Getting drunk is fun, right? Wednesday night, during my time across the pond, I got drunk…and by drunk, I mean so drunk that I’m on the verge of blacking out and throwing up. Two bottles of wine and a screwdriver later, I had a mass amount of poison in my body that turned into the worst hangover. Getting drunk is fun…until it’s not.
As college students, getting drunk is typically thought to be part of our weekend plans, and for some, it is. But how do you even get drunk and why does your body react this way to alcohol? BBC says that “your body sees alcohol as a poison. It can’t store it, so (it) wants to break it down and get rid of it.”
The liver uses enzymes to break down the alcohol into acetaldehyde (the chemical cause of your Sunday morning hangover) and from there that breaks down into body-friendly acetic acid. But when you consume too much alcohol, your body isn’t able to break it down quickly leading to a lowering of inhibitions and maybe some puking later as your body tries to force the excess alcohol out of you.
There’s a reason you see more girls throwing up at parties than guys. Dr. Nancy Peterson, a chemistry professor, noted that women have less of the enzyme need to break down alcohol into acetaldehyde and then into acetic acid. Guys, on the other hand, have much more of this enzyme meaning they can drink more (and usually do) before seeing major effects.
If you didn’t already know, alcohol is a drug. A legal drug, but still a drug.
Anthony Dekker said in Scientific American that they “have learned… that alcohol is a sedative-hypnotic in the acute intoxication phase for most patients.” Peterson also said something similar in terms of alcohol’s effects as both a depressant and a euphoric drug. “It’s what we would call a ‘dirty drug.’ It binds to more than one (receptor),” Peterson said.
Since alcohol binds to several different receptors in the brain, it has obvious adverse effects on people’s abilities to think clearly and behave normally. This is why there’s a legal limit of .08 for people operating a vehicle. As BBC points out, there can never be zero tolerance because everyday products we use contain alcohol, although not in large enough amounts for us to feel any effects from them. But once you do start drinking you may start to feel more open to sharing, think you’re a great dancer or maybe even think you’re great in bed.
“I refer you to ‘brewer’s droop’, the age-old nickname for temporary erectile dysfunction induced by alcohol,” said Sally Adams of The Guardian. Sorry, guys, you may think that you’re much better in bed when you’ve been drinking, but science says your not. While alcohol can be linked to “heightened sexual response…and loosening of sexual inhibitions,” Adams points out that those lowering inhibitions can lead to “risky sexual behaviors, which can result in unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” Not exactly something you want to have as a college student, right?
If you did happen to get pregnant one drunken night, Peterson wants to warn against the danger of fetal alcohol system. “It’s a hugely devastating disease,” she said. It happens when mothers consume alcohol during “critical times” during pregnancy, and it can have both physical and mental effects.
So if it’s considered a drug and can lead to possibly risky behaviors and disease, why is this drug legal? Peterson thinks it’s because alcohol is historical. “We’ve been drinking forever, and perhaps it’s one of the things that got us through the Middle Ages because when you drank alcohol, then the fact that the water was contaminated with bacteria, you didn’t get sick because the alcohol kills the bacteria in the drinks,” Peterson said.
Alcohol not only got us through the Middle Ages, but also gets us through our time at school. The School of Public Health at West Virginia University state that alcohol has many uses from altering your mental state, to stress reduction, to social drinking. All three are highly prevalent on college campuses where students are typically very stressed and looking for a way to reduce that stress. This stress relief is also typically done in a social setting like a house party where everyone else around you is drinking.
But this social drinking can quickly lead to more. WVU highlighted a Harvard School of Public Health survey where 44 percent of students engaged in binge drinking—consuming four drinks in a row for women or five drinks in a row for men—while four percent admitted to drinking daily.
So, why is this legal again? As Peterson points out, we tried to make the consumption and sale of alcohol illegal but that didn’t work out so well. “There’s just far too many people who use it,” Peterson said.
Alcohol will continue to be a staple at college parties and social settings across the world. Just always remember to be smart about it. Having a drink or two may be a good way for you to let off steam or loosen up, but it’s also a drug that can have negative effects on your actions whether you want it to or not. Just please don’t end up like me and be on your deathbed the next morning. If you are, then drag yourself out of bed and grab a plateful of eggs at Kaufman. All that grease will have you feeling ready for round two in no time.
