Word: older
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...participants were given either alcoholic drinks - roughly equivalent to a couple of glasses of wine - or placebo beverages, then asked to perform tasks designed to test their motor skills. They were also asked to rate their level of intoxication on a scale of 1 to 10. While the older people were more impaired by the alcohol, they also consistently underestimated their drunkenness. That may be because over the years, people become inured to the effects of social drinking, says Dr. Sara Jo Nixon, the senior researcher on the paper. "It's a subtle effect," she says...
...achieve an average blood-alcohol content of .04%, half the legal driving limit in most states of .08%. Nixon was surprised by the results. "We often want to say that if we are below a legal limit, there are no consequences. That just isn't true," she says. Though older participants considered themselves only marginally impaired, on average, they were about five seconds slower in completing the motor-skills tasks. "That doesn't seem like much," Nixon says. "But it's an awfully long time if you're moving your foot from the gas to the brake...
...Compared with the 20- and 30-somethings, older adults believed they were less impaired as the alcohol's effects first hit; later, however, as they started sobering up, they perceived themselves as much more affected. "On the ascending limb, the [older] adults who got alcohol performed significantly more poorly, but they didn't think they were impaired," Nixon says. "On the descending limb, the older adults thought they were impaired, but at that point alcohol didn't have any impact on their performance." As to why the more seasoned social drinkers may be out of sync, Nixon says, "Older adults...
...Past studies have suggested that people metabolize alcohol more slowly as they age and it takes them longer to clear alcohol from their system; alcohol may also alter brain chemistry differently in older folks. (That's why Nixon warns people against going out drinking with their parents. "You'll embarrass both of you," she says.) But the discrepancies in impairment between age groups in the current study were not attributable to differences in metabolism. Despite self-perceived differences in intoxication, actual increases in blood-alcohol content happened at similar rates in both age groups - which may be due in part...
...Nonetheless, says Nixon, older people should probably pay better attention to their own social-drinking habits. "Make sure you've given yourself adequate time to metabolize," she says. One drink per hour is probably a safe bet on average. "It's not bad advice for any age group, but it may be particularly fitting for older drinkers," says Nixon...