Does Alcohol Affect Everyone The Same Way ?
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Alcohol 5

Does Alcohol affect everyone the same way?

The effects of alcohol depend on:

Gender. Alcohol has a more powerful effect on women than men. This is because males have more alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks alcohol down. Also because women’s bodies generally are smaller and have less water than men’s bodies. Since alcohol dilutes easily in water, and since men have more water than women, the alcohol men drink is more easily watered down.

Weight. The less someone weighs, the greater the potential impact.

Age. Alcohol tends to stimulate young people, but slow down those over age 22.

Experience with Alcohol. People’s past experiences with alcohol can influence how it might affect them in the future.

Amount of food in stomach. While being full can’t stop a person from becoming drunk, having food in the stomach can slow down the rate at which alcohol is absorbed by the bloodstream...but only a little.

The faster people drink. The faster people drink, the faster they get drunk.

Body Chemistry. One of the reasons it’s hard to predict exactly how any drug will make users feel is that everyone’s body chemistry is constantly changing!

Expectations. How alcohol affects people can be influenced by what drinkers expect to happen.

Amount of Alcohol Consumed. The more people drink at one time, the more powerful the effect.
Presence of medications. Such as tranquilizers (prescribed to help people relax), narcotic pain killers, or
sedative medications (prescribed to help people fall asleep at night). Together with alcohol, any of these can add up to 1 + 1 = 2, or 3, or 4! Sometimes with the result that people’s breathing rates become so seriously low that they never wake up.

And not just for adults. A national study showed that 81% of high school students also used this drug.

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