Muscles,
Joints,
& Bones

Medulla

The medulla is your body’s automatic pilot. It keeps your heart beating, lets you breathe without thinking about it, and keeps your body at the right temperature.

By disturbing the medulla, alcohol makes your breathing and heart rate slower and lowers your temperature. If you drink a lot of alcohol in a short time, you can shut down the medulla and go into a coma.

But don’t people sometimes drink alcohol to keep warm? Drinking alcohol can seem like it makes you warmer, but alcohol actually chills the body. Drinking a lot of alcohol outdoors in cold weather can cause your body temperature to fall below normal. This dangerous condition is called hypothermia.

• Cerebral Cortex
• Central Nervous System
• Frontal Lobes
• Hippocampus
• Cerebellum
• Hypothalamus
• Medulla