Health-N-You

Staying in Your Green Zone

Staying in your green zone typically equates with lower risk drinking – the lower your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), the lower your risk. BAC is a measurement of how much alcohol is present within a person’s bloodstream. There are a number of variables that determine someone’s BAC. To find out your own personal BAC range, click here http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/ or stop by O.P.E.N. to pick up a personalized BAC card.

Now what does it means to “stay in your green zone”. 

How does someone “stay in their green zone” when it comes to drinking alcohol?

• Set a limit of .05 or less, or one standard drink per hour
• Space your drinks over time and keep track by counting standard drinks
• Eat before and while you are drinking
• Alternate alcohol and non-alcohol drinks
• Mix and measure you own drinks
• Avoid mixing alcohol with energy drinks

For more information on Staying in Your Green Zone please check out O.P.E.N.’s website, www.neu.edu/open                 

*Please note: OPEN is in no way encouraging or giving you permission to drink, especially if you are under 21 years old.  However, if you make the decision to drink, we want to provide you with as much information as possible so you can make informed and healthy decisions

How much is too much?

This question remains in some students’ minds when it comes to drinking alcohol. 

We should begin with explaining a standard drink. It is the amount of alcohol that your body can safely process in one hour. When drinking from solo cups, it can be very easy to lose track of how much you are consuming. Below are the measurements within a solo cup for different types of alcohol.

 

12 oz. beer  

4-5 oz. wine or champagne (2nd from bottom line)

8-10 oz. malt liquor (Smirnoff Ice, Colt 45, etc.)

1-1.5 oz. liquor (bottom line)

Now that we know what a standard drink is, how does that help us understand how much is too much?

We know that weight and gender play a large part in determining how much to drink. Staying in your Green Zone is a term used by many experts to understand how much to drink. Read more about this here.  The average person is in their green zone when having about 2-3 drinks over about 1-2 hours.  To find out your personal BAC and how many drinks over how much time will allow you to keep your BAC in the green zone, check out BloodAlcoholCalculator.org  or download the Blood Alcohol Concentration Calculator to your iPhone. 

 

Please note: in no way are we encouraging or giving you permission to drink, especially if you are under 21 years old.  However, if you make the decision to drink, we want to provide you with as much information as possible so you can make informed and healthy decisions.

 

Alcohol and Caffeine

While mixing alcohol and caffeine is certainly not a new idea, what is “new” is mixing energy drinks and alcohol. Energy drinks are not just “coffee”. Therefore, mixing energy drinks with alcohol is not the same as having an Irish coffee after dinner.

If you look closely at the label of any energy drink, you will see that there are a lot of ingredie nts that are not in a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop. Ingredients like Taurine, Guarana, Ginseng, along with high concentrations of sugar and caffeine act as stimulants.  While these ingredients may increase your level of alertness and wakefulness, when mixed with alcohol, they do not take away the impairment experienced when intoxicated. The ability to make appropriate decisions, think clearly, and make healthy decisions continues to be affected. And you may actually think you can drink more because ingredients in the energy drink “trick” you into thinking that are not as intoxicated as you really are.

Think about it – what do you get from an “alert-drunk”? Someone who thinks they can talk, dance, walk, drive, hook-up, party and use drugs; all the while not having the needed “soberness” to make good decisions regarding these actions.

So while mixing alcohol and caffeinated energy drinks may be popular amongst some, make your own decisions - don’t just be part of the crowd. 

 Be Safe and Be Original!

 

post by Felix Fernandez-Pizzi, Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor at UHCS

The Rankings of Drugs on Campus

Earlier this week, a list of the "Druggiest Colleges" compiled by the website The Daily Beast brought a lot of media attention to NU.  The rankings gave 1^st place to UNH, followed by Northeastern University in 2nd. But our ranking in 2^nd place did not last long, and why is that?

While there are reputable college rankings out there done by legitimate sources, based on scientific assessment of verifiable data, this particular site uses methods that are deeply flawed and many of the sources they rely on are subjective and unverifiable. For example, the student population was off by nearly 20,000 students. 

Yesterday, The Daily Beast changed the ratings and we are now in 23^rd place.

NU takes the health and safety of its students seriously. We have programs and policies in place to help any student with any issue that may negatively impact their health and well-being.