......somewhere between confusion and stupor
The 6 stages of getting drunk
. The jovial phase
Drinking less than half a glass of alcohol an hour is enough to
suppress the functions of the frontal lobes which control your
inhibitions, self-control, will power, ability to judge and
concentration.
When this part of the brain is being suppressed you have fewer
inhibitions, your self-confidence is boosted, you become more
jovial and
daring and you talk more - and louder. All of this explains why alcohol
is considered an excellent social lubricant.
This effect can be detected at a blood alcohol level as low as 0,01
g/100 ml, which is easily reached by drinking less than half a glass an
hour. It's way below the legal limit of 0,05 g/100 ml.
Believe it or not, at this stage your judgement is diminished and your
personality has been sufficiently altered to increase your risk of dying
an unnatural death - as a result of an accident or fight, for example.
Did you know?
If you party into the small hours and your head is spinning when you
eventually crash into bed your blood alcohol content is about 0,2 g/100
ml - four times the legal limit. If you drive to work at 7 am the next
morning and the traffic police pull you over you can be charged with
driving under the influence. You don't have a hangover - you're still
drunk!
THE JOVIAL STAGE
.The slurring phase
Next in line to experience the alcohol wave are the parietal lobes at the sides and on the top of your head.
When your blood alcohol level is about 0,10 g/100 ml (typically after
two to three drinks an hour) your motor skills are impaired. Your speech
may be slurred but funnily enough you don't seem to notice.
Complicated movements such as buttoning your shirt or fastening a
necklace are likely to become more challenging and you may experience a
slight tremble.
THE SLURRING STAGE
.The blurring phase
When the alcohol reaches the back of your head and the occipital lobe
your blood alcohol level will be about 0,15 g/100 ml. By this time
you've had four to five drinks (or two to three doubles) in an hour.
Your intoxication level is becoming quite dangerous even though you
might not think so.
Your vision is deteriorating - it's becoming increasingly difficult to
judge movement and distance and your peripheral vision decreases. If
you're driving at dusk you'll have trouble spotting a pedestrian or the
little boy chasing his ball; unable to stop in time you could kill
someone or crash into the back of a slow-moving lorry.
THE BLURRING STAGE
.The topplingover phase
When your alcohol level reaches 0,2 g/ 100 ml (after four to six drinks
or three doubles in an hour) the alcohol wave is crashing over your
cerebellum.
By now your balance will be severely affected and you'll have trouble
standing. Hopefully your friends have already seen to it that you're
lying down safely so you can sleep off the backlash of the booze.
.The legless phase
If you're not in bed by now you'll be lying somewhere in a drunken stupor.
Your blood alcohol level is in the region of 0,25 g/100 ml and your
midbrain has become affected. You're paralytic, jittery and nauseous and
your reflexes are severely impaired.
If you're lucky you've managed to turn onto your stomach because if
you're lying on your back in this condition you may end up choking on
your own vomit.
By this time you may have lost consciousness
THE LEGLESS STAGE
.The deadly phase
If you drink four doubles an hour your blood alcohol level will quickly exceed 0,35 to 0,4 g/100 ml.
With this amount of alcohol in your body your brain will be hit with a
vengeance. It's now a matter of life and death: if the alcohol reaches
the medulla oblongata (the part of the brain controlling breathing and
blood circulation) you can die
THE COMATOSE STAGE
It was first
studied for medical purposes in the 1950s when few scientists or doctors
thought to look for medicines in the ocean. But in the sponge,
scientists isolated two chemicals
