What Alcohol REALLY Does to Your Body! | The Science behind Alcoholic Drinks | Dhruv Rathee

0:00 "Beer, wine, whisky, and vodka" "how are these drinks different?" "Can any of these alcoholic drinks be considered 'healthy'?" "Scientifically speaking," "what is the safe limit" "of alcohol consumption?" "Alcohol intoxication is" "has an interesting cause." "When the rate of alcohol being removed from blood by the liver" "is lower than the rate at which the brain absorbs alcohol," "that's when the effects of alcohol begin subsiding." "At a young age, we thought that" "it must be something amazing." "Made by humans." "But friends, actually," "alcohol is naturally available." "The history of alcohol is older than human history." "Unfortunately," "today, in most villages and urban slums in our country," "it's difficult to get clean water,"

0:45 "but one can get alcohol easily." Hello, friends! This is the story of an average middle-class family. Amit was the ideal son of the family. Smart, cultured, and his mother's favourite. Amit never drank nor was he interested in drinking. In fact, he hated alcoholics. He'd see the drunk people and think that they were pathetic. They steal money, get beaten up by the police, and ruin their family's reputation. But when he was 18 years old, after finishing high school, Amit secured a seat in a good college. There he met his new friends. For the first time in his life, Amit was away from his home. In a new city.

1:30 He had no pressure from his parents. Here, Amit had his first drink. As a celebration. Amit had scored really well in the college exams. His new friends were impressed. They invited him to a party on Friday night. For a celebration. From here, he got into the habit of "occasional drinking." He was attending these parties regularly. He made new friends. He got a girlfriend too. But gradually, this occasional drinking turned into weekend drinking. He started drinking every Friday. His friends praised his drinking capacity. How well he could drink. Mocking someone who got tipsy after one glass of beer,

2:15 and praising Amit for drinking vodka like water. This went on for months and years. But then one day, Amit's girlfriend suddenly broke up with him. His friends try to help him move on, and offer a drink to ease the pain. Because of his heartbreak, and to ease the pain, Amit started drinking every day. He started performing worse at studies. But he noticed something interesting. Whenever he drank, he felt at peace. He forgot all his stress. Amit wasn't the only one who felt like this. It is scientifically proven that people who drink alcohol regularly actually feel calm. All their worries and tensions

3:01 are forgotten temporarily. But the problem is, with time, to get to that same level of peace, more and more alcohol needs to be consumed. We will discuss the exact scientific reason behind this later in the video. Amit experienced one more thing. After 6-8 hours of this feeling this peace, his sadness would return. And then he would regret it. He would feel ashamed of himself. He would get anxiety and panic attacks. When Amit returned home, his parents were shocked to see him. At what their beloved son made of himself. His mother tried everything. Going to temples, on a pilgrimage, and to a psychiatrist. Amit was made to drink horse urine too. All to cure his addiction. But nothing worked. With time, like all other alcoholics,

3:48 Amit was becoming more short-tempered. He started getting triggered at even the smallest things. After a while, Amit got married. An arranged marriage. But within two days of the marriage, his wife found out that Amit was an alcoholic. His wife and his mother tried their best to change him. But nothing worked. And then one day, Amit and his wife get into a fight. During this fight, he got angry and hit his wife, and broke the TV. The next morning, when he woke up hungover, he saw that his mother and his wife were packing their stuff. His mother told him that she and his wife were willing to do any labourious work, but weren't willing to live with him any longer. Friends, this story is based on a true incident. Of course, I changed the name to protect his privacy.

4:37 But this isn't only Amit's story. In India, this story plays out in thousands, and in fact, millions of homes. Families and people who had a bright future ahead, but alcohol ruined everything. Alcohol addiction affects those families the most where the breadwinner of the family became an addict. This leads to mental and financial stress. Because the alcoholic wastes their time and money on alcohol. Drinking heavily is crippling them not only financially, but it is proving fatal for many. Think of your family before you get addicted to something as harmful as this. Secure their future as early as you can. For this, I recommend getting a term insurance. The purest form of life insurance. One of the most important aspects is that

5:23 the younger you are when you get it, the lower the premium will be for you. And that premium would be locked for the tenure of the policy. You won't have to pay more each year. While listening to this story, many of you who drink occasionally might have been thankful that you aren't an addict. You drink 'sometimes', but you are not a drunkard. If you think so, you might be shocked after watching this video, How harmful is alcohol to you? What is the safe limit of alcohol consumption? Why is alcohol intoxicating? And what is the difference between beer, vodka, whisky, and rum? Come, let's find out the answers to these questions in this video. Actually, friends, the history of alcohol is older than that of humans.

