What if you woke up one morning in your bed with an enormous cut across your forehead that needed stitches, and you had no idea why or how it got there? Or imagine waking up on the floor of a stranger's apartment with a throbbing, swollen left hand that you cannot move, and you did not know what had happened.

Hopefully, you have not personally experienced an incident like one of these. But you may know someone who has suffered a similar "morning-after" episode. Unfortunately, these scenarios aren't unusual after an episode of acute alcohol intoxication, sometimes called alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol is the most commonly abused intoxicant in the United States. Beer is the fourth most popular beverage by volume following soft drinks, milk and coffee. It has been estimated the socioeconomic and medical cost of alcohol abuse in our country is nearly $100 billion annually. Excessive alcohol consumption is the third-leading cause of preventable death behind cigarette smoking and obesity, killing 100,000 annually.

Alcohol is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and can be detected in the blood within minutes. Soon after, the concentration of alcohol in the brain is the same as that in the blood.

About 25 percent of the consumed alcohol enters the blood stream directly from the stomach, and the remaining 75 percent enters from the intestines. Absorption is affected by several factors, including food in your digestive system, the rate of drinking, the amount of alcohol you drink, the strength or type of drink and individual variations in metabolism and gender.

Intoxication is measured in terms of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) -- the ratio of alcohol to blood in the bloodstream. The most common system for measuring and reporting blood alcohol level is calculated using the weight of alcohol (in milligrams) and the volume of blood (in deciliters). This yields a BAC that can be expressed as a percentage, such as 0.10 percent alcohol by volume, or as a proportion, such as 100 milligrams per deciliter.

Legal intoxication varies throughout the United States, with the BAC ranging from 0.08 to 0.10. Each state sets its own legal intoxication level. In Pennsylvania, it is 0.08, while in New Jersey it is 0.10. This is about two to three "average" drinks. An average drink could be a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits.

Of course, this can vary based on body weight and gender. The rule of thumb is that the body is able to metabolize one drink an hour.

As blood levels increase, most people begin to feel euphoric -- they lose social inhibitions and tend to exhibit more outgoing behavior than normal. Others may become gloomy, easily upset or even combative.

When blood alcohol levels hit 0.10 to 0.20, sporadic drinkers may develop slurred speech, clumsiness, flat mood, drowsiness and nausea. At levels of 0.20 to 0.30, sporadic drinkers may develop lethargy, stupor, incoherent speech, blurred vision and sometimes vomiting. Coma may occur at levels between 0.30 and 0.40. At levels greater than 0.50, respiratory depression and death may occur. The average lethal dose is 0.45.

For chronic drinkers, a tolerance to alcohol develops due to adaptive changes in the central nervous system. Consequently, their symptoms occur at higher blood alcohol levels. They may seem less drunk -- like they can "hold their liquor." However, they will still have the same blood alcohol level as the sporadic drinker.

Severe acute alcohol intoxication can be fatal and is considered a medical emergency. Medical symptoms include a depressed level of consciousness, decreased blood pressure and respiratory depression.

Besides the amount of alcohol consumed and the amount of time in which it was consumed, other concerns are low blood sugars, meningitis, serious brain injuries and profound liver complications, as these can all either mimic intoxication or co-exist with it.

Profound electrolyte abnormalities that require intervention can also occur. In some cases, an airway must be secured by a breathing tube, and sometimes the contents of the stomach must be removed.

"Blackouts" are characterized by amnesia for several hours without loss of consciousness. The person will not remember what occurs during this episode but has no problem with any other aspect of memory.

Medical professionals will need to obtain as much history about the intoxicated individual as possible to identify the medical problems they will need to manage. As you can imagine, it is not easy or always possible to obtain this information from patients themselves, so it is helpful if another person accompanies them.

It is not uncommon for the staff of University Health Services to see the aftermath of alcohol and its effects on the lives of Penn State students. We see a wide variety of problems associated with episodes of acute alcohol intoxication, including sexually transmitted infections, sexual assault, impotence, lacerations, head injuries, broken bones and dental injuries.

Alcohol can be very dangerous if not managed with maturity and responsibility. Please think seriously about the responsibility you are undertaking the next time you take a drink. It can have a profound effect on your future well-being.