC of 0.05% to 0.079% increases a young driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision 9 times. A BAC of 0.08% to 0.099% increases a young driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision 40 times. A BAC of 0.10% to 0.149% increases a young driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision 90 times. A BAC of 0.15% or greater increases a young driver's risk of dying in a single vehicle collision 420 times.
Even at moderate levels of alcohol consumption, the corneas and lenses become less responsive, making your eyes unable to focus properly. Moreover, as their muscles lose their precision, your two eyes will find it difficult to focus on the same object, causing you to see double. Objects at all distances will appear blurry. You won't be able to read speed limits or distinguish between different lanes. Attempts to focus your vision are likely to be painful and ineffective, further distracting you from situations on the road.
Alcohol also affects the pupil's ability to expand and contract, making it unable to quickly or effectively respond to changes in brightness. When a drunk driver is exposed to sudden brightness, he or she may feel pain be temporarily blinded, and shut his or her eyes against the light. When the driver's field of vision becomes dim again, he or she may see only black for more time than normal.
Type of drink is potentially one of the most important factors affecting your BAC. One 'standard drink' is equivalent to: A 12-ounce bottle of 10 proof* beer A 5-ounce glass of 24 proof wine A 1.5-ounce shot of 80 proof hard liquor Each of these drinks contains 0.6 ounces of pure ethanol. To determine how much alcohol is in a drink, divide the proof in half, and then divide that number by 100. Multiply the result by the number of ounces in the drink. See the chart on the next slide for examples. *"proof" means twice the percent of alcohol
Alcohol and Nutrition Moreover, alcohol lacks any of the other nutrients normally found in foods and drinks, such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. As a result, when you consume alcohol, the body gains no new material for rebuilding cell walls, generating new muscle tissue, or providing energy. Alcohol interferes with nutrition in other ways, too. According to a 2005 NIAAA report, alcohol abuse can trigger overeating and reduce feelings of fullness. The same report links binge drinking with higher levels of obesity.
Alcohol also interferes with the body's ability to harvest nutrients from the food a person consumes. For one thing, an inflamed stomach and a poorly-functioning pancreas will inhibit how well the stomach and small intestine absorb essential nutrients. Moreover, when the liver is forced to spend too much of its time metabolizing alcohol, it loses its ability to properly metabolize these nutrients. This combination of factors can lead to malnutrition and unhealthy weight loss in chronic abusers of alcohol.
Alcohol and Your Immune System There are a number of ways that alcohol damages your immune system. When your immune system is compromised, you are more vulnerable to bacteria, viruses, and cancer. White blood cells, which are responsible for fighting diseases, are worse at destroying the cells they attack. So-called "natural killer" cells, a specialized form of white blood cell, suffer a reduced ability to destroy tumors. T-cells, another type of white blood cell, have difficulty developing. Either too many or two few cytokines, which tell bodily tissues how to respond to an infection, are produced. Too many cytokines can lead to tissue damage, while too few leave tissue especially vulnerable to infection.
Effects on Your Circulatory System The circulatory system causes blood to circulate throughout the body, transmitting oxygen, nutrients, water, and other vital chemicals to all of your organs. Your blood, heart, and blood vessels are the primary components of the circulatory system in your body. A healthy circulatory system is vital for preventing diseases, maintaining a consistent body temperature, and sustaining every part of your body. Alcohol suppresses the life-sustaining functions of the circulatory system.
Alcohol slows your heart rate, preventing your organs and tissues from getting the blood that they need. Alcohol decreases your blood pressure, making it more difficult for your circulatory system to move blood around your body. Alcohol damages your heart, reducing its ability to contract and increasing its absorption of fats.
Alcohol damages your heart, and the rest of your circulatory system, in several ways. Alcohol causes direct damage to the heart by impairing its ability to contract and increasing the amount of fat that it absorbs. Swelling, elevated diastolic blood pressure, and congestive heart failure are all associated with heavy alcohol consumption. In addition, heavy drinking followed by strenuous exercise has proven fatal, even among relatively healthy young athletes.
