ABSTRACT
Epidemiologists have suggested that the countries in which atherosclerosis incidence is low are those countries in which red wine consumption is high.
The term
alcohol
usually implies ethyl alcohol, although actually there are a large number of alcohols that vary in physical structure from liquids to waxy solids. Of the host of known alcohols, only two are frequently consumed by humans. They are
glycerol
, from the digestion of fats, and
ethyl alcohol
, from alcoholic beverages. The quantity of glycerol in our food is usually insufficient to cause any pharmacological effect. On the other hand, the amounts of ethyl alcohol commonly ingested do produce pharmacological effects of varying degree. The major portion of this chapter is devoted to ethyl alcohol.
