Alcohol: What You Need to Know - Complete Educational Summary

ALCOHOL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

NARCONON EUROPE

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Alcohol is a Drug

ALCOHOL IS A DRUG. It is classed as a depressant, meaning that it slows down vital functions—resulting in slurred speech, unsteady movement, disturbed perceptions and an inability to react quickly.

As for how it affects the mind, it is best understood as a drug that reduces a person's ability to think rationally and distorts his judgment.

Although classified as a depressant, the amount of alcohol consumed determines the type of effect. Most people drink for the stimulant effect, such as a beer or glass of wine to loosen up. But if a person consumes more than the body can handle, he then experiences alcohol's depressant effect. He starts to feel stupid or lose coordination and control.

Alcohol Overdose Effects

Alcohol overdose causes even more severe depressant effects, inability to feel pain, toxicity where the body vomits the poison and finally unconsciousness, coma or even death. These reactions depend on how much is consumed and how quickly.

There are different kinds of alcohol. Ethyl alcohol (ethanol), the only alcohol used in beverages, is produced by the fermentation of grains and fruits. Fermenting is a chemical process whereby yeast acts upon certain ingredients in the food, creating alcohol.

Alcohol Content

Fermented drinks, such as beer and wine, contain from 2 percent alcohol to 20 percent alcohol. Distilled drinks, or liquor, contain from 40 percent to 50 percent, or more, alcohol. The usual alcohol content for each is:

Beer
2-6%
Cider
4-8%
Wine
8-20%
Tequila
40%
Rum
40%+
Brandy
40%+
Gin
40-47%
Whiskey
40-50%
Vodka
40-50%
Liqueurs
15-60%

Fruits Uses

Juniper Berries

for Gin

Malted Barley

for Whiskey

Grapes

for Wine

Potatoes

for Vodka

Apple

for Cider

Hops

for Beer

Understanding How Alcohol Affects

ALCOHOL IS ABSORBED into the bloodstream via small blood vessels in the walls of the stomach and small intestine. Within minutes of drinking alcohol, it travels from the stomach to the brain, where it quickly produces its effects, slowing the action of nerve cells.

20%

Absorbed through stomach

80%

Absorbed through small intestine

Alcohol is also carried by the bloodstream to the liver, which eliminates the alcohol from the blood through a process called metabolizing, that converts it into a nontoxic substance. The liver can only metabolize a certain amount at a time, leaving the excess circulating throughout the body. Thus the intensity of the effect on the body is directly related to the amount consumed.

Critical Warning

When the amount of alcohol in the blood exceeds a certain level, the respiratory (breathing) system slows down markedly and can cause a coma or death because oxygen no longer reaches the brain.

What is Binge Drinking?

BINGE DRINKING IS THE PRACTICE OF CONSUMING large quantities of alcohol in a very short period of time, usually defined as five or more drinks for a man or four or more drinks for a woman.

90%

About 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of twenty one in the United States is in the form of binge drinking.

TESTIMONIAL Allen, Paul and Jamie

Allen

"I BINGE DRINK EVERY CHANCE I GET and to be honest I am disgusted with myself, but I cannot control my desire to do it. If I drink too much or drink certain drinks, I get breathless and go blotchy all over my body, but I continue to drink until I am so exhausted I fall asleep. I am not sure that I am strong enough to quit my stupidity."

Paul

"BY THE TIME I WAS IN MY MID-TWENTIES I was locked in to drinking. A lot of my first concerns were about drinking and everything else came second. I started to realize that when I didn't have a drink, I had a sense of panic and I would start shaking."

Jamie

"THIS PAST YEAR I HAVE GONE TO WORK DRUNK, blacked out in clubs and bars and can't remembergetting home. Ashamedly I slept with someone and couldn't even remember the person coming home with me until we bumped into each other the next day. I've destroyed two relationships because I hurt them so much through my drinking, but I put drinking first. My family is so hurt that their daughter is killing herself for apparently no reason."

Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol Abuse

Global Impact

ALCOHOL IS THE MOST WIDELY USED DRUG IN THE WORLD. According to the World Health Organization, more than two million people a year lose their lives due to their alcohol abuse.

Drinking alcohol is legal in nearly all countries of the world. Being a little or a lot drunk is acceptable or even normal in many cultures. In some cultures there are specific times and places when moderate drunkenness is considered usual—for example, in Western cultures at sporting events, New Year's Eve parties, college-campus parties and twenty first-birthday celebrations.

Signs and symptoms of a problem with alcohol abuse may be overlooked or condoned by friends and coworkers until the damage starts to become obvious. For family members and close friends, the damage is probably apparent far sooner.

In any event, whether someone is abusing alcohol or has become addicted to it, it is important to know that alcohol can ruin your life even before it ruins your body.