Alcohol's toxic effect on the tissues of the heart can cause one or both sides of the heart to enlarge, resulting in a condition known as alcoholic cardiomyopathy. In a person suffering from alcoholic cardiomyopathy, the physical structure of the heart becomes progressively altered to compensate for the heart's weakened ability to pump blood. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is especially dangerous because sufferers sometimes show no symptoms—until, suddenly, a heart attack occurs, which is especially likely to be fatal because it is unexpected. When symptoms of alcoholic cardiomyopathy do exhibit themselves, they typically include body swelling, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, fatigue, lack of concentration, and irregular heartbeat.
When you drink, your physical coordination will suffer in the following ways: Your sense of balance will diminish, making you feel as though you're falling even when you're not and causing you to overcompensate when trying to correct minor mistakes. You'll be less able to control your muscles, making it difficult to perform simple physical tasks even when you understand what you're trying to do. Your vision and bodily movements will become abnormally detached from your mental understanding of your immediate surroundings. As a consequence, you're likely to move your body in ineffective ways.
As a driver, your reaction time is extremely important. In many situations, the amount of time it takes you to react can mean the difference between life and death. Being able to react quickly isn't necessary only when you're trying to avoid a catastrophic hazard in the road. Passing a vehicle, stopping at a red light, even making a right turn at a four-way stop—in short, every driving situation—can become deadly if you take too long to react.
Because you must be physically and mentally fit to drive, the physical effects of intoxication can significantly impair your driving abilities. For instance: - When your vision is impaired, you may ignore traffic signals, follow too closely, or not notice cross traffic approaching. - When you can't react quickly, you may make wide turns, start and stop abruptly, swerve across the road. - When your concentration and judgment are impaired, you may forget to turn your lights on, turn your turn signals off, maintain a safe speed, or drive in the center of your lane. - When your breathing is impaired or you're feeling nauseous, you may be distracted from the driving task and be unable to control your car properly.
Because of the ways alcohol affects your vision, your ability to notice and respond to other vehicles and developing traffic situations is significantly impaired when you drink. For instance, intoxicated drivers can find it difficult to scan the road because their eyes are less able to move in their sockets. As a result, they're more likely to stare straight ahead without checking their mirrors, causing them to ignore surrounding lanes, passing traffic, and objects in their peripheral vision.
The brain and the mind also suffer greatly from prolonged use of alcohol or drugs. In addition to other personality changes and mental impairments that alcoholism causes, heavy drinkers and drug users are also prone to dependence and addiction. These conditions can easily ruin a person's life.
Because people are generally aware that addiction leads to great suffering, few would consciously choose to become an addict. Yet some people think that because they're aware of these risks, they can simply will themselves to avoid addiction by controlling their use. This reasoning is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how addiction and dependence work. Addiction and dependence are physiological processes that occur naturally as a person's body becomes accustomed to alcohol or a drug. Gradually, his or her body and mind are changed and eventually, he or she becomes a totally different person—an addict. Once a person is addicted, his or her cravings will outweigh the desire to avoid suffering and make it difficult for him or her to think about his or her actions rationally.
Vomiting while drunk can be extremely dangerous. For one thing, most of what's expelled through vomiting is water, which the body needs to perform many of its vital functions. Vomiting excessively without replacing the body's lost water can lead to fatal dehydration. Moreover, even if you pass out, your body may still feel the need to vomit. People who are unconscious or who lack the muscular control to help themselves can draw vomit into their lungs, causing them to asphyxiate—to suffocate or drown.
Becoming dangerously sick after drinking alcohol is known as alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning occurs when you consume more alcohol than your body can safely metabolize. Alcohol poisoning is a particular problem among minors because they have less understanding of their own tolerance for alcohol and have especially poor drinking habits: approximately 90% of alcohol consumed by people under 21 is in the form of binge drinking. **Binge drinking** is defined as heavy alcohol consumption that occurs intermittently. Men who consume five or more drinks and a row, and women who consume four or more drinks in a row, are considered to be binge drinking, especially if this drinking occurs in the span of two hours or less.
