Decreased inhibitions, food cravings and an uncontrollable urge to wee: How ONE can of beer really affects your body
- Even just a few sips can have a much deeper impact on bodily functions
- Level of impact depends on several factors, including gender and weight
- Moderate alcohol consumption is one drink for women and two for men
There is plenty of literature about consuming alcoholic in moderation and the dangers of binge drinking, but now a new infographic has detailed the exact effects just one beer can have on your body - revealing that just a few sips can cause you to lose your inhibitions and leave you feeling dizzy.
After two recently-released infographics by Niraj Naik, who blogs under the name The Renegade Pharmicist, spotlighted the impact Diet Coke and Coca-Cola have on your body in just one hour, a newly-released graphic created by Yahoo Health, explores how one ice-cold beer affects all of your bodily functions, from your brain and eyes to your blood sugar and bladder function.
And in addition to the more obvious symptoms, including relaxed social awareness and anxiety, and a feeling of slight dizziness, the graphic demonstrates how the first few sips of beer can have a much deeper impact on your bodily functions.
According to the diagram, the first few sips of beer triggers a release of dopamine, which lights up the reward centers in the brain, making you feel relaxed and possibly encouraging you to drink more.
A while one beer won't make you go totally wild, it will cause you to start to lose your inhibitions.
'You get more garrulous, talk a lot more, and are more likely to make a social interaction, such as going over to a colleague you’ve been wanting to meet and introducing yourself,' George Koob, the the director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told Yahoo Health.
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'That’s why it’s a social lubricant.'
However, the level of impact depends on several factors, including gender and weight.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention considers moderate alcohol consumption to be one drink a day for women and two drinks for men.
According to Yahoo Health females tend to get more intoxicated than males from the same dose because of the distribution of body water and body fat per kilogram
'Females tend to get more intoxicated than males from the same dose mainly because of the distribution of body water and body fat per kilogram,' Mr Koob explained.
'Females tend to have less body water than males and tend to get 30 to 40 per cent more intoxicated than men with the same dose.'
Beer will presumably hit a woman harder than it would man, and the affects are also exacerbated if you are drinking on an empty stomach.
One ale will also cause your blood sugar to drop slightly, which may make you feel slightly dizzy and craving something to snack on.
And then there's the surprising effect one can of beer can have on your eyes.
According to the Yahoo graphic, beer 'gives you an infusion of antioxidants', which can reduce the risk of cataracts. So while your vision might be a bit blurry after one too many pints, beer may actually have a far more positive impact in the long-term.
And those extra trips to the bathroom aren't in your head. One brew will make you urinate more often because alcohol inhibits anti-diuretic hormones.
While your may find your pinching bladder annoying, studies show that drinking a beer a day may be beneficial to your health.
FEMAIL has spoken to medical expert, science communicator, and food researcher Dr Stuart Farrimond for an in-depth explanation of just what happens to your body when you drink alcohol.
Dr Farrimond told FEMAIL: 'Alcohol is quite a toxic substance and causes damage to practically every part of the body: brain, muscles, liver, heart. You name it, alcohol hurts it.
'Most people know that liver damage is common in heavy drinkers, but excessive alcohol can significantly increase risk of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, high blood pressure and infertility, to name a few.
'Alcoholic drinks also pack in a lot of calories and too much drink can lead to weight gain and obesity.
'In moderation, however, alcohol can be good for health. It has long been said that the French have fewer heart attacks than we do because of the wine they drink.
Here Dr Farrimond analyses the effects of alcohol from the first five minutes after your first sip to the last 24 hours, when the alcohol is leaving your system.
Alcohol will give you a bad night's sleep (left). Chemicals in alcoholic drinks called cogeners linger in the body for hours after the drinking has finished (right)
In the first five minutes: It only takes a matter of seconds for the alcohol get to the stomach - it's straight down the hatch! It starts to be absorbed into the bloodstream pretty quickly, as anyone who has had a drink on an empty stomach will testify.'
>10 minutes: Your body treats alcohol as a poison, although it doesn't take it ten minutes to realise this. From the moment alcohol hits the stomach it is trying to break it down.'
>15 minutes: The body's efforts to get alcohol out of your system are continuous and do not start at 15 minutes. Alcohol dehydrogenase is one of the key enzymes to break down alcohol but it's not the stomach where most of the work is done. The liver takes the brunt of this task, hence why liver problems are so common in heavy drinkers. The chemicals produced when alcohol is broken down are pretty nasty and include acetylaldehyde – which is thirty times more toxic than alcohol itself.
>20 minutes: As anyone who drinks alcohol will know, the time it takes for you to feel the effects of alcohol can vary quite a lot. It is important to stress that it can take some time before you start to feel the effects - it could be five minutes, it could be 20.'
>45 minutes: The blood alcohol levels do take some time to increase, which is worth bearing in mind if you are trying to work out how long you need to wait after a drink before getting behind the wheel. (It's a good idea not to drink anything at all, for obvious reasons.) For healthy men, the time taken to get to maximum blood alcohol level is about 35 minutes for vodka, 55 minutes for wine and 60 minutes for beer.'
>60 Minutes: Alcohol is indeed a diuretic and this effect is why you need to pay a visit to the toilet so often when in the pub. Although unless you are imbibing extreme amounts of high alcohol liquor, it is unlikely to dehydrate you enough to make you 'crash out'.
The quality of sleep will be poor, but that will be down to the effects alcohol has on the brain and not being dehydrated.'
>12-24 hours: Only the saintly among us will not know what a hangover feels like. We don't know exactly what causes a hangover, but it certainly isn't just dehydration.
'Of greater importance are the toxic substances produced by alcohol breakdown (such as acetylaldehyde) in addition to other nasty chemicals in alcoholic drinks called cogeners that linger in the body for hours after the drinking has finished. Alcohol can also cause blood sugar to plunge and upset your immune system.'
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