Alcohol

How much alcohol?
Alcohol and:
Pre-conception
Pregnancy
'Fetal alcohol syndrome'
Breastfeeding

Alcohol is one of the most used (and well-known) drugs in the world. It is an ingredient in wine, beer, champagne, spirits and liquors. Alcohol used to be used as an anaesthetic, to help deaden pain. However, it was hard to judge how much a person would need, and if too much was given it could prove fatal. (Luckily, most people passed out before they consumed a lethal amount of alcohol.) The chemical name for alcohol is 'ethyl alcohol' or 'ethanol'. Alcohol is medically classified as a narcotic (or a sedative).

Alcohol affects the body's nerve cells, depressing the activity of the brain. This means it temporarily 'slows down' your nervous system, inhibiting messages between your brain and the rest of your body. When this happens, your sight, reaction time and coordination are affected (the reasons why we shouldn't drink and drive).

Alcohol reduces the body's production of 'anti-diuretic hormone' (or 'ADH'). ADH helps your body to regulate fluid loss. Inhibited ADH makes the person pass more urine and become dehydrated. Excess urination also makes the body lose many essential vitamins and minerals. (This is why alcoholics tend to suffer from malnutrition.) Alcohol also interferes with the body's absorption of the B group vitaminsin particular B6andfolic acid (or 'folate). This tends to happen even if the person eats foods rich in folic acid, or takes supplements. Folic acid is needed to help with new cell production (especially during pregnancy, when the new baby is growing.)

Once a person drinks a beverage containing alcohol, it is absorbed into the body very rapidly (much more rapidly than the body digests food). If alcohol is ingested on an empty stomach, it is absorbed even more rapidly, compared to when the person eats something substantial beforehand, or while drinking.

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