From the moment you begin consuming alcohol, it has a particularly acute effect on your brain. Because a significant amount of blood is pumped through the brain, it is especially affected by alcohol when you have a high BAC. Moreover, because of the high concentration of neurons in the brain, it is extremely sensitive to chemicals like alcohol that affect the central nervous system. Alcohol causes neurons to have more difficulty sending signals, meaning that your mental activity will be greatly diminished by intoxication.
Drinking affects your mental abilities and muscular reactions, making you slow and clumsy: First, your higher learning center will be affected, causing a loss of memory, focus, reason, and judgment. Next, your muscle control will deteriorate as your reflexes and coordination are disrupted. With enough alcohol, your brain will become unable to send signals strong enough to control your vital organs, resulting in your death.
Other Physical Effects Alcohol has a number of other short-term effects on your body: Alcohol irritates the lining of the stomach, increasing acidity and potentially causing vomiting. Alcohol impairs the livers ability to filter waste and other toxins while it is processing alcohol, making you more susceptible to illness and disease. Alcohol can cause intense headaches and hangovers that leave you feeling achy, nauseous, and worn out for a day or more.
Drinking too much alcohol will make you sick and cause you to vomit. While vomiting will cause you to expel what you just drank, helping to prevent further intoxication, the alcohol that caused you to be sick in the first place will still be in your bloodstream and waiting to be absorbed into you intestines. Even after you've vomited, the only way to recover from the effects of alcohol is to wait.
Effects on Your Judgment One of the first and most dangerous effects of alcohol is a decline in judgment and ability to reason. It is extremely important to remember that alcohol gives you bad judgment. Even if alcohol had no other harmful effects, you'd still be incredibly endangered by impaired judgment. It will make you capable of doing things that you'd recognize as stupid and dangerous if you hadn't been drinking. Even worse, it will make you unable to judge just how drunk you really are!
Effects on Your Memory and Alertness Alcohol will also decrease how well you can evaluate and understand your current situation. This occurs as the result of three different ways that alcohol affects your brain: Alcohol disrupts your memory, causing you to forget where you are, where you're going, what you were talking about, why you're doing something, and much more. Alcohol distracts you from the present, causing you to think about unimportant things that are unrelated to your current situation. Alcohol makes you less alert, reducing your ability to perceive and think ahead. You'll think less often and less critically about both the short-term and long-term implications of your actions and the events going on around you.
Esophagus Damage When you consume alcohol, it must pass through the esophagus, which connects the mouth to the stomach. As a component of the digestive tract, the esophagus is susceptible to toxic effects both immediately, when it initially comes into contact with alcohol, and later on, when it receives blood suffused with alcohol's metabolic byproducts. A metabolic byproduct known as acetaldehyde can cause particularly severe damage. Acetaldehyde interrupts gene sequences within individual cells, promoting excessive cell growth and increasing the likelihood that genes will mutate and that those mutations will be replicated. As a result, alcohol damages your esophagus—and your mouth, pharynx, larynx, stomach, and intestines—and increases the chances that a fatal cancer will develop.
Heart Damage Your heart is perhaps the most vital organ in your body. Like the engine in your car, your heart powers the system that allows all the other organs in your body to function properly. Your heart completes a single pumping cycle, or pulse, around 100,000 times every day, and must function well in order for the body to remain healthy. When your heart stops beating, your body is considered dead.
Alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency! If you or your friends are drinking, watch out for anyone who: -Is unconscious or semiconscious -Doesn't respond to pinching -Exhibits slow or irregular breathing -Has a slow heart rate -Has bluish, pale, cold, or clammy skin -Vomits while passed out If someone seems to be suffering from alcohol poisoning, they could die if they don't get help. Call 911, even if only some of these symptoms are present.
