Alcohol
What is alcohol?
• Although it is legal for those aged 18 and over to
buy and drink alcohol, that doesn’t mean it’s any
less powerful than other drugs.
• Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows
down your body's responses in all kinds of ways.
Just enough can make you feel sociable; too
much and you’ll have a hangover the next day,
and may not even remember what you got up to;
and way too much alcohol in a single session
could put you in a coma or even kill you.
Just enough can make you feel
sociable
too much and you’ll have a hangover
the next day
and may not even remember what you
got up to
Way too much alcohol in a single
session could put you in a coma or
even kill you.
Ethanol
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•
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Alcohol contains the drug ethanol.
It affects the nervous system.
It is a depressant.
It slows down your body’s reactions.
Effects of alcohol
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/theeffects-of-alcohol-on-young-people/9141.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/tee
nage-pressures-alcohol/5525.html
How does alcohol affect your body?
• When you drink alcohol it is absorbed into
your bloodstream from your intestines.
How does alcohol affect your body?
• It then travels to your brain.
• It affects your nervous system.
Effect of alcohol
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/theeffects-of-alcohol-on-blood-vessels/5368.html
Drinking large amounts of alcohol is
dangerous.
• Ethanol is poisonous.
• The liver breaks down ethanol into harmless
waste products.
• The livers of heavy drinkers become scarred
• Healthy cells are replaced with fat or fibrous
tissue
• It is call cirrhosis of the liver
• This disease can be fatal
Young drinkers
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/chil
dren-risking-liver-disease/5853.html
Facts and figures
•
If you have been drinking, your risk of accidents is increased in two ways – firstly,
the likelihood of you having an accident is increased, and secondly, if you are
injured, the seriousness of your injury is likely to be greater than if you were sober.
•
Around 40% of patients admitted to Accident and Emergency departments (A&E)
are diagnosed with alcohol-related injuries or illnesses.
•
Younger people are more likely to have an alcohol related accident than older
people. For example, in people younger than 65 years old, 22% of male falls and
14% of female falls were attributable to alcohol, compared to 12% and 4% of falls
among male and females aged over 65 years, respectively.
•
If you drink, you’ll know that minor accidents happen all the time. Alcohol upsets
our sense of balance and co-ordination. So on a night out, maybe you find yourself
bumping into things more often, or tripping up your front steps on your way home.
But alcohol is also the cause of more serious accidents too.
Traffic accidents
• Although drink driving figures have been falling steadily for
decades, traffic accidents are still a leading cause of alcohol
related deaths among young men aged 16-24.
• 460 deaths were caused by drivers over the legal alcohol
limit in 2007 (incidentally, the lowest figure since records
began). There were a further 1,760 serious casualties and
12,260 slight casualties. Further accidents are caused by
drivers who have drunk alcohol but are not over the limit.
Alcohol is a factor in one in five road deaths (figures include
drunk pedestrians).
Alcohol tolerance
• The more a person drinks, the
more they want.
• They develop a tolerance to
ethanol
• They can become addicted
• They become dependent on
alcohol
• They feel they can not survive
without a drink
• They are alcoholics
Drink limits
• males
• 21 units a week
• No more than 4 in one day
• Females
• 14 units a week
• No more than 3 in one day
Binge drinking
• Drinking large amount of
alcohol in a short period of
time
• Can result in alcohol
poisoning
• Can be fatal
• Can increase risk of long
term heath problems
• Often results in anti-social
behaviour and crime
Binge drinking
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/bing
e-drinking/8067.html
Key points
• Alcohol is a depressant, which acts on the
nervous system. It slows down the body’s
reactions
• Long-term alcohol consumption can result in
brain and liver damage
• The government has set guidelines on the
amount of alcohol a person should drink