Stimulant Properties of Alcohol

Alcohol is perhaps the nation's most popular drug, and its popularity is in large part due to its stimulating effects. But alcohol is actually not the stimulant it seems to be, and it poses many dangers when consumed in large amounts.

What Is It?

• Alcohol is officially classed as a depressant. Like anesthetics, barbiturates and sedatives, alcohol depresses the central nervous system, impairing brain activity and, along with it, one's judgment, speech, reaction time and memory, to name just a few. But alcohol does have the properties of a stimulant as well. It excites the system, resulting in loss of inhibition, feelings of exhilaration and extreme emotion, talkativeness and mood swings. This excitement, however, is really the initial effect of alcohol's depressant properties, triggered by the loss of self-control that is caused by consuming alcohol in low doses.

Physical Effects

• When alcohol is consumed, it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream via the stomach and small intestine. It immediately travels to all the organs in the body, including the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys. As the alcohol begins to metabolize, it stimulates the adrenal glands, causing them to release hormones and causing the liver to release high levels of sugar into the bloodstream. This is responsible for the initial "rush" that comes with drinking alcohol. After this rush, however, depression sets in and the activity of all major organs becomes impaired.

Appeal

• The initial stimulant properties of alcohol draw many to it for a quick high. The loss of self-restraint that comes with a few drinks helps many people ease into social situations and "let loose" by removing awkwardness, worries and inhibitions, and the initial exhilaration prompted by alcohol can make social situations more exciting and enjoyable.

Dangers

• As the level of alcohol in the bloodstream increases, so too does alcohol's depressant properties. Loss of judgment and reasoning capabilities is followed by a loss of motor control, then by a decrease in biological functions like breathing and heart rate. Blackouts, memory loss, coma and even death can result from the consumption of too much alcohol, not to mention permanent damage to the body's major organs.

Factors to Consider

• Alcohol affects everyone differently. Men have more muscular tissue as opposed to fatty tissue than do women. Since muscle contains more water than fat, a man's body is more able to dilute alcohol than a woman's, making men less prone to intoxication than women. Other factors to take into consideration are the type of alcohol consumed, as hard liquor is absorbed more quickly than beer or wine, the time period over which the alcohol is consumed, what one has eaten beforehand, and the temperature of the beverage, as warm alcohol is absorbed more quickly than cold alcohol.