Your Body and Alcohol

Alcohol has immediate effects on your body.

When one is intoxicated, alcohol interferes with the ability to analyze sensory information, resulting in the symptoms of being drunk, including:

• Decreased motor coordination and balance
• Slurred speech
• Blurred vision
• Sweating
• Loss of judgment
• Dulled sensation of pain
• Loss of balance and coordination
• Loss of the ability to judge distance and heights
• Dizziness

Alcohol is also a diuretic, making one urinate excessively, which speeds up the loss of fluid from the body, causing dehydration. Most of the nasty symptoms of a hangover, including headache, dizziness, thirst, paleness, and tremors—are caused by dehydration. Alternating drinks containing alcohol with a bottle of water can help you avoid the effects of dehydration.

Physical impacts of alcohol

• Even though someone who has been drinking might look as if they’re in a deep sleep, they will not be getting restorative sleep.
• Consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in one night can affect brain and body activities for up to three days.
• Two consecutive nights of drinking five or more alcoholic beverages can affect brain and body activities for up to five days.
• Attention span is shorter for up to 48 hours after drinking.
• Even the effects of small amounts of alcohol (BAC of .03) can persist for a substantial period of time after the acute effects of alcohol impairment disappear.