Effects on motor skills | A negative effect of drinking alcohol is the deterioration of motor skills and other capacities and senses. These include a decrease in muscle control, reaction time, vision, and other basic skills. Because of alcohol, messages carried to and from the brain and the body’s muscles and nerves can be slowed or improperly transmitted. As a result, these signals are dulled, which decreases awareness of injury, cause loss of coordination, decreased ability to differentiate colors, and overall makes a person move more slowly. (Motor skills are those functions we perform by coordinated use of muscles, hands, feet, etc. For example, walking and running, driving, and picking up objects.) | Effects on speech and coordination | Alcohol consumption produces clear changes in speech production, most noticeably slurred speech. Because speech production requires a combination of fine motor control, timing, and other coordination, it is difficult for people who are intoxicated to properly express themselves. Speech under intoxication is slower, lower in overall amplitude, more negatively judged in subjective perceptual tests, and more prone to errors at the sentence, word, and phonological levels than sober speech. In terms of coordination, alcohol interferes with hand-eye coordination and makes muscle movements slower and less accurate. | Consequence of driving drunk | Drunk drivers are subject to facing many emotional and legal consequences, not including the health risks caused by drinking in the first place. First of all, there is the tremendous guilt and grief over the possible loss of friends or family members from crashes. If you were pulled over by the police, you will need to do mandatory jail time, lose your driver’s license, and have to pay fines. A few other possible consequences include court costs, loss of job, attorney fees, towing fees, cost of driver’s education classes, and community service time. | Consequence of compromised moral standards | Alcohol has the capability to effect a person’s reasoning. Because of this, someone who is drunk may do things that they do not realize they are doing, or understand what is going on (or their true personalities are being revealed, which is pretty frightening). These actions may include rape, drunk driving, intoxicated manslaughter, unintended pregnancies, contracting STDs, and abuse due to an unstable mind set. These actions can make drastic changes to a person’s life. They can face jail time, suddenly have a baby like what, have a disease and possibly die if it’s bad, and feel huge mental strain due to guilt and remorse. | Effects on the liver | The liver is the organ that takes the most abuse from alcohol consumption, because alcohol is broken down in the liver, and a number of potentially dangerous by-products are generated. Over time, excessive consumption of alcohol causes inflammation of the liver, which, as a result, can cause alcoholic hepatitis, and can progress into cirrhosis or liver failure. Cirrhosis occurs when the cells of the liver get so damaged that they can’t repair themselves, and is the complete shutdown of the functions of the liver. | Effects on the unborn fetus | If someone drinks while pregnant, it can harm the unborn child, as alcohol cross the placenta to the developing baby, and will reach it very quickly, making the baby’s blood alcohol level the same as yours. Alcohol can cause damage at any stage of pregnancy, effecting the body and brain development. If a baby is exposed to high levels of alcohol before birth it will die. Heavy or binge drinking in the first trimester can cause babies to be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. |