6:11 When you're young, you think that it must be truly amazing. Alcohol. A great human invention. But in reality, alcohol is found naturally. It existed even before the evolution of Homo sapiens. When the fruits on trees get too ripe, the sugar content in them gets high. This sugar attracts yeast. A single-celled fungus. A microorganism. This fungus eats this sugar as food. And it causes a chemical reaction. Carbon dioxide and alcohol are then released. You must have studied this process in school, it's called Fermentation. While carbon dioxide is released into the air, alcohol remains within the fruit.

6:56 Scientists believe that millions of years ago, the ancestors of all primates, would have seen these overripe fruits on trees and eaten them. Initially, they must have felt dizzy, would have stumbled a bit, but after thousands of years of evolution, their tolerance for these fermented fruits must have increased. And that's why, today, humans have the capability to tolerate and like alcohol. Scientists call it the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis. It's still only a hypothesis and hasn't been proved 100%. Because when there's fermentation in wild fruits, the alcohol content is quite low. There's than 2% alcohol in these fermented wild fruits.

7:44 But after the evolution of humans, it is not difficult to imagine them using other natural methods for fermentation. In the ancient village of Jiahu, in China's Henan province, archaeologists found clay utensils dating back to 7000 BC. They found evidence of drinks made of rice, grapes, and honey. Similarly, in a prehistoric cave in Haifa, in Israel-Palestine, they found evidence of 13,000-year-old beer. When grains like wheat or barley are soaked in water and exposed to air, under optimal conditions and the right temperature, the yeast in the air reacts with them and fermentation begins. And thus, beer is made. To make the first batch of beer, humans wouldn't have done anything. It wasn't intentional.

8:29 It was accidentally made out of the beer kept outside. Similarly, when grapes are fermented, the alcohol produced is called wine. This whole process can happen naturally. Basically, every food item that has natural sugar or starch, can be fermented and be turned into a type of alcohol. Like beer is made from fermented wheat, wine from fermented grapes, rice wine is from fermented rice, cider is from fermented apples, banana beer is from fermented bananas, it's popular in many African regions, chicha is from fermented corns, popular in South America, toddy is from fermented coconut sap, and when wheat dough is fermented, we get sourdough bread,

9:17 with more air bubbles and better flavour. This bread has only a trace or negligible amount of alcohol. In it, the main by-product of the yeast is lactic acid. So yes, this should tell you that when fermenting different things, the amount of alcohol produced varies a lot. Wine has 9-15% alcohol content. Beer usually has 4-8% alcohol content. Rice wine has 12-16% alcohol content. Apple cider has 4-8% alcohol content. And it is worth mentioning that fermentation of many fruits, produces not only ethanol alcohol, but also methanol. Methanol is a deadly compound. If you consume a certain quantity, you can die instantly. Less than that, you can go blind.

10:02 So don't go out eating rotten, fermented fruits. Just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's safe. Then, humans discovered one thing, these natural alcoholic drinks made from fermentation, do not have a higher alcohol content than 18-19%. Because a higher alcohol content, gets toxic for the yeast so it dies. And so the fermentation process stops on its own. So, someone thought of a way where if you try to boil the alcohol the alcohol evaporates much faster than water, and then if you capture and cool the vapours, then the cooled liquid, will have a higher alcohol content. It will be hard alcohol.

10:47 This process is called Distillation, This is how spirits are made. The drinks like whisky, rum, vodka and brandy. In these, the percentage of alcohol content can reach anywhere from 30% to 60%. If you want to understand the meaning of these specific names, then wine is distilled to make Brandy. Beer is distilled to make Whisky. Fermenting and distilling sugarcane gave them Rum. And Vodka was made by distilling potatoes. It is interesting to note that when potatoes are fermented, the fermented product isn't suitable for consumption. Similarly, Tequila was made from the distillation of the Blue Agave plant. Friends, this gives you an idea of why there are so many names for alcohol. With time, people started combining these drinks with soda and juices, and that's how the cocktails were made.

