Alcohol impairs your ability to make decisions and reduces your motor skills. It is often a leading factor in vehicular accidents, violence, unplanned pregnancies, and STDs. Drinking too much alcohol can also lead to alcohol poisoning, which is very harmful to your health and could possibly be deadly.

There were about 88,000 deaths reported in the US from 2006 to 2010 due to alcohol poisoning, which cost those who died an average of 30 years of life. Let's dig deeper into this issue.

What Is Alcohol Poisoning?

Alcohol poisoning impairs your body to the point of shutting down the areas of your brain that automate your basic functions, such as your breathing, your heart rate, and your temperature control. There are some factors that may make you be more likely to getting alcohol poisoning.

Binge drinking — drinking over four alcoholic drinks on a single occasion for women or over five alcoholic drinks for men

Drink heavily — Drinking eight or more alcoholic drinks each week for women or over 15 alcoholic drink for men

Drink during pregnancy — It is not safe to drink during pregnancy because there is a risk of passing alcohol toxicity onto your unborn child, which can lead to severe damages

Drink under the age of 21 — Underage drinking makes you more vulnerable to alcohol poisoning because younger people are less likely to know their limits when they drink

Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning

There are very serious health implications with alcohol poisoning, which is why it's important to know how to recognize the symptoms. The most common symptoms are:

• Loss of coordination
• Hypothermia, as can be seen by cold, clammy hands and bluish skin
• Vomiting
• Slow breathing (under eight breaths each minute or over 10 seconds between breaths)
• Seizures
• Confusion, unconsciousness, unresponsiveness

If you notice that someone has any of these symptoms, it is important to seek immediate medical attention.

There are some things that may put you more at risk of suffering from alcohol poisoning. Typically, women are more vulnerable to alcohol poisoning than men because they are smaller, and they often feel the effects of alcohol faster than men, even of the same size. Women are also predisposed to experience long-term alcohol-induced bodily damage because of several physiological reasons, including:

• Limited ability to dilute alcohol because of a reduced body water percentage
• Limited ability to metabolize alcohol due to a lack of dehydrogenase, which is a liver enzyme that is designed to break down alcohol in the body
• Premenstrual hormone changes tend increase women's intoxication in the days before their period
• Birth control pills and other medicines that contain estrogen impair the excretion of alcohol from the body

However, men are also subject to suffering from alcohol poisoning. Here are some other factors that affect your body's response to alcohol, regardless of your sex.

• Food — Your blood alcohol concentration level may be up to three times higher if you drink on an empty stomach. Food plays a large role in the absorption of alcohol in your body because it absorbs and dilutes the alcohol and slows down the speed at which your stomach empties into the small intestines, which is where the alcohol is absorbed.
• Asian ethnicity — About half of Asians have a hard time metabolizing alcohol due to a missing enzyme in their liver that is needed to process alcohol.
• Existing health conditions — People with diabetes should limit their intake of alcohol because drinking it can lead to a surge or a sudden drop in blood sugar levels. Drinking alcohol can also inhibit diabetic prescription drugs from working as they should.
• Prescription drugs — Medications can potentially reduce the effects of alcohol, possibly leading you to drink more than what your body is able to handle.

The amount of water you drink, the frequency that you drink alcohol, your age, and your family history can also be risk factors for alcohol poisoning.

Don't wait for every symptom of alcohol poisoning to appear to get help for someone, and don't think twice about calling for medical help. Blood alcohol content levels can rise quickly, and time is a vital factor in this situation. Waiting one minute too long could lead to irreversible damage or possibly death.