If someone seems to be suffering from alcohol poisoning, try to keep them conscious or, if they've passed out, wake them up. If someone won't wake up, don't panic! - Call 911 for help. - Keep them on their side - Perform CPR if their pulse is less than 40 beats per minute or their breathing is less than 8 breaths per minute. - Don't try to help by feeding them food or coffee, making them vomit, giving them a cold shower, or letting them "sleep it off." Remember, under the 911 lifeline law, a person under 21 who calls 911 to report potential alcohol poisoning cannot be charged by the police for possessing or consuming alcohol. This immunity only applies to the first person to call for medical assistance.
oreover, alcohol use diminishes the ability to distinguish individual objects if they are dimly lit, even when you only drink a little. This will make driving at night, or in rainy or foggy weather conditions, much more dangerous. The effects of alcohol on the driver's ability to distinguish contrast are powerful. This is one of the main reasons that drunk drivers contribute so heavily to the number of crashes that occur at night. The unfortunate fact is, people tend to drink at the very times when they're most endangered by the negative effects of intoxication.
In addition, when you've been drinking: Your peripheral vision will be decreased, giving you tunnel vision and making it harder for you to notice what's going on around you. Your depth perception will be impaired, making it impossible for you to judge distances and maintain a safe space around your car. As we've discussed, vision is the sense drivers rely on most when driving. Being able to see is as important to driving safely as having functioning brakes. You wouldn't get on the road if your brakes couldn't stop your car, so why would you drive when you can't properly see what you're doing?
Because alcohol is a depressant of the central nervous system, it tends to make your bodily functions slow down when you consume it. As you increase the amount of a depressant you consume, your bodily functions will continue to slow down—until they stop completely! Your heart and breathing will stop if you drink too much alcohol. Even if you're with friends, they may not notice if your breathing stops while you're passed out, especially if they're also impaired by alcohol at the time. By the time they sober up, you could be dead.
In this unit, we'll discuss how alcohol harms your physical faculties, including: Your nervous system Your heart rate and blood pressure Your respiration Your vision Your mental skills Your motor skills Your reaction time
Alcohol use has dire long-term effects. The liver, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, heart, and brain each suffer when alcohol is repeatedly introduced to your body. Moreover, your immune system and reproductive system are affected by alcohol abuse. Chronic alcohol use can lead to liver failure, heart failure, stroke, and other medical conditions that can be fatal.
Liver Damage The liver has many functions. It breaks down both nutritious and poisonous chemicals into substances the body is better able to manage. This process, which also occurs in other organs, is known as metabolism. In addition, the liver stores some nutrients, such as sugar, vitamins, and minerals. In addition, the liver produces substances that fight infections, help blood clotting, and maintain health in general.
Nervous System Damage In addition, changes in the balance of chemicals in the nervous system can devastate your health and your ability to interact with other people. These changes include tolerance to, dependence on, and addiction to alcohol. In addition, prolonged alcohol abuse can cause a loss of intellectual capacity, personality changes, memory loss, and many other harmful effects.
Long-term alcohol abuse can increase your tolerance, causing you to become less sensitive to intoxication. This can have both psychological effects, as the brain responds less to the same physical stimulus, as well as physiological effects, as the liver begins to metabolize alcohol more quickly. Tolerance makes a drug user need larger amounts of a drug to achieve the same effect. However, the user will still experience the medical consequences associated with higher doses. As a person consumes greater amounts of alcohol or a drug, he or she will face a greater risk of harm, overdose, and addiction, as well as growing monetary and social costs.
Regular alcohol use can also cause hypertension, or high blood pressure. Effects of hypertension include eye damage, arterial damage, reduced bone mass, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, aneurism, kidney failure, heart failure, dementia, and stroke. Other effects of regular alcohol use on the circulatory system include: Thrombocytopenia, in which the blood's platelets suffer hindered production and a reduced ability to survive and function. Symptoms include fatigue, excessive bleeding, and spontaneous development of blood blisters in the mouth. Macrocytic anemia, in which blood cells become enlarged and less able to carry oxygen properly. Symptoms include shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, bone deformities, increased heart rate, and enlargement of the heart.