11:35 But the thing is that, no matter what type of drink it is, one thing remains common, Ethanol. This is the chemical known as alcohol. Now the question arises, how does it affect your body? When a person consumes alcohol, the alcohol reaches their stomach through their mouth and the food pipe. The stomach absorbs only a little bit, about 20%. The small intestine is responsible for its digestion. From here, the alcohol starts dissolving into our blood. Between our stomach and small intestine, there is a muscle like a door. It is called the Pyloric Sphincter. It controls how quickly food passes through the stomach and enters the small intestine. When you eat, the food in your stomach makes you feel full. This muscle remains closed for a while, so that the food can be digested in the stomach. If you drink alcohol while your stomach is full,

12:21 alcohol remains in the stomach for a longer time, and mixes with your blood slowly. But if you drink alcohol on an empty stomach, this is when the door is open, and the alcohol reaches the small intestine almost immediately, and starts dissolving into your blood. That's why drinking alcohol on an empty stomach causes rapid intoxication. But if the drink contains carbon dioxide, like whisky, soda or champagne, the intoxication rate of those drinks is higher, because carbon dioxide puts pressure on the stomach. This causes the alcohol to pass through the stomach to the small intestine, and from there to the person's blood much faster. What happens once it mixes with blood? The blood circulates throughout the body. Alcohol concentration intensifies in areas and organs with greater blood flow. Like in the liver and brain. Liver is an important organ, it cleanses out dirt and toxic substances.

13:08 Liver has a few special types of enzymes, to break down the alcohol. This is done in two steps. One of the enzymes is called ADH, turns the alcohol into Acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a poisonous chemical. This causes a hangover after a night of drinking. With symptoms like headaches. The other enzyme is called ALDH. It turns this poisonous acetaldehyde into a harmless Acetate. Acetate is okay for the body. It doesn't cause adverse effects. Later, it breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. The headaches and hangover end when this poison in the body, is eliminated by the liver. But the liver can detoxify alcohol only at a fixed speed. For example, if you drink a small amount of alcohol over a few hours,

13:56 which, realistically, no one takes as much time. If your liver can't keep up with the amount of alcohol, it keeps getting accumulated in your blood, and raises your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). The higher your blood alcohol concentration gets, the more intoxicated you will be. Police officers measure this to catch drunk drivers. When a person blows into the machine, it measures the BAC. It can detect the alcohol in your breath. Alcohol affects our brain the most. Our brain is made up of many neurons. These neurons rely on neurotransmitters to communicate with each other. Alcohol specifically affects two neurotransmitters. The first is GABA. It is the brain's brake pedal.

14:42 It slows down the brain and calms us down. The second is Glutamate. The brain's race pedal. It keeps the brain active and fast. Drinking alcohol increases GABA, and reduces glutamate. This prevents the neurons in our brain from forming proper connections. And our brain's processing speed decreases. This makes the person feel peaceful and relaxed. Drinking too much can make one sleepy. And if they drink too much, the brain can stop doing important tasks like breathing, this is actually fatal. Apart from this, consuming alcohol releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the brain. Dopamine makes us feel happy and good. Similarly, chemicals called endorphins are also released. Endorphins are the natural pain killers and mood enhancers.

15:28 The happiness and comfort a person feels after drinking alcohol, one of the reasons for that is endorphins. When the rate at which liver can detoxify blood, is more than the rate at which the brain absorbs alcohol, the person gradually starts getting sober. Roughly speaking, alcohol can stay in a person's system for 6 to 72 hours. up to 12 hours in blood, 12 to 24 hours in breath, 12 to 24 hours in urine, and 72 hours in case of excess drinking, 12 hours in spit, and up to 90 days in hair can be seen traces of alcohol. After hearing this, you may feel that there's no cause for concern. Our body deals well with it. In the long term, if you drink alcohol regularly, its impact on your body becomes even more harmful. The size of the brain starts shrinking. It literally becomes smaller. Neurons shrink or die.

