5 Important Things You Need to Know When Planning to Drink Alchohol

Drinking alcohol comes with a lot of side effects. There are fun ones like losing inhibitions, relaxing, and feeling a little stupid. There are also the bad ones like throwing up and morning recovery. It is important to know what you are getting into when you decide to put a substance into your body. Especially one that isn’t exactly the best for you

Before you go out drinking you should know exactly what you are doing. It is also important to know what alcohol is doing to you. You might be surprised how many of the drinking rules you have been following are false. Here are five important things you should know before you go out drinking.

1. The Order Doesn’t Matter

“Beer before liquor never sicker” right? Actually, no. The order in which you drink alcohol does not matter at all. What matters is the amount of alcohol you are putting into your body. Your liver can only process a certain amount of alcohol at a time, so the rest just gets to swim around in your bloodstream until your liver gets to it.

A possible reason beer before liquor became a saying is that it is hard to pay attention to how much you are drinking once you are drunk. Most people get drunk on liquor faster so when they switch to beer they actually haven’t had that much alcohol. They just have had fast-acting alcohol.

If you start with beer it might take you longer to get drunk because most people drink beer more slowly. By the time you are drunk on beer you already have quite a lot of alcohol in your system it just took a while to hit your brain. So when you add liquor to the mix your body gets overwhelmed.

2. Drinking Might be Good For You

Several studies have suggested that drinking occasionally and in moderation may have health benefits. Those suggested benefits include lowering cholesterol, heart benefits, and maybe keeping your brain sharp. Those benefits are still in debate and are conditional to how much you drink.

Drinking in excess will never be good for you. Binge drinking is a serious problem in our part culture. A doctor saying a glass of wine every week might be good for you is very different than going out and getting drunk every weekend. All things in moderation.

3. Sobering Up

Getting fresh air or drinking some water is not going to sober you up. The only way to get sober is time. Getting sober is all about your body processing the alcohol you consumed. Your liver doesn’t start working faster just because you drank some coffee.

Your liver is processing the things you put in your body all day. It controls blood sugar levels, manages your metabolism, and processes all of the chemicals you decide to consume. There is no way for your liver to clean all of the alcohol you are putting in your body quickly.

If you feel sober after taking a walk or drinking something to wake you up, you are not. It takes at least an hour without drinking to sober up. Let your liver do its job. Rushing the process does not work and will not fool a breathalyzer as easily as it fooled you.

4. Slowing Down

It takes about thirty minutes to feel the effect of alcohol. No matter how many drinks you pack into those thirty minutes, you will not feel drunk faster. You probably will feel much more drunk when they all kick in at once.

It is a good idea to pace yourself when drinking. You are not going to get drunk any faster. The only thing you will do by drinking quickly is making yourself sick. Consuming too much alcohol before your body processes it enough for you to feel the effects is a great way to get alcohol poisoning.

So take a couple of drinks and then wait for a little bit. You will still get drunk, and you might not throw up in the morning. Drinking fast is only good for making you feel bad in the morning. Slow down and let your body have a minute to let you know if you are drunk.

5. Alcohol Lies

Being drunk feels so great because alcohol releases dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is the natural chemical your brain releases when you are happy. Dopamine is a reward system your body has set in place to make you happy and give you good memories. Alcohol triggers that and makes you associate being drunk with being happy.

The problem with that it alcohol is actually a depressant. It works by slowing your brain down. So while being drunk is telling you how happy you are, alcohol is making your body slower and sadder. You cannot help the happy buzzed feeling you get when you drink, but you also can not help the more long term effects alcohol can have on your brain.

If you thought alcohol made the world seem brighter and better, you were right. All that dopamine that being buzzed gives you is an amazing feeling. It is also a fleeting feeling. Many alcoholics or regular binge drinkers started out just chasing that feeling of happiness. So be careful and remember alchohol is lying to you.

Conclusion:

Alcohol is a lot of fun. It is also probably fine in moderation, maybe even good for you. It also is a poison. It is important to monitor how much you are drinking and how it is affecting your body.

Going out and partying occasionally is more than likely not going to have any long term effects. Making drinking in excess a habit is very likely going to cause lasting damage to your brain, liver, and heart.

So go out and have fun. Remember to give your liver some time to work, and don’t make binge drinking a habit. If you can manage your drinking wait a few minutes between each drink you might even make it out without a hangover.