Much advice about the effects of drinking proves to be false
By Roger Highfield
New Scientist
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
From doctors to bartenders to new year's resolutionaries, there's no shortage of people offering advice about alcohol. Now take a look at what scientists have found when they put some conventional wisdom under the microscope.
Drinking coffee will get you sober faster.
FALSE: Caffeine may wake you up, but it won't lower your blood alcohol level. In fact, a cup of coffee may make it harder for you to realize you're drunk, according to Thomas Gould of Temple University in Philadelphia.
In experiments on mice, reported in 2009 in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, he found that caffeine - the equivalent of one to eight cups of coffee for humans - made the rodents more alert but did nothing to reverse the cognitive impairment caused by alcohol, such as their inability to avoid stimuli they should have known were unpleasant. In other words, a shot of caffeine may simply fool drunken people into thinking they are sober.
Beer then liquor, never sicker. Liquor then beer, never fear.
FALSE: There is no chemical interaction between these drinks that makes you feel particularly bad the next day. It is the total amount of alcohol consumed that matters.
(More here.)
New Scientist
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
From doctors to bartenders to new year's resolutionaries, there's no shortage of people offering advice about alcohol. Now take a look at what scientists have found when they put some conventional wisdom under the microscope.
Drinking coffee will get you sober faster.
FALSE: Caffeine may wake you up, but it won't lower your blood alcohol level. In fact, a cup of coffee may make it harder for you to realize you're drunk, according to Thomas Gould of Temple University in Philadelphia.
In experiments on mice, reported in 2009 in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, he found that caffeine - the equivalent of one to eight cups of coffee for humans - made the rodents more alert but did nothing to reverse the cognitive impairment caused by alcohol, such as their inability to avoid stimuli they should have known were unpleasant. In other words, a shot of caffeine may simply fool drunken people into thinking they are sober.
Beer then liquor, never sicker. Liquor then beer, never fear.
FALSE: There is no chemical interaction between these drinks that makes you feel particularly bad the next day. It is the total amount of alcohol consumed that matters.
(More here.)
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