by Angeline Oppenheimer

Created on: August 19, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

"If you must drink, don't drive. Don't even putt," so said Dean Martin. Whether it is a Martini or a can of beer, the alcoholic content in these beverages can wreck physiological damage to the body. Alcohol is a drug that acts as an depressant on the central nervous system. When consumed in varying amounts (depending on physical condition, age, gender and personality), it can produces dire consequences.

1. Ethyl alcohol is the active ingredient in most alcoholic beverages. When water is removed from ethyl alcohol, it becomes ether which acts as an anesthetic that can induce drowsiness and sleep.

2. Alcohol can affect millions of nerve cells in the brain and change communication patterns. Result? It impairs vision, distorts hearing, muddles speech, compromises judgments, dulls senses, affects motor skills, and reduces coordination. Ever seen a drunk talking incoherently, while staggering about, sometimes, even ranting? It's the alcohol talking.

3. Alcohol also affect areas of the brain that control aggression, hunger, thirst, pleasure, pain and body temperature. Have you ever seen an angry intoxicated person or a husband who turns abusive when under the influence? Again, it's the effects of alcohol in the blood stream.

4. It also acts as a sedative on the central nervous system, depressing the nerve cells to the point where it alters or damages the ability to respond appropriately.

Now consider all these ramifications of alcohol and then add the art of driving
Driving may seem like a routine task for the somber driver-you keep your vehicle in lane and watch out for peripheral activities like other vehicles to stay out of accident. However, it's been proven that a drunk driver is unable to coordinate the two different sets of tasks at the same time. Alcohol impairs driving performance even with Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 50-mg%. That's why about 45% of all traffic crashes are alcohol related.

Teenagers, in particular, should refrain from drinking as their brain is still developing and any damage to brain cells is detrimental. Since the brain is not equipped with pain fibers or the ability to produce more brain cells should they die, this physiological fact should act as a deterrent to underage drinking. Also, alcohol present in the blood stream may adversely affects the hypothalamus (the part of the brain that controls natural reflexes like breathing, heartbeat)..

It is a well known fact that alcohol kills six and a half times more youths than all the other illicit drugs combined. In the light of such staggering statistics, think twice before the indulging in the deadly combination of "drink and drive."

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