Alcohol; Effects and Risks
EFFECTS/ RISKS
Alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream and starts to have an effect within 5 to 10 minutes. The effect can last for several hours, depending on the amount consumed. The effect will also depend on:
After about two pints of beer most people feel less inhibited and more relaxed. Alcohol is a depressant drug. It acts on the central nervous system to slow the body down. Some people become aggressive and argumentative, especially men. A lot of violence on the streets and in the home (much of it directed at women and children) happens after people have been drinking.
After about 4 pints of average strength beer, drinkers become uncoordinated and slur their speech.
Drinking alcohol makes accidents more common, especially when people fall over, drive or are operating machinery. Lowering of inhibitions can make it more likely that people will put themselves in sexual situations which they later regret. They are also less likely to practice safer sex and use condoms if they have intercourse. Drinking too much in one go can lead to losing consciousness and death by choking on vomit.
Alcohol can also be very dangerous to take in combination with other drugs, especially other depressant drugs such as barbiturates, heroin, methadone or tranquillisers and drugs such as anti-depressants, anti-histamines and painkillers. Mixing these drugs and alcohol has led to many fatal
overdoses.Long term, heavy drinking can be very damaging. Physical dependence and
tolerance develop so people drink more and more and suffer withdrawal symptoms (such as trembling, sweating, anxiety and delirium) if they try to stop. At this point people will be regarded as alcoholics. Heavy, long term drinking can also lead to damage to the heart, liver, stomach and brain and lead to obesity." I was dry for almost a month but at my cousin's wedding I felt different from the others. I decided to have one drink. I thought I could control it ...... I drank without restraint for the next five days. In a blinding flash of drunken logic I saw how bad I was. It was a shattering thunderbolt. I took a handful of pills, not as a cry for help but because of the hopeless position I was in." N. Kessel and H. Walton Alcoholism Penguin 1965.
Pregnant women who drink six of more units of alcohol a day may give birth to babies who suffer withdrawal symptoms and also have facial abnormalities and possible retarded physical and mental development which together is called foetal alcohol syndrome. However such cases are rare in the UK. Lesser degrees of drinking during pregnancy may result in a baby being born with a low birth weight but there is little evidence that moderate drinking during pregnancy causes harm to the mother or her baby.
Excessive drinking commonly aggravates personal, family, work and financial problems and contributes towards family breakdown, violence and other forms of crime associated with loss of control.
Between 20-50,000 deaths a year in the UK are associated with alcohol. This includes deaths from alcohol related accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and other diseases and death from overdose.
Alcopops are alcoholic drinks which do not taste of alcohol such as alcoholic lemonades and fruit juices. Some people say they have been deliberately made by companies who make alcohol to get the younger age range to start drinking and to get them to drink more. Younger children often do not like the taste of alcohol when they first try it. Alcopops do not have the taste. Drinking alcopops can also make it easier to get drunk without realising it. Many alcopops have a high alcohol content.
See also
Drug interactions and the website of Alcohol Concern for the latest news and reports on alcohol use in the UK.