16:14 The frontal lobe of the brain, the area responsible for decision-making, focus, and emotional control, alcohol damages it the most. That's why long-term alcoholics can't control their emotions. They get angry easily. The hippocampus is a part of the brain and is connected to memory and reasoning, this gets smaller with alcohol consumption. Apart from this, the more alcohol one consumes, the risk of alcohol-induced blackouts increases. Not being able to remember what happened after getting drunk. This happens because alcohol blocks the short-term memory from being converted into long-term memory. You literally start forgetting things. Apart from the brain, even the liver, which tries to detoxify the blood on overdrive, gets damaged. There are four stages of liver damage.

17:00 The first is the fatty liver. Fat cells start accumulating in the liver. If the person stops drinking at this stage, the liver damage can be reversed. But if they keep drinking, then comes the second stage. Hepatitis. The liver swells and starts to hurt. After it comes the third stage. Fibrosis. Scar tissues start forming on the liver. If the damage continues, then comes the last stage, Cirrhosis. The liver becomes so stiff and damaged that it stops functioning properly. This is an irreversible stage causing complete liver failure. Even the first stage can be so bad that you'd need to go to the hospital. And once there, you'd be looking at a huge bill, to the tune of lakhs. How would you and your family fare? Will it be possible to meet this sudden expense? Many families lose their life savings like this.

17:46 Many have to take out loans. But if you have health insurance, the insurance company bears most of the expense. And you can get treated without worrying about the bill. By paying a premium of around ₹400-₹500, you get a substantial coverage, and even a 30-minute claim support guarantee. But remember, the insurance provider, will ask you whether you consume alcohol, do not lie to them. Be honest. Some of the health insurance plans provide for maternity benefits too. Where even a 6-month pregnant woman can buy an insurance policy. Because the waiting period is as little as 3 months. So after 3 months of taking the policy, you can file claims. And for term insurance, it costs only half as much as an average bottle of alcohol, at ₹600-₹700 monthly. This gives you a coverage worth crores for your family in your absence.

18:34 That's why one should buy insurance at the right time. The link is in the description. Use it to compare all trusted partners, and get a 15%-25% discount if you buy the policy online. Because life doesn't come with guarantees. But you can be prepared. With insurance. Now, alcohol's effect on our health isn't limited to the brain and liver. I said that the areas and organs with higher blood concentration, are the most impacted. Our heart muscles weaken because of drinking. Alcohol can cause heartbeats to become irregular. It starts fluctuating. Drinking alcohol for a long time can cause high blood pressure and other heart-related diseases. It can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Our digestive system has an organ called the pancreas. It makes the necessary enzymes to digest food.

19:20 Because of the alcohol, these enzymes start working right in the pancreas. Basically, the pancreas starts digesting itself. Apart from this, alcohol can cause kidney damage. Increase the production of bile juice in the liver, leading to diarrhoea. And long-term alcohol abuse can cause painful ulcers. Alcohol can cause internal bleeding too. Now, if you are an occasional drinker, you might think that you are safe. Because you are not a long-term drinker. Thinking that you will not suffer so. But do you know that even if someone drinks only once, the immune system is weakened for the next 24 hours? With regular occasional drinking, it becomes permanently weakened. That's why heavy drinkers are more prone to catching the flu, cold, and other infections. There's a myth about alcohol that one glass of alcohol isn't harmful.

20:07 Actually, the World Health Organisation says that no amount of alcohol is safe. No matter how much you drink, no matter how little it is, you will always be at risk. Occasional drinking may sound harmless, but biologically, there's always a price to pay. Whether it is a slight inflammation, an increase in blood pressure the next day, or an increased risk of getting sick. Next time, if someone tries to tell you that one peg won't hurt you, share this video with them. There is another myth that has been popular for years. That red wine is good for your health. People give the example of French people who drink wine, yet they are so healthy. Claiming that red wine has antioxidants. It is true that red wine has antioxidants that are good for health. But the reason is that

