DATA
Enter
HUFFINGTON
01.20.13
SOURCES: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
AND PREVENTION, JOHNS HOPKINS BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER. ILLUSTRATION BY TROY DUNHAM
Tap Icons
for Text
Alcohol’s Path Through the Body
Most of us know that drinking too much can
lead to car accidents, addictions or worse.
We know drinking a little can make us giggly
or weepy, lose our balance or our lurch, feel
ravenously hungry the morning after or want
nothing more than to be still in a dark room until
that terrible pounding subsides. But few of us
know much more than the above, especially
when it comes to what’s actually going on
inside the body to create these reactions. Even
in the smallest doses, alcohol affects nearly
every system in the body, from the brain to
circulation to immunity. We spoke to Murray,
White and Dr. Michael Fingerhood, an associate
professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins
Bayview Medical Center’s Comprehensive Care
Practice, to find out just what’s going on in the
body when we drink alcohol. — Sarah Klein