What does alcohol do to the body and brain?
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week James visits a pub in Liverpool where he's joined by a trio of alcohol researchers who’ll watch carefully as he drinks two pints of lager.
They’ll give him a few tests and talk through exactly what is going on in the body and brain from the very first sip to the minutes and hours that follow.
James finds out we might be more at risk of harm than we may have thought - even if we drink below the recommended guidance of 14 units of alcohol per week.
And we’re also going to answer some more of your insomnia questions - from whether exercise can help to why chocolate before bed might be a no-no and whether falling asleep to your favourite health podcast is good for rest…
Inside Health is taking a short break for now so we'll see you in the summer. In our next series we're going to be talking about ageing and how to age well. Email your questions or thoughts to insidehealth@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Gerry Holt Editor: Holly Squire Production coordinator: Liz Tuohy Studio manager: Neva Missirian
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. |
| 0:23.0 | And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm excited. |
| 0:27.6 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:28.5 | The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:31.0 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.8 | Hello there and welcome to Inside Health. I'm in a pub in Liverpool today. |
| 0:43.4 | It's Dr. Duncan's. |
| 0:45.4 | He was the first medical officer of health in the United Kingdom. |
| 0:49.7 | So I'm really curious to think about what you would think about today's episode. |
| 0:53.3 | But we're all in here in the |
| 0:54.5 | lovely tiled rooms to discuss everything that alcohol does to the human body. And then later in the |
| 1:01.5 | program we're also going to be answering more of your questions about insomnia. But let's |
| 1:05.6 | stick with alcohol first of all. Before we get going though, take a listen to this. Do you drink? What do you drink? |
| 1:22.6 | Yes, I drink wine and gin. |
| 1:25.6 | Why? I just like it. I like it. winds me down. It just makes me feel real lots. Any embarrassing stories? Lots. But I don't think I could share it. None that you want to share? What's a kind of like a normal week? Well, we might have a glass of wine or a glass of wine during the week, but we're not big drinkers now. Here, vodka, rum, whiskey. I thoroughly enjoy drinking. It's a confidence thing, it's a fun thing, let your hair down, you know, relax. Do you ever think about the health side effects? Yeah. Consequences of drinking. As you get a bit older, you do, sort of think, actually, you know, I'm tired on a Wednesday morning or whatever like why am I like |
| 2:02.6 | this can you have a good night out without drinking definitely yeah I've been I've |
| 2:06.2 | done many like sober months before and enjoy myself just as much how much would |
| 2:11.7 | you drink on a night out oh well it depends because you've got to start off of |
| 2:15.6 | like a little bottle of wine yeah but definitely at least a bottle of wine at the preys. |
| 2:18.3 | Definitely at least one bottle of wine minimum. Yeah. And then you're going to want to go to the club and get some Yeagerbombs. I'll normally get either doubles or Yeagerbombs, get back five of them. And then once you've got them down, maybe a couple doubles during the night. I'm going to be boring and grey-haired. ever think about the health consequences of drinking? |
| 2:35.3 | Oh, I think about the health consequences of drinking? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