20:54 those antioxidants are present in grapes. If you eat grapes, you will get the same antioxidants in greater quantities. These antioxidants in red wine do not counter the negative effects of alcohol. The negative impact of ethanol in red wine is much severe than the positive effects of the antioxidants in that wine. A 2025 study showed that there is no difference in terms of overall cancer risk between red and white wine. In reality, any type of wine is not safe for consumption. The third myth is about hard liquor. As I said, alcoholic drinks like beer and wine are made from fermentation. And liquor drinks like vodka and brandy are made from distillation, and have a much higher alcohol content. So some people assume that since fermentation is a natural process,

21:39 drinks like beer and wine are safe. Claiming that these are 'soft drinks' compared to hard liquor. But the truth is that your liver doesn't differentiate between them. Because there are differences in terms of the alcohol content, people's consumption patterns change accordingly. One pint of strong beer, one glass of wine, and one shot of whiskey. All of them contain about the same amount of ethanol. Approximately 10-14 grams. So this notion that wine or beer is healthy and cannot be the reason for alcoholism, is completely false. When all these excuses fail, some people say that at least alcohol keeps them warm in cold weather. So it's good. That is yet another myth. You do feel warm after drinking alcohol. But it doesn't actually generate heat in your body.

22:27 Alcohol makes you feel hot initially, because it expands the blood vessels near the skin surface. But because of this, your body loses heat rapidly, and your core body temperature gets lower. In a cold environment, this increases the risk of hypothermia. This means that while you are feeling hot, your body becomes more vulnerable to the cold. Now, after all this, when there's no more justification, people let go of all guise of rationality, claiming that they are free to live their lives as they want. This argument is not a justification. Because drinking is not only harmful for your health, but also for those close to you. In India, alcohol-induced domestic violence is a serious issue. According to a study, women whose husbands drink alcohol, are at three times the increased risk of suffering domestic violence.

23:14 Additionally, drunk driving accidents cause the deaths of innocents. In 2020, there were more than 8,000 accidents across the country, in which 3,322 people died. More than 3,000 people. Imagine what their families must have gone through. Apart from all this, children living in homes where alcohol is consumed, suffer a deep psychological impact. The children of alcoholic parents are at a higher risk of having anxiety, depression, and their own addiction problems. This has been proven by many scientific studies. Alcoholic parents create a toxic environment for their children. They either get beaten up or they have to see their parents fight each other. In both cases, it is a traumatic experience for them.

24:00 The most dangerous thing about alcohol is perhaps its addictive nature. Alcohol hijacks the reward system of the brain. And this is the reason for addiction. By releasing dopamine and endorphins, the brain starts believing that alcohol is an easy way to be happy or less stressed. Gradually, the person starts depending on alcohol. They start looking for confidence, happiness, and a way to deal with sorrow with alcohol. That's why we hear such jokes often. "Let's celebrate a happy moment," "with a drink!" "Let's forget our sorrow tonight," "with a drink." "Let's calm your anger, with a drink." "Let's set aside our tensions, with a drink" This is how drinking becomes an addiction.

24:45 And slowly, the tolerance to alcohol increases. The more you drink, the more tolerant your body becomes. Tolerance doesn't mean that your body can tolerate alcohol better, making it healthier. Tolerance means that to reach the same level of intoxication, you will need to drink more. That's why alcohol addicts, who used to feel good after two beers when they began drinking, need to drink four beers to reach the same feelings. This keeps increasing gradually and at some point, it gets so bad that, even to function as normal humans, these people need a drink first. This is called Alcohol Dependence Syndrome. "I can't even think right now, I need a drink." "Same here, bro." "My mind is blocked too." If someone tries to quit alcohol at this level, their body will start revolting. Their hands will start shaking.

