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Alcohol

Contents

	The making of an alcoholic drink
	How booze enters your body
	What happens when you're plastered
	Why you feel so bad when you're hungover
	The drinking habit

Did you know?

Yeast is the star of the drinks industry. If it feeds on sugar in the absence of oxygen, it releases carbon dioxide and ethanol - the drinkable form of alcohol

Only 20% of the alcohol you swallow is absorbed by the stomach

Heavy drinking is blamed for up to 33,000 deaths a year in the UK

When you consume alcohol, you lose more water in your urine than you take in the drink itself

Booze interferes with the nerve endings that control erections

Binge drinking is thought to have serious long-term health impacts

After a heavy night out drinking your body is dehydrated which causes your brain to shrink away from the skull

Infected with yeast

Alcohol was discovered thousands of years ago when humans tasted liquids, which had become infected with yeasts. Recipes discovered on ancient tablets prove that the Babylonians were 'getting the beers in' back in 4300 BC. The Ancient Greeks and the Romans were wine connoisseurs and by the Middle Ages alcoholic brews were drunk as a safe alternative to water, which was often contaminated.

In the 19th century the 'Temperance movement' began to portray drink as an evil rather than a benefit. Between 1919 and 1933 the US introduced the Prohibition, which banned alcohol and resulted in the creation of underground drinking dens.

Today, drinking is an increasingly popular social phenomenon and recent research has suggested a health benefit of moderate alcohol consumption. But the dangers of drinking are also being more widely understood.

Drinking is popular

Is alcohol a dangerous drug?


Yes							No

Alcohol is a poison that can cause irreversible damage to the liver, which labours to remove it from the body		The liver can remove alcohol from the body at the rate of one unit per hour

Heavy drinking is blamed for up to 33,000 deaths a year in the UK		Research has shown that moderate consumption of wine and beer is good for the heart

In Britain, nearly one in ten men and one in 20 women drinkers have an alcohol problem		Moderate consumption of alcohol by young women is thought to prevent high blood pressure

Over 9m people in the UK drink at levels that place their long-term health at risk		Research has suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease in ageing drinkers

Drinkers are more likely to have casual sex that leads to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases		Drinking helps people to relax in social situations

Alcohol is estimated to be a factor in 20-30% of accidents worldwide

Long-term alcoholics often suffer from alcoholic myopathy, a muscle-wasting condition that causes extreme tiredness after physical activity

Long-term alcoholics also lose bone mass as alcohol affects the way calcium is processed by the body

Next page: What's the difference between bitter and lager? Delve into the secrets of making an alcoholic drink