Alcohol Abuse Signs

  • • Alcohol consumption interferes with work, school or other activities because of being hung over or sick.
  • • The person will drink despite knowing he will be driving, boating or doing something else that would be risky when impaired.
  • • He experiences memory losses or blackouts.
  • • He has accidents or injuries after drinking.
  • • The person drinks despite physical conditions that would be worsened by drinking.

Addiction Signs

  • • The person can't control how much or when he or she drinks.
  • • The person needs to take in more alcohol to get the same buzz as before.
  • • Withdrawal symptoms set in when alcohol consumption is stopped. The person may feel sick, sweaty, shaky and anxious.
  • • The person gives up other activities he used to enjoy so he can drink.
  • • He spends a lot of time either drinking or recovering from drinking.
  • • Despite harm to career, education, family or other relationships, the person still drinks.
  • • The person drinks early in the day, stays drunk for a long time or drinks alone.
  • • He tries to conceal his drinking and makes excuses.
  • • He consistently relies on alcohol to relieve stress or solve problems.
  • • The drinker would like to quit drinking but, despite repeated attempts, still drinks.
  • • Alcohol becomes a focal point in life.

Excessive alcohol consumption should not be overlooked:

These symptoms of alcohol abuse and alcoholism are warning signs that damage is occurring, whether to health, mind, relationships, legal situations or life in general. Overlooking the signs of abuse can pave the road for addiction to follow. When a person loses control of drinking, the dwindling spiral may end in illness, jail time, destruction of the family or death.

6%

According to a World Health Organization report, nearly 6 per cent of all deaths globally are related to alcohol.

1/5

In Russia and its neighboring countries, one in five men die of alcohol related causes.

200+

Alcohol consumption is a factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions.

Liver disease caused by alcohol abuse is the biggest killer of both men and women who drink excessively, followed by traffic accidents.

Alcohol Short-term and Long-term Effects

Short-term Effects

Depending on how much is taken and the physical condition of the individual, alcohol can cause:

  • • Feeling of Warmth
  • • Flushed Skin
  • • Slurred Speech
  • • Memory and Comprehension Loss

Heavy drinking results in a hangover and its effects:

  • • Headache
  • • Nausea
  • • Anxiety
  • • Weakness
  • • Shakiness
  • • Sometimes vomiting

Long-term Effects

Continued alcohol use in large amounts are associated with many health problems, including:

  • • Unintentional injuries such as car crash, falls, burns, drowning
  • • Intentional injuries such as firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence
  • • Increased on-the-job injuries and loss of productivity
  • • Increased family problems, broken relationships
  • • Alcohol poisoning
  • • High blood pressure, stroke, and other heart-related diseases
  • • Liver disease
  • • Nerve damage
  • • Sexual problems
  • • Permanent damage to the brain

Alcohol Street Names

Booze

Sauce

Brews

Brewskis

Hooch

Hard Stuff

Juice

Health Risks of Alcohol Abuse

Liver Damage

MOST PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT DRINKING EXCESSIVELY is very hard on the liver. The result of many years of heavy drinking is liver disease—a condition where the liver tissue changes from a dense but effective filter that blood flows through easily, to a mass of scar tissue that can no longer do its job.

The liver is vital to the body's survival. This organ eliminates toxins, including alcohol and drugs, so it is the go-to organ to break down these substances after they are consumed. In all, the liver silently performs five hundred functions, including enabling us to digest food, control infections and absorb vital nutrients. When the liver fails, a person dies.

1. Fatty Liver

Before a liver reaches the point of being diseased, it may be fatty or inflamed. The first stage of damage is a fatty liver, a build-up of extra fat in the cells. This can cause fatigue, weakness and weight loss. If a person stops drinking at this point, the condition can be reversed.

2. Alcoholic Hepatitis

Inflammation resulting from drinking is called alcoholic hepatitis. The liver is enlarged and this can cause loss of appetite, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice (a condition where the skin or whites of the eyes turn yellow). A little more than a third of heavy drinkers develop this problem. If severe, this condition can result in liver failure and death.

Dangerous Drug Interaction

Mixing alcohol with the over-the-counter pain reliever Tylenol or Panadol causes toxic stress to the liver and the kidneys. For a heavy drinker, just a little more than the recommended amount of these pain relievers for just a few days can result in liver failure and death.

Lesser-known Physical Effects of Alcohol Abuse

Just as alcohol damages the liver, it also damages the brain. When the liver begins to deteriorate and is unable to process all the toxins in alcohol, these toxins start to attack the brain.

