Excessive drinking can be hazardous to everyone’s health. It can be particularly stressful if you are the sober one taking care of your drunken roommate, who is vomiting while you are trying to study for an exam. In general, if you drink, you should only consume one drink per hour. A drink is defined as one 12-ounce beer, one 4-ounce glass of wine, one 10-ounce wine cooler or one 1.5-ounce of 80-proof hard alcohol. Factors such as body weight, height and body chemistry should also be considered. Many mixed drinks have more than one serving of alcohol. Be sure to know how much alcohol is in your drink.

Many students in college go out, it’s a part of college life–getting to have fun while meeting people. Who consumes just one drink an hour or one beer? Statistics show that within one hour students consume two to five drinks, maybe more, including shots.

Some people laugh at the behavior of others who are drunk. Some think it’s even funnier when they pass out. But there is nothing funny about the aspiration of vomit leading to asphyxiation (not being able to breathe) or the poisoning of the respiratory center in the brain, both of which can result in death.

Beyond drunk is alcohol poisoning and the party is over. Because alcohol depresses the central nervous system, massive amounts of alcohol can cause a person to pass out or stop breathing.

Alcohol poisoning is the body absorbing too much alcohol over a short period of time, like in binge drinking.

Alcohol intoxication can be described in three general categories: mild, moderate, and severe. Mild intoxication describes most people who have had a few too many. Patients with moderate intoxication are often sleepy and suffer from significant dehydration. They may have low blood pressure. Severely intoxicated patients may be unresponsive, have significantly low blood pressure and have breathing difficulties.

How to tell if someone has alcohol poisoning:

 If the person is breathing less than 13 times per minute or stops breathing for periods of eight seconds or more.

 If the person is asleep and you are unable to wake him/her up.

 Look at the person’s skin. If it is cold, clammy, pale or bluish in color.

 If the person is continually vomiting (repeated, uncontrolled).

Call 911 immediately if you or someone else displays these symptoms.

Common myths about sobering up include drinking coffee, taking a cold bath or shower, sleeping it off or walking it off. But these are just myths, and they don’t always work. The only thing that reverses the effects of alcohol is time, something you may not have if you are suffering from alcohol poisoning. And many different factors affect the level of intoxication of an individual, so it’s difficult to gauge exactly how much is too much.