Lung Damage Not even your lungs are safe from the effects of alcohol! Alcohol damages your lungs and their ability to maintain themselves. The lungs of a chronic alcohol user are more susceptible to such dangerous conditions as pneumonia, collapsed lung, and acute respiratory distress disorder.
In addition to the negative consequences that consuming alcohol can have in the short term, prolonged alcohol and drug use can exact heavy physical and mental tolls over time. Long-term alcohol abuse can result in gravely poor health, sweeping changes in personality, and even death. The harmful long-term effects of alcoholism include disease and degeneration of organs and tissues and changes in the balance of chemicals in the nervous system. Prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to addiction, which can have serious consequences of its own.
Organ Damage The circulation of alcohol throughout the bloodstream carries it to every organ, endangering their ability to function properly. Some organs are more susceptible than others to the toxic effects of alcohol. The kidneys and liver, for instance, process alcohol directly, drawing it in and filtering it from the blood. Every organ is affected differently. As a result, while some effects (such as liver damage) are more common, there are many ways your body can be destroyed by alcohol abuse.
stomach Damage Like anything you consume, when you drink alcohol, its first stop is your stomach. Alcohol erodes the mucous protecting the lining of the stomach from the acids used in digestion, causing gastritis, or stomach inflammation. Gastritis symptoms include nausea, vomiting, pain, and bloating. Moreover, alcohol damages your stomach by relaxing the esophageal sphincter, allowing bile to enter the stomach and esophagus. This can lead to heartburn and stomach ulcers, both of which are worsened by further alcohol consumption.
Pancreas Damage The pancreas is primarily responsible for managing blood sugar levels and for aiding digestion in the small intestine. According to a report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), alcohol damages your pancreas by causing it to release some of its digestive enzymes internally, rather than in the small intestine, and by exposing it to abnormally high levels of the toxic byproducts of the breakdown of alcohol. Because of these effects, the pancreas can become inflamed, causing a condition known as pancreatitis. Those with pancreatitis may suffer from nausea, vomiting, improper digestion, and severe abdominal pain. They may also experience complications such as diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and death.
The Effects of a 0.15% BAC The higher your BAC rises, the more your judgment will become impaired and the more your behavior will become unrestrained. At a 0.15% BAC, you will experience: Near complete loss of muscle control and balance Nausea, vomiting, and a potentially fatal drop in body temperature Life threatening reductions in respiration and heart rate Inability to control your vehicle Severe detachment from and inability to understand the current driving environments.
The Effects of Higher BACs In addition to the other effects we've just discuss, you'll face additional impairment the more intoxicated you become. With a 0.20% BAC, you'll experience a loss of alertness and an onset of drowsiness and lethargy. With a 0.30% BAC, you'll fall into a stupor and risk falling into a comatose state. With a 0.40% BAC, you'll be at risk of death caused by suppressed respiration or an erratic heartbeat. With a 0.50% BAC, breathing and heart functions can become so depressed that they cease and death from alcohol poisoning becomes very likely. A male who weighs 150 lbs and consumes twelve drinks in the span of two hours can increase his BAC to 0.50%.
