User:Dolphinsgrl77/sandbox

How damaging is alcohol
Alcohol is the most widely consumed drug worldwide. For many, drinking is as much a part of daily life as having dinner. Although we consume it regularly, we don't really know what it does to us, or why it causes us to react in different ways then we would normally do sober. Alcohol some say is a depressant. Yet, that doesn't fully explain alcohol's effects. People often drink socially to interact and be apart of a social group. Alcohol may be more than simply a depressant. Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory: Clearly, alcohol affects the brain. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. Alcohol also decreases energy consumption in the cerebellum, a brain structure that coordinates motor activity. With a cerebellum running at half-speed, it would be hard to walk a straight line or operate heavy machinery.

Number of Factors that influence The Extent of Alcohol Affects On The Brain
A person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety.
 * How much and how often a person drinks
 * The age at which he or she first began drinking
 * How long he or she has been drinking
 * The person’s age, gender, genetic background, and family history of alcoholism

Blackouts and Memory Loss
An alcohol induced blackoutoccurs when a person drinks so much alcohol that his or her long term memory is impaired. Some people link blackouts with the idea of passing out, but this is much more dangerous, the blackout stage is when a person becomes so intoxicated by alcohol that he or she simply loses consciousness. Most blackouts are caused by the rapid ingestion of a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks and, as the amount of alcohol increases, so does the degree of impairment. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events. There are two typical types of blackouts, "en bloc or complete blackouts" and "fragmentary blackouts". En bloc blackouts are described as the inability to remember anything during a period of drunkenness. They do not seem to affect short term memory. A person experiencing the more common fragmentary blackout may be able to remember certain events during a drunken period, but they may not remember certain other events and will not realize they are missing the memories until someone else brings it to their attention. Blackouts are dangerous for many reasons. People in the blackout mode are still conscious, but do not know what is going on around them.

The Brain's Long Term Effects
Some of the long term effects that will be caused from alcohol consumption include:


 * Coordination problems and muscle tension
 * Depressed nerve centers that control sexual performance
 * Affects heart rate, temperature, breathing which can lead to unconsciousness and even death
 * Brain shrinkage and loss of memory
 * Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
 * Learning difficulties
 * Slowing of neurogenesis, of the growth of new brain cells
 * Sleep impairment, as alcohol decreases REM sleep and sleep apnea
 * Delirium tremens (a state of confusion accompanied by trembling and vivid hallucinations) from alcohol withdrawal
 * Peripheral neuropathy, leading to a loss of sensation

The Brain's Short Term Effects

 * Some of the short term effects that alcohol consumption will cause are:


 * Slurred speech
 * Drowsiness
 * Vomiting
 * Diarrhea
 * Headaches
 * Difficulty breathing
 * Vision or hearing impairment
 * Inability to coordinate
 * Unconsciousness and even falling into a coma
 * Blackouts