25:31 They will crave alcohol with such intensity that resisting will be difficult. They will feel that if they don't drink immediately, they will get sick. This happens because at this level, the brain's chemistry becomes dependent on alcohol. And when it doesn't get alcohol, it cannot function properly. The body starts shivering, sweating, getting more anxious, and can't fall asleep at night. The person experiences anxiety and panic. Some people start hallucinating. And having seizures. At this point, to treat these problems, they are left with no other option but to drink again. This is a dangerous trap. This is why such alcoholics eventually die from drinking too much. In 2016, in India, due to alcohol consumption,

26:18 290,000 males and 42,000 females died. Out of all the men who died in our country that year, alcohol was responsible for nearly 5% of the deaths. The exact number is 4.7%. According to WHO data, every year, there are 2.6 million alcohol-related deaths in the world. About 4.7% of all deaths. Alcoholics are more prone to commit suicide. Reviews of 16 studies have revealed that, globally, 40% of those who commit suicide, drink alcohol. In some studies, this figure was up to 73%. This problem is more prevalent among the poor. Because poverty and alcohol are a vicious cycle. Where one problem makes the other worse.

27:04 When someone is already struggling with financial stress, unemployment, and despair, alcohol seems to be an easy solution for a temporary escape. But this escape mechanism pushes them deeper into poverty. It is very unfortunate that in our country if you survey many villages and urban slums, compared to clean water and healthcare, alcohol is found more easily. Small liquor shops and distributors deliberately target the labourers, because they become loyal customers. Every evening, the labourers stand in long queues, they spend a large portion of that day's wage trying to buy a few hours of happiness. And the most painful aspect is that the cheapest alcohol option for the poor is often the most dangerous. Illegal and unrefined alcohol, may contain toxic methanol or industrial spirits.

27:51 You must have heard about deaths from drinking unrefined alcohol, these aren't some random incidents, over the last two decades, more than 22,000 Indians have been killed from drinking polluted alcohol. This "fake" alcohol contains methanol instead of ethanol. And as I told you earlier in the video, methanol can kill a person instantly. The story of most alcohol addicts ends like this. But fortunately, Amit's story, the one with which I began this video, has a happy ending. When Amit's mother and his wife were ready to leave the house, Amit sincerely begged for a last chance. As the final attempt, Amit's family called Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous, also known as AA,

28:36 is a non-commercial organisation spread all over the world. It considers alcoholism to be a disease and helps people get rid of this addiction. The road to recovery wasn't easy for Amit. He had to take gastric tablets for a week. Due to the lack of alcohol, he wasn't even able to eat normal food like Idli. Many times his body would push him towards relapse, but he remembered his promise to his mother and his wife, and took strength from it. Today, 10 years later, Amit attends AA meetings every day. He believes that the fight against addiction will continue lifelong. Today, he is 47 years old. He is a successful entrepreneur. He lives a normal life. His story tells us that it is possible to get out of alcoholism. With the right support, commitment, and community.

29:22 But the bigger lesson we can learn from his story is that we shouldn't underestimate any addiction. If you or a person close to you is struggling with this, then identify this problem and seek help. In most cases, people don't even admit the problem, and leads to a bigger problem. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step. The second step is that you shouldn't feel ashamed to seek help. There are multiple resources to help you through this. You can call on the government's toll-free helpline, 14446, for confidential counselling. Or you can seek help from support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. These organise physical meetings. You can go to their website and check where the nearest support group is. There, you will meet people who have overcome addiction

30:08 and are now helping each other. This is completely free and anonymous. Apart from this, professional medical help is also a way to fight addiction. Rehabilitation centre, counselling or detox medication. Second, we need to solve this problem at the social level. You, the people watching this video, promise yourself that you will never drink alcohol. And if any of your friends try to pressure you to drink alcohol, then share the link to this video with them. Let them know how their 'small' request impacts someone's life. And it doesn't mean that you can't attend parties. You can. The next time, when you're at a party, choose to drink water instead of an alcoholic drink. Not only is H2O safer than C2H5OH,

30:54 tastier, but it is also more beneficial for your health. The mentality that one drink won't harm you, needs to be challenged, fought against. Because it was only one drink, that began the downward spiral of the lives of thousands and millions of people like Amit. The government needs to take some action. All governments see alcohol as a revenue source. Tax it and earn money from it. They aren't thinking of solving the problem. The governments need to control surrogate ads. The surrogate ads that cleverly used safe words to sell unsafe products. The link to compare term insurance and health insurance is given in the description. If you want to know more about surrogate ads, I have talked about those in this video, using the example of Paan Masala.

31:40 You can click here to watch it. Thank you very much!