Effects of Consuming Ethanol on Body Temperature - Research Paper Example

Effects of Ethanol on Body Temperature The world has continued to progress in scientific terms over the years and as a result there have been chemical discoveries with perhaps one of the most common being that of Ethanol. Ethanol is one of the oldest discoveries in the chemical sphere as the manufacture of Alcohol has been around for a good number of years. This product (Alcohol) has also brought along with it a number of beliefs as people have found new and alternate uses for it apart from recreational purposes.

One such belief is that Alcohol helps one to keep the body warm. However, this has not yet been scientifically proven yet and in order to determine the accuracy of this statement it is essential that proper experiments are conducted with relation to the effect that ethanol has on body temperature. Conducting this experiments will allow one to prove the true effects that ethanol (and by extension alcohol) has on an individual. Introduction Ethanol can be said to be one of the more popular chemicals as a result of some of the products it has helped with Alcohol being the major contributing factor to the familiarity of these element with the public.

It should be noted however that Alcohol is just part of the ingredients that are used in the making of liquor and it is not consumed directly (Christian 123). This small fact is mentionable due to the other names that Ethanol can go by which include, ethyl, pure, grain or even drinking alcohol. It takes the form of a colorless liquid and is volatile and highly flammable. In scientific terms, it has a structural formula of CH3CH2OH but is able to take other abbreviation forms as well such as C2H5OH (Christian 122).

As mentioned earlier, Ethanol is based known for its part in the making of alcoholic beverages and thus falls under the category of psychoactive drugs. It is capable of causing alcoholic intoxication (better known as “being drunk”) and due to the wide consumption of alcohol products around the globe can be referred to as one of the major recreational drugs that can be found in the legal market (Sherwood, Kell & Ward 209). However, the production of liquor is not the only thing that Ethanol can be used for and it has found its place in a variety of other products and services as scientists continued to discover more uses for this volatile chemical (Christian 120).

Some of the more popular uses of Ethanol apart from the manufacturing of alcohol include its use in thermometers where it is the liquid within the tube, it is also used a solvent in some processes as well as fuel. Medical uses for Ethanol include the treatment of certain types of poisoning (alcohol poisoning) as well as the cleaning of an individuals wound in a bid to prevent infection by cleaning the area of any germs. In certain cases ethanol in its alcoholic form can be used as a mild anesthetic to lessen the pain that an individual may experience otherwise during a gang-ho medical procedure (Sherwood, Kell & Ward 211).

There has been a popular belief that alcohol or ethanol can be used to increase the body temperature in an individual who takes it and thus it is a good way of keeping warm during cold seasons (Sherwood, Kell & Ward 210). However, there has been no scientific evidence to back these claims and the best way to establish if they are true is through the performance of some simple experiments that can be used to derive an answer to the question. Through these experiments, one will discover the effects that the intake of ethanol can have on the body in terms of warmth and temperature.

Methods To discover the true effects of ethanol on body temperature one will need a controlled environment where they will be able to study and measure the various results as they come out in a bid to etch out an accurate prognosis (Boggan). Since ethanol has been around for years and its various other effects have been well documented and since it available in a form that is consumable by human beings it is safe for experiments to be conducted on a number of voluntary people to determine the effects of their body temperature.

Not a lot of alcohol will be needed in this experiment and it should be last for a couple of hours to give the ethanol time to take effect on the consumer’s body. The individuals should be placed in a room with controllable temperature and asked to consume the ethanol a little at a time as the scientists study the effect on their body temperature. One 700ml bottle of vodka between two people should be enough to conduct the experiment. The temperature within the room should be changed as the experiment goes and the individuals’ bodily sensations regarding warmth should be well documented as well.

Discussion When the alcohol was consumed by the individuals there was a feeling of warmth by the individuals almost immediately it was consumed but their body temperature did not show such dramatic changes when measured. The sensation of warms comes as a result of the blood flowing closer to the skin and thus creating a bit of warmth which fools the sensatory nerves to relaying a similar message to the brain (Sherwood, Kell & Ward Pg211). This however does not last and does not increase over time with the consumption of more alcohol.

In fact, the ethanol consumption actually does quite the opposite and the body temperature decreases over time with continued consumption of alcohol in a cold environment (Boggan). Results It can be said that the concept of alcohol increasing temperature within the body has been disproved and as a matter of fact the continued consumption alcohol inhibits some abilities of the body and prevents thermoregulation (Boggan). This means that instead of assisting the body in gaining heat it does the latter and one is not able to properly maintain the temperature they already have as a result.

Conclusion Ethanol/Alcohol consumption does not increase the body temperature in an individual but merely gives out the sensation like it has (Sherwood, Kell & Ward 210). In truth the continued consumption of alcohol by an individual who may be living in a cold region may have adverse effects on the person and therefore should not be advised. References Boggan, Bill. "Metabolism of Ethyl Alcohol in the Body". Chemases.com. http://chemcases.com/alcohol/alc-06.htm 16th November 2013 Christian, Gary D.

Analytical chemistry, Vol. 2, Wiley, 2005. Sherwood, Lauralee; Kell, Robert and Ward, Christopher.Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010.