Health for Body Mind and Soul

As the holiday season looms ever closer, celebrations of one type or another will soon crowd calendars. The ingredients for creating a great party for family and friends should include safety considerations with regards to alcohol consumption.

Here ironically, are some common myths and facts about alcohol consumption supplied by the LCBO.

Myth: Driving after only a drink or two is no big deal.
Fact: Drinking and driving is never OK. Impairment begins with your first drink.

Myth: Eating a big meal before you drink will keep you sober.
Fact: Food in your stomach only delays the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. A full stomach doesn’t prevent the effects of alcohol or intoxication.

Myth: You’ll be more affected by spirits than by beer or a glass of wine.
Fact: a drink is a drink is a drink. A 12-oz beer (5% alcohol per volume), a 5-oz glass of wine 12% alc./vol) and a 1.5-oz serving of spirits (40% alc./vol) are all equal in absolute alcohol content.

Myth: Switching between beer, wine, and spirits will affect you more than sticking to one type of alcohol.
Fact: Wrong. Your blood alcohol concentration or BAC – the percentage of alcohol in your blood – is what counts, not the beverages consumed. Alcohol is alcohol.

Myth: It’s just a wine, spritzer/beer. It can’t permanently damage you.
Fact: Alcohol of any kind, when consumed irresponsibly, can potentially cause serious damage to your digestive system. In addition, irresponsible consumption of alcohol can harm your brain, heart, liver, stomach and other critical organs, and even shorten your life by many years.

Myth: Everybody reacts the same way to alcohol.
Fact: Everyone is different. Many factors such as: gender, body weight, body chemistry, time of day, how you feel mentally, fatigue etc., affects your reactions to alcohol.

Myth: It’s OK for me to drink as much as my boyfriend or husband.
Fact: Women process alcohol differently than men, therefore they become intoxicated with less alcohol. A woman reaches a higher blood alcohol level than a man does after drinking the same amount, even if they weight the same or are the same height.

Myth: Alcohol gives you energy.
Fact: On the contrary! Alcohol is a drug. It depresses and slows your ability to think, speak or move. Even low consumption levels affects perception, coordination and judgment well before signs of physical impairment are manifested.

Myth: You will sleep better if you’ve had a few drinks.
Fact: No! Because alcohol is a depressant, it may make you fall asleep, but it interferes with the quality and duration of restful sleep.

Myth: A cold shower and a cup of coffee are good ways to sober up.
Fact: Although they may make you feel clean and awake, only time sobers you up. Coffee (a drug), is a stimulant. It may help to keep you awake, bit it will not sober you up.

Myth: If someone passes out after drinking, it’s best to let them sleep it off.
Fact: If someone passes out never leave him or her alone. Get medical assistance. Be sure to turn him or her on his or her side, with the head to the side, until help arrives.

Myth: You can only become an alcoholic after years of drinking.
Fact: You can develop alcoholism at any age. This depends on the amount you drink, and the frequency in which you drink alcoholic beverages.

Myth: People who drink too much only hurt themselves.
Fact: Most people who drink have a partner, parent, sibling, child, grandparent, or friend who is concerned about them. What if the person who drinks is abusive to his or her family, or gets behind the wheel of a car when intoxicated and seriously injures or kills someone?

Myth: It’s none of my business if a friend is drinking too much.
Fact: A real friend makes it his or her business. While you can’t make him or her change, you can be honest with him or her. It is possible that by being honest with your friend he or she may listen, and decide to seek help.

Myth: The worst thing that can happen when you drink too much is ending up with a raging hangover.
Fact: Wishful thinking. When excessive amounts of alcohol is consumed rapidly, it can lead to alcohol poisoning in just a few hours and result in death. All of which, are much worse than a hangover.

The website does not provide medical or legal advice. This website is created for information purposes.