The Effects of a 0.02% BAC A BAC as low as 0.02% has been shown to affect driving ability. As soon as you start drinking you will begin to become more relaxed, have difficulty concentrating on one thing, and react more slowly. In addition, you will experience: A loss of reason and judgment Altered mood Weakened vision, particularly in tracking objects and scanning Decline in attention, especially when switching between tasks
The Effects of a 0.05% BAC The probability of a crash rises significantly once your BAC reaches 0.05%. You may begin to feel euphoric, relaxed, and especially sociable. However, your hand-eye coordination and ability to track objects will become impaired. In addition, you'll experience: Further impaired judgment and alertness Compulsive, exaggerated behavior Reduced physical coordination, including trouble steering A significant increase in reaction time Further weakened vision, including trouble focusing and adjusting to changes in brightness Dulled sensory perceptions
The Effects of a 0.08% BAC A BAC of 0.08% is the legal limit for drivers 21 and over in the state of Texas. With a BAC of 0.08%, you'll become increasingly talkative and excited, but you'll experience difficulty processing information and focusing on and performing driving tasks like steering, braking, speed control, and gear shifting. In addition, you'll experience: Significantly increased reaction time and difficulty executing a series of actions Reduced awareness of your surroundings and ability to control your speed Overconfidence and a tendency to engage in high-risk behavior Further impaired judgment, alertness, and memory Further reduced physical coordination, including poor balance, speech, vision, and hearing
The Effects of a 0.10% BAC When your BAC reaches 0.10%, your behavior will be characterized by poor coordination, slurred speech, impaired attention and perception, and a loss of inhibitions. In addition, you will experience: Further increased reaction time Further impaired concentration and judgment Sharply decreased control of your vehicle Reduced ability to maintain your lane position and brake properly
Over time, the brain adapts to the continued presence of alcohol in the blood. To compensate for the effects of alcohol on the organs, the brain adjusts how they operate so that they'll perform their functions more normally when alcohol is present. As a result of this new equilibrium, however, when alcohol is removed from the system, the user suffers from withdrawal. Withdrawal causes the brain to function abnormally. Trembling is a common symptom of alcohol withdrawal, while anger, confusion, fear, hallucinations, hypertension, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, seizures, and even death are possible.
The brain also suffers when other organs begin to deteriorate: A weakened heart and circulatory system can cause blockages in the bloodstream. When these blockages try to pass through the brain, they can cause a stroke. Effects of stroke include permanent brain damage and death. An overburdened liver will release more harmful substances into the bloodstream. If kidney function is impaired, these harmful substances will be even more prevalent. When these substances reach the brain, they can cause a condition known as hepatic encephalopathy, which can have harmful effects including depression, mood and coordination problems, personality changes, coma, and death.
To steer and brake smoothly and effectively, you must be well coordinated enough to quickly move your body in response to emerging situations and the actions of other drivers. Alcohol has a debilitating effect on the motor skills you need to drive safely. Your physical coordination will be as limited as your vision, and your reaction time will suffer greatly as a result.
There's a reason that police ask you to walk in a straight line or to close your eyes and touch your fingers to your nose when they suspect you may be drunk. These things are very easy for sober people, but quickly become difficult as alcohol enters the bloodstream. These tasks are much simpler than the tasks you must perform as a driver. If you can't even walk in a straight line, you obviously don't have the ability to maneuver your car safely.
As you review the information presented in this unit, consider how to incorporate the following topics into your driving plan. To reduce risk on the road, you must: Recognize alcohol's short-term effects on your health and your physical and mental fitness to drive Understand that alcohol consumption is dangerous even if you're not driving and can cause alcohol poisoning Acknowledge that when intoxicated your vision and motor skills will be too impaired to drive safely Know how different levels of intoxication affect your physical and mental skills and remember that driving at any level of intoxication is unsafe Realize that long-term alcohol consumption can have severe and permanent consequences for your health
To make sure you've done a good job reviewing this unit, you must now pass a test. The information in this unit is important: if you do not pass the test, you will have to take the entire unit over again. You can review as much as you wish. Simply return to your dashboard and select the topic you want to review. Do not press NEXT until you are sure you will pass the test. It is very important for you to review carefully and make sure you know how to reduce risk on the road by understanding how alcohol affects your body, making you unhealthy and unfit to drive.
When a person becomes addicted to alcohol or a drug, he or she can become completely dependent on it and begin to crave it constantly. He or she feels compelled to acquire and abuse the drug, despite the personal harm and the harm to others his or her behavior will cause. Frequently, a drug addict will need to take increasingly powerful doses of a drug to satisfy the body's craving for the drug and to maintain the high that he or she desires. This not only increases the risk of harmful short- and long-term effects, but also further increases the user's dependence.
