Are you Bored? Let’s Booze!!!

Doesn’t it sound familiar to u? Ofcourse yes,. That is what most of us do. If we are bored , we invite a few friends, grab a couple of drinks and the boredom just disappears.

Its become a trend nowadays to say that you drink to socialize with people. Well even I thought that only with a couple of drink we can speak our heart out or get to know the other person and socialize better. But its actually not true!! you don’t have to be drunk to reveal yourself or get to know the other person. Its just an excuse to get drunk and speak out or express your feelings without any guilt.

Once you get into the habit of drinking and socializing, in no time you come up with various excuses to get a drink, like ‘I had a hectic day at work’, ‘Its the weekend’, ‘I have noting else to do’, ‘I am single, I have no other companion other but a drink’, ‘I meeting this friend after a long time, we have lots to talk’,..so on, the list never ends.

Alchohol Abuse

The difference between social drinking and alcohol abuse is when alcohol becomes your focus. You might only want to attend social events that involve alcohol, or yo

u can’t enjoy yourself. Getting to the bar, or making a drink after coming home from work

becomes more important than connecting with friends or family. Alcohol might be your way to avoid painful feelings or troubled relationships. And you might re

sort to dangerous behavior, like driving while drunk or even increased violent behavior. Increased dependence on alcohol leads to alcoholism, where you are physically dependent on alcohol and have lost control of the amount you drink.

What is its effect on the body?

effects-of-alcohol

Alcohol is a drug that is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine. It is broken down by the liver and then eliminated from the body.

There are limits to how fast the liver can break down alcohol and this process cannot be sped up. Until the liver has time to break down all of the alcohol, the alcohol continues to circulate in the bloodstream, affecting all of the body’s organs, including the brain. In general, the liver can break down the equivalent of about one drink per hour and nothing can speed this up — including black coffee.

As alcohol reaches the brain, you’ll start to “feel” drunk. This feeling varies from one person to the next, and one situation to the next. In all situations, alcohol depresses the brain and slows down its ability to control the body and the mind. This is one reason why alcohol is so dangerous. Alcohol acts like a sedative and slows down muscle coordination, reflexes, movement and speech. If you drink too much alcohol, your breathing or heart rate can reach dangerously low levels or even stop.

General Effects of Alcohol on the Brain

alchohol-affect-brain

Alcohol can affect several parts of the brain, but in general, alcohol contracts brain tissue and depresses the central nervous system. Also, alcohol destroys brain cells and unlike many other types of cells in the body, brain cells do not regenerate. Excessive drinking over a prolonged period of time can cause serious problems with cognition and memory.

When alcohol reaches the brain, it interferes with communication between nerve cells, by interacting with the receptors on some cells. The alcohol suppresses excitatory nerve pathway activity and increases inhibitory nerve pathway activity. Among other actions, alcohol enhances the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Enhancing an inhibitor has the effect of making a person sluggish. Also, alcohol weakens the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamine, which enhances the sluggishness even farther. Read the below link to know more.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm

Alcohol has benefits if we drink in moderate

Decent studies show that moderate use of alcohol may have a beneficial effect on the coronary system(the circulation of blood in the blood vessels that supply blood to and from the heart muscle itself ) and heart. In general, for healthy people, one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men would be considered the maximum amount of alcohol consumption to be considered moderate use. (By healthy people, we are referring to non-pregnant women, individuals not addicted to alcohol, and people without pre-existing medical conditions, among others). However, the amount of alcohol that a person can drink safely is highly individual, depending on genetics, age, sex, weight and family history, etc. A drink is considered to be: