1. What does alcohol do to you when you drink?

When you drink a beer, a glass of wine or a shot of spirits, alcohol enters your bloodstream through your digestive system and circulates to all parts of your body in only a few minutes. The rate at which alcohol is absorbed is slowed down by food in your stomach, but when alcohol reaches your brain it affects control centers - causing intoxication. Your body effectively 'burns' the alcohol off - at a rate of about one average drink (containing approximately 0.6 oz of alcohol) every two to three hours.

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2. Do different people 'burn' alcohol at different rates; and can someone who never drinks have too much alcohol in their blood after only one glass of beer?

Most people burn alcohol at the same rate - about one glass of any alcohol beverage every two to three hours. Liver action may be slowed down due to disease or the use of certain medication, and if this is the case, alcohol 'degradation' will take longer. As a result, the level of alcohol in some peoples' blood may be higher than average after they have had a few drinks.

The amount of alcohol in your blood after one drink will be more or less the same whether you drink frequently or never at all. Your blood alcohol level depends on how many drinks you have consumed, the speed at which you are drinking, your weight and your gender - not how often you indulge.

The main difference will be one of familiarity: if you drink regularly the feelings and sensations that alcohol triggers will be familiar to you: if you never drink they will seem strange and you are likely to notice them sooner than a regular drinker.

Also, different people may feel the effects of the same amount of alcohol differently, with some people experiencing feelings of greater disorientation than others from the same amount of alcohol.

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3. What is a safe amount of alcohol to drink?

There are exceptions, but drinking two drinks a day will not have any adverse affects on most adult men. The same is true for women and older people who consume one drink a day. (A 12 oz bottle of beer, a 5 oz glass of wine or a 1.5 oz shot of 80 proof distilled spirits have roughly the same amount of alcohol.)

Some people shouldn't drink at all because the risks are simply too great. Anyone who plans to drive or carry out other tasks that require alertness and motor skills (using high-speed machinery for instance) should not drink alcohol. Abstinence is also recommended for people with certain medical conditions and women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant. The same is true for anyone under the legal drinking age of 21.

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4. Does alcohol affect women in a different way to men?

The simple answer is yes. Women's bodies contain a lower proportion of water than men's. Consequently, the same amount of alcohol will have a greater physical impact on a woman than on a man, even when differences in body weight are taken into account.

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5. Is alcohol good for your heart?

Research suggests that adults who drink moderately (men who have one or two drinks every day, and women who have one drink every day) are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than those who drink more or do not drink at all. However, further study is ongoing and it is not recommended that non-drinkers should start drinking alcohol for the benefits of their heart. It is common knowledge that there are many risks associated with alcohol, in particularly excessive drinking.

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6. What is the effect of alcohol on an empty or full stomach?

A full stomach slows down the passage of alcohol into the large intestine and may modify its absorption. If you drink after eating, the effects of alcohol will take longer to appear and blood alcohol concentrations will not be as high as those reached when you drink on an empty stomach. On the other hand, blood alcohol concentrations may take longer to reach zero when you drink with or after eating food.

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7. Is it safe to drink during pregnancy?

No: drinking during pregnancy is dangerous. Alcohol can have a number of harmful effects on the unborn baby. We don't know the exact consumption levels at which alcohol can cause health problems, but we do know that all alcohol-related birth defects can be prevented - simply by not drinking during pregnancy.

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8. Does drinking coffee really make your sober?

This is one myth that has absolutely no basis in fact. Coffee has no impact on the absorption of alcohol. If anything, drinking a lot of coffee after consuming too much alcohol will increase your discomfort levels - producing an urgent need to use the bathroom. The blunt truth is - the only thing you can do to get sober once you are drunk is to stop drinking and wait for your body to do the rest. There are no short cuts.

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9. How much can I safely drink before I exercise?

Sports and alcohol don't mix. Even one or two glasses of beer or wine can inhibit your performance. Alcohol reduces your ability to concentrate, to co-ordinate your movements, even to see properly. It also reduces your sensitivity to pain. The message is clear: if you drink before exercise, you not only increase your risk of personal injury, but also the risk to other people.

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10. What is a hangover?

Alcohol not only sedates, it also irritates. A night drinking excessively almost invariably turns into an uncomfortable morning after. Alcohol irritates the human body in many different ways, but perhaps most importantly suppresses activity of the hormone that inhibits the secretion of urine. As a result you need the toilet more often when you drink. You then lose fluids, and become dehydrated. No surprise then that you wake up in the morning feeling bad: probably with a headache, possibly also feeling nauseous, shaky and certainly with a dry mouth and raging thirst.

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