Ultimately, addicts don't behave in a way they would have considered rational before their addiction. Even in the face of the worst physical consequences, addicts are heedless in their pursuit of the next high. A drug addiction can cause you to lose sight or even to ignore potential symptoms of liver failure, heart failure, cancer, brain damage, and death. Consider these consequences before you start using alcohol or a drug. Otherwise, they may mean nothing to you when you should be worrying about them the most.
Because of the way your nerves are affected by alcohol, when you've been drinking, you won't be able to make appropriate decisions and react quickly to unfolding situations. Consider the ways alcohol increases your reaction time: Weakened memory makes it difficult to anticipate turns, red lights, and other normal driving situations. Poor vision makes you unaware of your surroundings, sometimes causing you to fail to react to an important hazard. Slower understanding and reasoning causes you to make decisions like when to apply the brake much more slowly. Poor muscle control and physical coordination makes you unable to act on your decisions with normal speed and accuracy.
When do the affects of intoxication begin? After two drinks? One drink? A third of a drink? How much alcohol can you drink and still expect to be able to drive safely? The answer is: None. When person drinks alcohol and then drives a vehicle, he or she becomes a hazard to him or herself, and to everyone else on the road.
Effects on Your Nervous System Like other drugs, alcohol acts primarily on the nervous system. The nervous system coordinates numerous bodily functions by sending signals from one cell to another or from one region of the body to another. For instance, the brain sends signals to the heart that regulate when it beats. The nervous system coordinates functions such as digestion, muscle control, liver function, sleep, vision, and taste. That means that when alcohol depresses your nervous system, it will affect the way the entire body works.
When you drink, your nervous system's ability to facilitate communication between organs will slow down, making your body like a marionette with loose strings. Not only will your movements be more clumsy and sluggish, but you'll also be less sensitive to pain and may not react quickly enough if you're harmed. Additionally, because of how it affects your nervous system, alcohol will make you sleepy. However, your sleep will be restless and may be interrupted in the middle of the night.
Effects on Your Motor Skills When most people reflect on how the brain works, they think of its control over our intellectual and reasoning abilities, while generally ignoring its effects on our motor skills. In fact, the brain coordinates your thoughts, your perceptions, and your movements, allowing you to respond quickly when you notice the need to do so. Good motor skills are essential when you're responding to emerging situations in the constantly changing driving environment. If you've been drinking, your motor skills won't be good enough to keep you safe.
When you're intoxicated, it will be harder to control your car. Alcohol disrupts your coordination: Because it will take more mental effort to get your muscles to respond to commands, the more you drink, the harder it will become to perform even simple feats like turning a doorknob, walking in a straight line, and standing still. Eventually, you may not even be able to pick yourself up off the floor. Alcohol slows down your reaction time: When you drink, it will take your brain longer to see something, longer to understand it, longer to relate it to your current situation, and longer to determine how to respond to it. By the time you get to the end of this process, you may have forgotten what you we're dealing with in the first place—or worse, you may have already crashed.
One of the poisons the liver must break down is alcohol. Around 80% of all alcohol ingested orally will be broken down by the liver. With chronic abuse, alcohol damages your liver severely. Because it must perform extra work to break down and filter alcohol out of the bloodstream, it is unable to get rid the byproducts of alcohol metabolism quickly. This extra work also prevents it from properly processing more common substances like fats and proteins.
When your liver is forced to process alcohol continually, it begins to develop some or all of the following diseases. Together, these conditions constitute alcoholic liver disease: Fatty liver involves a buildup of fat deposits on the liver. This enlarges the liver, making it more susceptible to inflammation and impairing its ability to function. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. Discomfort, enlargement of the liver, a buildup of fluid in the abdomen, mental confusion, and even liver failure and death may occur. Cirrhosis is a condition in which liver cells break down, scar, and die. Symptoms and complications include bad breath, skin discoloration, abnormal enlargement of the breasts in males, impotence, infertility, coma, liver cancer, liver failure, and death.
