Title:

Concrete Evidence That Alcohol Does Have Effects On Sexual Health

Word Count:
515

Summary:
For as long as anyone can remember, alcohol has been known to have effects on a
person's sexual health and behavior, though no one had any physiological data to
explain why. Recent research conducted at Pennsylvania State University,however,has
finally found data that might form a new baseline for research into how alcohol
affects sexual behavior and performance.

Keywords:
sexual health

Article Body:
For centuries, alcoholic beverages have been linked to a temporary decrease in male
sexual inhibitions. Nobody's really been sure of why this was the case, other than
the alcohol having an effect on the parts and biochemicals in the brain that
regulate things like sexual health. Side effects like increased arousal and
decreased inhibitions were accepted as part and parcel of exposure to enough
amounts of alcohol, though only recently has there been any research conducted into
finding the physiological reasons behind these effects.

Using an animal model to study the effects of alcohol, research teams in

Pennsylvania State University attempted to find the exact physiological effects of
chronic alcohol exposure to a person's physical, mental, and sexual health. The
team noted that there was a distinct lack of studies involving animal models to
look at the effects of chronic exposure to alcohol. Kyung-An Han, the leader of the
team, also noted that their research differed because they administered regular
doses of ethanol � the main intoxicating component of alcohol � to the animals.
This is in contrast to the short-term dosing method used by previous attempts at
this study. Han believes their approach would produce more reliable and realistic
results.

The first result they observed that was related to sexual health was the drop in
courtship inhibitions among the intoxicated test subjects, which were fruit flies.
Fruit fly males, which normally only initiated courtship with females, suddenly
exhibited courtship behavior with other males. Han believes that dopamine was
somehow involved, because this behavior was not observed when they altered the
temperature to prevent dopamine from being transmitted to the brain. It was also
noted that continued exposure to ethanol increased the likelihood that the male
fruit flies would initiate courtship behavior with other males.

Chronic tolerance of the effects of the ethanol was also observed in the flies,
which meant that the more exposed they were, the larger the doses required to
�intoxicate� them. This has also been noted in other animals, though there have
been very few scientific studies dedicated to exploring the long-term possibilities
and effects of such exposure. The only concrete medical knowledge into the matter
concerns the effects of long-term alcohol use in various human organs and systems,
but no real data on the effects it might have on sexual health and behavior.

It was also noted that inter-male courtship behavior among the fruit flies seemed
to be more likely with age. The research team found that the older the fruit fly,
the more susceptible it was to the effects of ethanol exposure. In theory, this
holds true for most other animals. Han's team observed that the older the fly was
and the lower the tolerance for ethanol, the more likely it was to exhibit inter-
male courtship behavior.

Han's team hopes that their study would prove to form an effective, reliable
baseline for further research into the cellular and molecular interactions with
alcohol in animals. Han hoped that the study would help provide evidence that
sexual health and behavior was not only influenced by developmental factors, but by
post-developmental influences as well.