1. BIOLOGY PRESENTATION
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
Juan Pablo Carreira, Francisco Vázquez
Ávila and Tomás Posse

2. GETTING THE FACTS
Just about everyone knows that the legal drinking age
throughout the United States is 21. But according to
the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse,
almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol.
REDUCED SELF-
CONTROL• Alcohol dulls the brain signal that warns people they are making a
mistake.
• While drinkers are aware of their error, the alcohol causes them to
care less about it
• This can end in violent responses because you won’t be aware of
the damage you are making to yourself or others.

3. WHAT IS ALCOHOL?
• Alcohol is created when grains, fruits, or
vegetables are fermented.
• Alcohol has different forms and can be
used as a cleaner, an antiseptic, or a
sedative.
• When people drink alcohol, it's absorbed
into their bloodstream. From there, it
affects the central nervous system

4. • Alcohol is a depressant
• Alcohol alters a person's perceptions,
emotions, movement, vision, and hearing.
• Alcohol excessive consumption may
intoxicate you, so people may stagger, lose
their coordination, and slur their speech.
• Alcohol poisoning may occur when the
consumption is excessive in a very short
period of time. This may result in violent
vomiting, extreme sleepiness, difficulty
breathing, dangerously low blood sugar, etc.

5. EFFECT ON REACTION
TIMES
• Reaction times are slowed dramatically, which
is why people are told not to drink and drive
because alcohol increases “Gamma-Amino
Butyric Acid” (GABA)
• As GABA activity increases,
brain activity slows down.
The driver won’t be able
to make a quick enough
decision to avoid an
accident, hence why our
society is told not to drink
and drive.

6. DAMAGE TO LIVER
• The liver receives all the molecules that the gut
absorbs from food, as well as useful molecules this
may include harmful molecules such as drugs or
poisons.
• Alcohol is a drug which passes quickly to the liver
after absorbed from the stomach and ileum. The cells
of the liver convert this alcohol to another substance
which does not pass through to the rest of the body’s
circulation.
• If the liver is damaged by excessive alcohol
consumption, then the whole body is affected.

7. LIVER DISEASES CAUSED BY
ALCOHOL
The usual treatment for these diseases is a halt in alcohol
consumption, nutrition, drugs prescript by a doctor, or if the
disease is irreversible, a liver transplant is needed.
• Cirrhosis: Cirrhosis is a slowly progressing disease in which
healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue, eventually
preventing the liver from functioning properly. This slows the
production of proteins and other substances made by the liver.
• Steatosis: Fatty change is the accumulation of fatty acids in liver
cells.
• Alcoholic Hepatitis: it is characterized by the inflammation of
hepatocytes. It’s basically a hepatitis caused by excessive
consumption of alcohol.

8. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Experimentation with alcohol
during the teen years is
common because of:
• curiosity
• to feel good, reduce stress,
and relax
• to fit in
• to feel older
• Teens who drink put
themselves at risk for
obvious problems with the
law.
• Teens who drink are more
likely to get into fights and
commit crimes .
• Teen drinkers are more likely
to get fat or have health
problems.
• People who continue
drinking heavily well into
adulthood risk damaging
their organs, such as the liver,
heart, and brain.