As these chemicals start damaging the brain, the following effects may be experienced:

  • Anxiety and depression
  • Short concentration span
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Pronounced personality changes
  • Coma
  • Death

Pancreas Damage

Alcohol also changes the function of the pancreas, a gland that assists digestion. When alcohol consumption is heavy, this causes the pancreas to reduce or stop functioning, which causes problems. The pancreas can become inflamed (swollen and painful), referred to as pancreatitis. This can show up as a sudden attack or it can become chronic.

Pancreatitis can result in:

  • Abdominal pain, which can extend up the back
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Fever
  • Diarrhea
  • Fast heart rate
  • Destruction of the pancreas, which can lead to diabetes or death

Universal Poison

Alcohol is a universal poison. It damages all tissues. No system of the body is spared. Alcohol causes nerve damage, muscle damage, stomach and esophageal ulcers and bleeding, immune-system dysfunction, damage to bones and brain cells.

Sexual dysfunction occurs from suppression of pituitary activity and damage to the testes, causing infertility and impotence.

Disease occurs from direct toxic effects of alcohol, combined with depletion of important vitamins and minerals, due to malnutrition and alcohol-induced loss of nutrients. With alcohol addiction the question is not whether disease will occur, but in what part of the body it will occur first.

Extensive Damaging Effects to the Heart Are Possible

When a person drinks heavily over a long period of time, the heart muscle can weaken, droop and stretch. It can no longer efficiently pump blood. The result can be shortness of breath, fatigue, swollen legs and feet and an irregular heartbeat. Heart failure can follow.

Alcohol disturbs the function of the heart that keeps it beating at an even rate and at the right speed. Binge drinking and long-term drinking both can result in a condition in which the upper chambers of the heart shudder but do not contract.

Blood may not be pushed out of these chambers and so may clot. These clots, traveling to the brain or lungs, can kill.

In another alcohol-caused condition, the lower chambers of the heart get too much stimulation and beat too quickly. These chambers are not able to fill up with blood like they are supposed to, so pumping becomes less efficient. The result is dizziness, lightheadedness, unconsciousness and even death.

Alcohol changes the body's hormones and this can in turn result in the constricting of major blood vessels and high blood pressure can result.

Cancer Is Another Effect of Alcohol Consumption

Studies have shown heavy alcohol consumption is implicated in mouth, throat, liver and breast cancer. Many people who get mouth cancer drink heavily. Five or more drinks per day have also been shown to increase the risk of colon or rectal cancer.

The Youngest Victims

WHEN CONSUMED BY PREGNANT MOTHERS, alcohol enters the bloodstream, passes through the placenta and enters the fetus (unborn child).

Alcohol can damage a fetus at any stage of pregnancy but is most serious in the first few months. There is a risk of alcohol-related birth defects, including growth deficiencies, facial abnormalities and damage to the brain and nervous system.

Alcohol: A Short History

FERMENTED GRAIN, FRUIT JUICE AND HONEY have been used to make alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol) for thousands of years.

7000 BC

China

Fermented beverages existed in early Egyptian civilization and there is evidence of an early alcoholic drink in China around 7000 BC.

3000 BC

India

In India, an alcoholic beverage called sura, distilled from rice, was in use between 3000 and 2000 BC.

2700 BC

Babylon

The Babylonians worshiped a wine goddess as early as 2700 BC.

Ancient

Greece

In Greece one of the first alcoholic beverages to gain popularity was mead, a fermented drink made from honey and water. Greek literature is full of warnings against excessive drinking.

Pre-1492

Americas

Several Native American civilizations developed alcoholic beverages in pre-Columbian times. A variety of fermented beverages from the Andes region of South America were created from corn, grapes or apples.

16th C

Medicinal Use

In the sixteenth century, alcohol (called spirits), was used largely for medicinal purposes.

18th C

Britain

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the British parliament passed a law encouraging the use of grain for distilling spirits. Cheap spirits flooded the market and reached a peak in the mid-eighteenth century. In Britain, gin consumption reached eighteen million gallons and alcoholism became widespread.

1919-1933

Prohibition Era

The twentieth century brought a change in attitudes and a movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States began promoting the moderate use of alcohol—which ultimately became a push for Prohibition. In January 1919 the US passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, import and export of intoxicating liquors. The illegal alcohol trade boomed and by 1933 the prohibition of alcohol was cancelled.

Today

Current Statistics

Today an estimated seventeen million Americans suffer from alcoholism and 31 percent of all car-accident deaths in the US involve alcohol.

What Are Drugs

DRUGS ARE ESSENTIALLY POISONS. The amount taken determines the effect.

Small Amount

Acts as a stimulant (speeds you up)

Greater Amount

Acts as a sedative (slows you down)

Even Larger Amount

Poisons and can kill

This is true of any drug. Only the amount needed to achieve the effect differs.

