Alcohol Facts & Fiction
Alcohol has been used by humans for thousands of years, and by now we have a pretty good idea of what its use entails. Despite that, many myths surround alcohol, mostly perpetrated by those who don't know any better or who wish to ignore alcohol's effects on their body. Whenever you drink it pays to know the facts about alcohol and to separate them from the half-truths and fallacies.
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Fact: Alcohol Creates the Same Effects Regardless of the Drink
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Alcohol is in many drinks, from light beer to margaritas to 100-proof whiskey. In every case, the body is affected by the alcohol itself, not by any other ingredients. Some people believe that beer and wine are safer drinks than hard alcohol, but that's only because they contain less alcohol than hard liquor (they also contain ingredients that slow the absorption process). Generally speaking, one bottle of beer contains the same amount of alcohol as one glass of wine, which contains the same amount of alcohol as one shot of whiskey or hard liquor.
Fiction: Coffee Sobers You Up
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The only way to really sober up is for the body to process the alcohol out of your system, which takes time (about .015 blood alcohol content per hour). Coffee attained its status as a hangover cure because the caffeine produces increased alertness for a period, but that isn't the same as sobering up. The same holds true for cold showers and burned toast. None of them increase the rate at which your body processes alcohol and thus none of them help you sober up.
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Fact: Alcohol Affects the Body Quickly
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Alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream through the lining in the stomach and intestines, and from there quickly passes to the remainder of the body. You can begin feeling the effects of alcohol almost immediately upon consuming it, especially if your stomach is empty or you down a great deal of alcohol quickly. Conversely, it takes time for your liver and other organs to process alcohol out of your body. It takes about an hour for every drink you've consumed.
Fiction: Alcohol Causes Alcoholism
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There is a distinction between alcohol abuse--repeatedly drinking more than one should--and alcoholism. The former is dangerous, but lacks the physical addiction to alcohol that many alcoholics possess. Alcoholic tendencies are likely caused by a combination of biological factors, emotional traumas and social conditions that vary from individual to individual. If alcohol itself were the primary cause, then anyone who had a drink would be at risk of alcoholism.
Fact: Weight and Gender Play a Part in Alcohol Consumption
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Because the bloodstream distributes the alcohol evenly through your body, someone with a smaller body mass will be more affected by the same amount of alcohol than someone with a larger body mass. It takes more alcohol to get a 200-pound person drunk than it does a 150-pound person. Women, who have higher levels of body fat on average than men, don't process alcohol as quickly and thus take longer to sober up.
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