The effects of a night of drinking become startlingly clear while walking down Ashford Street on a Friday night. Red plastic cups and empty beer cans litter the sidewalks and bushes. Inebriated students shout obscene comments or struggle to stumble in a relatively straight line to the next party. Heart rates increase, vision begins to blur and confusion begins to set in. Could anything good come from these drunken nightly escapades? Probably not, but studies have shown moderately consuming some types of alcohol can have health benefits.
About 20 percent of alcohol is absorbed into the body though the stomach and the remainder through the intestines, according to an article titled “How Alcohol Works,” by Dr. Craig Freudenrich. The speed with which alcohol is absorbed depends on a few factors, such as how full a person’s stomach is and the concentration of alcohol in the drink being consumed. Once alcohol is absorbed, it enters the bloodstream and dissolves into all the tissues of the human body except fat tissue.
Alcohol affects the body in various ways once it’s absorbed. Since it is a depressant that acts on the central nervous system, it slows reaction time, induces drowsiness and produces a feeling of relaxation, while impairing judgment and slurring speech. It primarily affects the nerve cells in the brain, interfering with the firing between the synapses of the nerve cells. This distorts communication between the cells.
Researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center found that alcohol enhances the effects of the neurotransmitter GABA. Freudenrich said stimulating the GABA would make things “sluggish” because it is an inhibitor transmitter.
The effects of alcohol on the body change as more alcohol is consumed, Freudenrich said. At first, a person feels euphoric, then excited and later confused when their blood alcohol content (BAC) has reached 0.18 to 0.30 percent. Following the first three stages are stupor, coma and finally death. Once someone’s BAC climbs past 0.50 percent, which depending on a person’s size is the equivalent of about 12 drinks, death is a strong possibility.
Consuming alcohol in large quantities over a long period of time can have many negative effects on a person’s physical and mental health. A person who drinks excessively (more than three drinks a day) is almost 10 times more likely to contract esophagus cancer than a person who drinks moderately (one drink a day), according to the Center for Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University.
Frequent drinkers are also at a higher risk for accidental injury, as alcohol slows down communication within the brain and impairs judgment. Since alcohol is metabolized in the liver, drinking excessively can cause significant health problems ranging from inflammation to cirrhosis, an irreversible condition eventually causing death.
Chronic alcohol consumption also weakens the heart muscle, which significantly increases a person’s risk for heart failure and death. For women, drinking two or more drinks a day is related to a higher incidence of breast cancer, said Dr. Rosemary Pomponio, a physician at the Boston University Student Health Services Walk-in Clinic. Mentally, alcohol consumption can eventually lead to dependence and alcoholism, which tends to plague sufferers for the most of their lives.
Moderate drinking is generally defined as consuming between one and three drinks a day. A drink is defined as a 12-ounce glass of beer, a five-ounce glass of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor.
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, J. E. Manson concluded that moderate drinking was one way to reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease.
Other studies have come to similar conclusions. In a study published by the American Heart Association in 1993, researchers found that people who abstain completely from alcohol are about twice as likely to have a stroke in their lifetime as those who drink moderately. It is argued that moderate drinking leads to a reduced risk of many different medical ailments, from heart disease to the common cold.
Pomponio generally agreed with the research regarding the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. “Small amounts of alcohol will increase HDL cholesterol, which is good cholesterol,” she said. According to the American Heart Association, high levels of HDL cholesterol decrease the risk of a heart attack. Conversely, LDL cholesterol causes plaque to form on the arteries of the heart and brain, significantly increasing a person’s chance of having a heart attack.
Moderation is key to healthy alcohol consumption, Pomponio said. Despite this, she said certain people should not drink alcohol no matter how good it might be for them. Someone with a tendency towards alcoholism, whether it is physical or mental, should completely avoid consuming alcohol, she said.
“Health benefits from alcohol have been found mostly in wine and beer,” she said. Pompinio added that there were “no health benefits known to hard alcohol.”
Of all the studies that proclaim the possible benefits of alcohol consumption, one word is found in every one of them: moderation.
Binge drinking leads to a wide range of negative health consequences, and those who abstain are allegedly less likely to enjoy the health benefits that moderate drinkers do.
The bottom line is that it’s OK to have a beer from the keg, but be sure to steer clear of any kegstands.
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