But many drugs have another liability: they directly affect the mind. They can distort the user's perception of what is happening around him. As a result, the person's actions may be odd, irrational, inappropriate and even destructive.

Drugs also block off all sensations, the desirable ones along with the unwanted. So while providing short-term relief from pain, they also wipe out ability and alertness and muddy a person's thinking.

About Medicines

Medicines are drugs that are intended to make your body work better by speeding up, slowing down or changing something about the way the body works. Sometimes they are necessary. But medicines are still drugs: they act as stimulants or sedatives and too much can kill you. If medicines are abused, they can be as dangerous as illegal drugs.

About Narconon

NARCONON (MEANING "NO NARCOTICS") drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation program is open to all who desire to end their addictions and lead productive, drug-free lives.

The Narconon program not only addresses the debilitating effects of drug abuse on the mind and body, but also helps resolve why a person turned to drugs in the first place. As a result, tens of thousands have graduated from the Narconon Program to new lives free from drug use.

Beyond drug rehabilitation, Narconon's drug-prevention staff have educated millions of school children. Narconon has more than fifty years of drug-education experience with demonstrated effectiveness in keeping young people off drugs.

Glossary of Terms

Andes

A large mountain system extending north and south about 4,500 miles in western South America.

Colon

The lower and larger part of the bowels through which food travels while it is being digested.

Debilitating

Making someone physically or mentally weak.

Distort

Alter or change something so that it no longer is correct, workable, reliable, etc.

Dwindling spiral

A condition where the worse an individual gets, the more capacity he has to get worse. Spiral refers to downward movement and a continuously deteriorating state of affairs. The term comes from aviation where it is used to describe a plane descending and spiraling in smaller and smaller circles leading to an accident.

Esophageal

Relating to the esophagus, the muscular tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach.

Infertility

The condition of not being able to have children.

Intestine

The long tube in the body below the stomach that digests and absorbs food. The small intestine digests and absorbs food from the stomach; the large intestine then absorbs most of the remaining water in the food.

Malnutrition

A lack of healthy foods in the diet or an excessive intake of unhealthy foods, leading to physical harm.

Muddy up

Make something confusing or less clear, figuratively as if stirring mud in water and making it less clear.

Nerve cell

A cell that transmits nerve impulses and is the basic functional unit of the nervous system.

Nontoxic

Not poisonous or harmful to the body.

Nutrients

Substances that provide nourishment that is necessary for life and growth.

Pituitary

Of the pituitary gland, a small oval gland at the base of the brain. It produces hormones that control other glands and influence growth of bone structure, sexual maturing and general metabolism.

Placenta

An organ that develops inside the uterus of a pregnant woman to supply food and oxygen to the fetus through the umbilical cord (a cordlike structure containing blood vessels, attaching the fetus to the placenta). The placenta is expelled from the body after birth.

Pre-Columbian

Before the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Prohibition

A period in the United States (1920–1933) during which the manufacture, transportation and sale of nearly all alcoholic beverages were forbidden by federal law. However, many people ignored the national ban and drank illegal beverages.

Pronounced

Clearly and easily noticeable.

Psychological

Of the mind, mental.

Rational

Thinking in a sensible, reasonable way.

Sedative

A drug used to cause sleepiness and temporarily relieve pain and nervousness or agitation.

Stimulant

Any substance that temporarily increases the activity of some vital process or of some organ.

Stroke

A blockage or bursting of a blood vessel leading to the brain that causes an inadequate supply of oxygen and depending on the severity, can cause such symptoms as weakness, paralysis of parts of the body, speech difficulties, etc.

Testes

The male sperm-producing glands.

Toxicity

The state of being toxic, poisonous or harmful to an organism.

Toxins

Originally, poisons produced by a living organism, which are capable of causing disease. The word later came to refer to any substance said to accumulate in the body, which is considered harmful or poisonous to the system.

Ulcer

A slow-healing sore on the surface of the lining of the stomach or other part of the digestive tract.

Universal

Affecting all parts or the whole of something.

Wipe out

Remove or eliminate something completely.

Withdrawal symptoms

Unpleasant physical and mental reactions that someone with an addiction experiences when he stops using drugs.

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FAQ – Alcohol: What You Need to Know

Why is alcohol considered a drug?
Alcohol is a mind-altering substance that slows down the central nervous system. It affects judgment, coordination, and behavior, and like other drugs, it can lead to dependence and serious health problems.

Can you become addicted to alcohol even if you only drink on weekends?
Yes. Alcohol addiction doesn’t depend on frequency alone. Binge drinking on weekends can cause both psychological and physical dependence over time.

Are young people at greater risk from alcohol?
Yes. Alcohol can interfere with brain development, decision-making, and increase the risk of accidents, violence, and early dependency when consumed at a young age.