Effects on Your Pulmonary System Also known as the respiratory system, the pulmonary system is responsible for getting oxygen into your blood and getting carbon dioxide out of it. The main organs in the pulmonary system are the lungs, while other components include the nose and mouth, the trachea, the bronchial tubes, and the diaphragm. The functioning of these organs is impaired by alcohol. Alcohol slows down your respiration, reducing the amount of oxygen that enters your bloodstream.
When your organs don't receive enough oxygen, they begin to shut down. The brain, already impaired by alcohol, will be further damaged by the lack of oxygen. Moreover, the kidneys and liver will become less efficient at removing alcohol from your blood, meaning that the effects of alcohol will become even more pronounced. Eventually, your pulmonary system can become so disrupted that you may find it difficult to breathe. If you stop breathing, you will die.
Impairment begins with the first sip of alcohol. More than with many other drugs, alcohol users often begin to behave differently even before the drug reaches their brain. Before long, alcohol begins to alter how both the body and the mind function. Moreover, under the influence of alcohol, you're less likely to realize that you're impaired. This makes driving unsafe after any amount of alcohol, not just when you're obviously intoxicated.
Whether they're conscious of it or not, many drinkers change their behavior according the situation they're in and the environment where they're drinking. They may act more relaxed and sloppy, or more aggressive and compulsive. The effects of intoxication can vary from person to person and from situation to situation. When you drink in a large group or with other underage drinkers, you may become more prone to reckless behavior, while if you drink alone, you may quickly become depressed.
Effects on Your Vision Alcohol hampers your vision greatly, making it harder to perceive things in detail and causing you to be more detached from your surroundings. Alcohol disrupts the mechanisms that allow you to see: The ability of the eyes to move in their sockets and scan the field of vision The ability of the pupils to expand and contract, letting in an appropriate amount of light The ability of the corneas and the lenses to focus and render objects clearly
While alcohol's effects are particularly pronounced in the brain, since it circulates in your blood it impacts every organ in your body. Even in the short term, alcohol can seriously disrupt how your body functions. The human body treats alcohol as a poison. Your liver does its best to break down alcohol molecules, while your kidneys remove it from your blood as fast as they can. Unfortunately, your body can't filter alcohol fast enough to protect your organs completely. In addition, the process of filtering alcohol can damage your liver and your kidneys permanently.
On the following slides, we'll provide a timeline of the short-term effects of alcohol. The stages of this timeline will be arranged according to Blood Alcohol Content (BAC). Remember, BAC does not always equate to the same number of drinks. Moreover, two people with the same BAC can exhibit different levels of impairment. Weight, gender, and metabolism can affect the rate at which a person's BAC increases when he or she drinks, while fatigue, mood, and tolerance can influence how impaired a person becomes at a particular BAC.
While the following timeline is accurate in general, never forget that every drinking situation is unique. However, there's no need to make a complex calculation or analysis of your impairment before deciding whether to drive. If you've had anything to drink, don't get behind the wheel!
Like your heart, your brain is extremely important to your survival and incredibly vulnerable to the long-term effects of chronic alcohol consumption. Alcohol damages your brain, both by physically affecting brain tissue directly and through its chemical interactions with neurons. Alcohol causes brain cells to shrink, reducing brain mass and enlarging internal cavities. Some areas of the brain may develop holes or abnormal growths, impairing brain functions including motor coordination, sleep, mood, learning, and memory.
While you may think that it kills brain cells, what alcohol actually damages are the ends of the neurons, or dendrites. With damaged dendrites, neurons are less able to communicate information across the brain and through the body. Over time, memory problems, confusion, lack of coordination, and amnesia can develop. Alcohol can also change how neurons work without causing actual physical damage the brain. Even these changes can lead to altered behavior and cause a number of psychotic disorders, including paranoia, hallucinations, and major depression.