Alcohol Abuse Advice

The physical effects alcohol has on your driving

Alcohol consumption can lead to dire consequences, not just from a legal perspective but also in the physical effects it causes. If a police officer suspects DUI then an Alcohol Testing is mandatory. If BAC levels show up as 0.08 or more, then it is termed as a “drunk” state. In such a condition, various debilitating physical effects are noted. Here we examine some of them.

Hampered peripheral vision

When you consume alcohol, your eyes lose their inability to focus. Aspects like being able to perceive depth of an object become increasingly difficult. Alcohol works to relax the surrounding eye muscles and the more the concentration of BAC the more your vision gets affected. The result is that you would tend to focus on the center of the road and neglect the peripheral view. In other words, your field of vision gets narrowed down. As you are unable to focus on specific objects, you are also unable to judge the speed of approaching vehicles.

Reduced muscle coordination

One of the other noted side effects of drinking too much alcohol is in the muscles’ inability to coordinate properly. If an alcohol testing procedure shows up BAC levels of 0.08 or higher, you will find it tough to react to situations. This is because the brain is the first organ of the body to get immediately affected by the alcohol. Since the brain contains the largest amount of blood, alcohol instantly passes to the brain. Regions within the brain, which control muscular movement, get affected adversely. This automatically means that your muscles begin to move much slower and your body’s reaction times begin to slow down as well. Imagine the life-threatening situation if a vehicle is coming towards you at breakneck speed and you do not have the timely response to swerve the vehicle away! Along with the slow coordination, you will also find it difficult to control braking and steering of the wheels, both of which are potentially dangerous situations.

Alcohol poisoning

In extreme cases of alcohol consumption, where the BAC levels are in excess of 0.20 or more, it can result in a condition called alcohol poisoning. This is basically a pathophysiological condition whereby a person can experience anything from seizures, bluishness of the skin, passing out, a confused state of mind and much more. If such a person were to pass out and is unable to regain consciousness it can even lead to death. In order to diagnose if the BAC levels are high enough to cause poisoning, an alcohol testing is needed. This is carried out through various blood tests to check on the toxicity of alcohol in the blood.

In addition to these serious side effects, a high amount of BAC also means errors in judgment, inability to concentrate and reason out a situation. Since the brain takes more time to process information and react to situations, driving becomes a potentially life-threatening situation.

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