20
votes
Accepted
What effects does alcohol have on underage children?
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that acts as a central nervous system depressant.
Drinking under-age increases alcohol risks in later life. Research shows the brain keeps developing well into the ...
- 4,695
14
votes
Accepted
What is the healthiest way to drink alcohol excessively and chronically?
Basically, most of what you suggested.
One of the big risks of alcohol consumption is damage to the liver. Thus, if drinking a lot, don't do anything else that damages the liver, like taking ...
- 7,001
12
votes
Accepted
Is water an essential ingredient of alcohol based hand sanitizers?
Higher concentrations of alcohol are actually less effective (that Q&A is specific for isopropyl, but the same is true for ethanol, their mechanism of sterilization is the same), see also here.
...
- 12.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Is moderate alcohol consumption beneficial for maximizing life expectancy?
Another answer did a great job laying out some of the difficulties plaguing research on this topic. Observational data in the area are (hopelessly?) confounded. I would like to point out two ...
- 4,355
10
votes
Accepted
Is there an established recommended maximum intake of cigarettes?
Yes
It’s zero.
See: Doll, R., & Hill, A. B. (1950). Smoking and carcinoma of the lung; preliminary report. British medical journal, 2(4682), 739–748. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.4682.739 pubmed central: ...
- 316
9
votes
Accepted
If I drink a lot of alcohol, will my urine be flammable?
The liver breaks down about 90% of alcohol consumed, with only about 5% excreted in the urine. To become combustible, the ethanol concentration in urine would have to approach 50% at room temperature, ...
- 811
9
votes
Has the (in)famous J-shaped curve with regard to alcohol consumption and life expectancy been finally disproven?
To date, there has been no randomized clinical trial of low‐volume alcohol consumption that has assessed any mortality outcome. Therefore, the literature about the mortality effects of alcohol ...
- 6,722
8
votes
Accepted
Are all kinds of liquor and alcohol equally bad for liver?
The only difference it makes to the liver how alcohol is consumed is how high the blood alcohol content becomes and for how long - the other particulars of the beverage will be filtered out by the ...
- 811
6
votes
Accepted
How is alcohol eliminated from breast milk?
The best reference I could find on this was Schwegler et al. (2013), which gave detailed descriptions of both the processes of transfer of alcohol to the bloodstream and breast milk and the effects ...
- 1,838
6
votes
Accepted
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy
High levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy can be harmful which can develop physical and mental defects in a fetus.
When you drink, alcohol passes from your blood through placenta to a baby ...
- 4,695
6
votes
How much alcohol intake is required to trigger withdrawal?
I don't think that you will find a definitive answer on this, unfortunately. There are too many factors on an individual basis to make it a blanket kind of projection. The closest that I found for any ...
- 6,570
5
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to make a child drink alcohol when they have a cold?
The right amount is none. Not at all. Don't do it. Don't even consider it.
There have been multiple studies on alcohol and brain development, quite a few of them on teens, as they are one of the ...
- 6,570
5
votes
Accepted
What are the hazards from smoking or drinking and then donating blood?
Smoking and drinking both put the recipient of the blood donation at risk or possible risk.
Smoking causes nicotine to enter your bloodstream and usually breaks down into cotinine. Both of these are ...
- 4,866
5
votes
Accepted
Possible blood test after smoking weed
There are a variety of blood tests a medical provider could use. Your medical provider isn't going to do every blood test in existence on your blood, so if your only concern is about THC detection, ...
- 12.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Drinking alcohol after tick-borne encephalitis vaccine
No, you can't get encephalitis from the vaccine. According to a company that provides one brand of the vaccine:
https://centrumcestovnimediciny.cz/en/prices-of-vaccines/encepur-for-adults/
On the ...
- 9,564
5
votes
Has the (in)famous J-shaped curve with regard to alcohol consumption and life expectancy been finally disproven?
No. "The J-curve" was not recently disproven, but the evidence for it slightly
modified. The correlational observation is still that no and low amounts of drinking do not have seriously negative ...
- 6,827
5
votes
Food, recovered alcoholic and fallout
I am unaware of any medical study that indicates a drop of alcohol is sufficient to trigger a relapse on its own. Relapse is a complex phenomenon.
The quote you provide sounds like it comes from a "...
- 12.9k
5
votes
Why is some alcohol consumption healthier than no alcohol consumption?
While there is some evidence for what we call a J-shaped curve in the relationship between alcohol consumption and certain health outcomes, at best this evidence only suggests people who already drink ...
- 3,178
5
votes
Accepted
How to explain the theory of the influence of purine and alcohol on the incidence of risk for gout in light of contradictory evidence?
How does one explain 'avoid purines in food' if purine-rich plant food isn't counting?
Sustained increase in blood uric acid levels (hyperuricemia) is a risk factor for acute gouty arthritis (Current ...
- 15.7k
5
votes
How does alcoholism technically (chemically) kill you?
On the chemical level, the toxicity of ethanol is mainly mediated by its breakdown product acetaldehyde. Alcohol is metabolized like this:
ethanol → acetaldehyde → acetate &...
- 15.7k
4
votes
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy
Drinking alcohol can have some detrimental effects. While someone is pregnant, binge drinking of alcohol is very dangerous, while mild-to-moderate is more safe, but still not advised.
"When a ...
- 7,738
4
votes
Accepted
What safety precautions should I take after spilling isopropyl alcohol?
About all you can do is ventilate the room and wait for it to evaporate, which shouldn't take long. It's hard to say exactly how long without knowing the type of carpet, ambient temperature, relative ...
- 9,564
4
votes
How much hard liquor is safe for very small children?
As I argue in my answer to this question, there seems to be a threshold in terms of the amount of alcohol likely to cause hepatocellular necrosis based on the production of acetaldehyde. However, ...
- 811
4
votes
Accepted
Is drinking alcohol a form of energy intake?
There is some agreement that the calories and other nutrition data, except the percent of alcohol, do not need to be shown on the labels of alcoholic beverages.
But these nutrition facts are listed ...
- 15.7k
4
votes
Accepted
I'm 21. Is having a beer 3-4 times a week detrimental to my long-term health?
1) Is my brain still in 'development'?
It is. Your brain constantly grows until you are 25.
According to recent findings, the human brain does not reach full maturity until at least the mid-20s. (...
- 211
4
votes
Effects of microdosing alcohol on liver performance and the ability to metabolize toxins
What are effects of microdosing alcohol on the liver's ability to metabolize toxins?
There seems to be no effect.
Alcohol can induce the enzyme system CYP2E1 in the liver, which can speed up the ...
- 15.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Being drunk, how does vomiting help become responsive?
Vomiting does not restore alertness. It might rouse them from their stupor because of the physical activity it involves, but it does nothing specific to increase their level of consciousness. If ...
- 9,564
4
votes
Accepted
What are the indications for ethanol?
Fomepizole is indeed the preferred treatment for methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning, but ethanol can be used if fomepizole is not available.
Some doctors/ hospitals will treat alcohol withdrawal ...
- 1,261
3
votes
Law and Ethics - Refusing to treat intoxicated patients
If there's a field of medicine that deals with this issue more than any other, it's emergency medical services. Drunks are a daily staple for them, even in "nice" communities. So the following is ...
- 9,564
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