The harmful effects of alcohol on the human body. Who is most susceptible to electromagnetic fields? Stages and forms
The effect of alcohol on the human body
How does alcohol affect the human body?
Thus, we can say that the effect of alcohol on the human body is harmful and irreversible. A conscious person must understand that the imaginary state of relaxation from alcohol cannot be compared with the consequences for the body. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle involves complete failure from drinking alcohol, including weak alcohol. It doesn’t matter what strength of alcoholic drink a person drinks, the harm to health from it is the same.
Common in Lately beer alcoholism has become real problem youth. But the erroneous understanding that a bottle of beer is not alcoholism can sooner or later result in a disturbance in the state of the body.
A modern and conscious person should be fully aware of the high degree of harmful effects of alcohol on the human body.
The effect of alcohol on the human body.
The main principle of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the aversion to drinking alcohol. Alcoholism is one of the most common problems among the population. What is the danger of alcohol and what effect does it have on the human body?
Medical experts advise that if they drink alcohol, it should only be for adults in very moderate quantities. Alcohol is strictly prohibited for pregnant and lactating women, as well as children and adolescents.
The most important effect of alcohol is on the liver. All people suffering from alcoholism have liver damage to one degree or another. Liver cirrhosis has been found in ten percent of alcoholics.
In addition to the liver, the functions of the human endocrine organs and gonads are also affected. Alcohol even affects the functioning of the brain. Even a small dose of alcohol can cause metabolic disorders in nerve tissue, transmission of nerve impulses. When drinking alcohol, cerebral vessels dilate, and due to increased permeability, hemorrhage into the brain tissue is possible.
Chronic pancreatitis is a common consequence of alcohol abuse. Alcohol plays the role of a “chemical weapon” for the human stomach. Getting burned by a portion of alcohol, the stomach cannot work as usual. The so-called alcoholic gastritis develops. Due to impaired metabolism, the human body can no longer break down protein and the person develops so-called protein starvation. All this leads to improper absorption of food by a person and, as a result, a deterioration in the general condition of the body.
Chronic drinking can cause alcohol poisoning. This in turn is accompanied frequent vomiting, belching, unpleasant pain and burning in the abdominal area. Chronic alcoholic gastritis may develop. Its symptoms are general weakness body, nausea, diarrhea, decreased performance of the body and aching pain in the abdominal area.
Alcohol consumption also has a negative effect on the human kidneys. Taking even a small dose of alcohol leads to increased urination. This is due to the irritant effect of alcohol on the surface of the kidneys. Constant drinking of alcohol destroys kidney cells. After they die, they are replaced by connective tissue, and the buds decrease in size. Constant consumption of alcohol leads to increased sweating and the development of edema. Obviously, this effect of alcohol on the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems does not leave its mark on the body. A chronic alcoholic's life is shortened and premature death is common.
Scientists have proven that alcohol negatively affects the human immune system, reducing the body's resistance to infectious diseases. Thus, chronic alcoholics have a much more difficult time enduring various diseases, especially those of an infectious-allergic nature. According to statistics, the mortality rate among people who abuse alcohol from these diseases is three to five times higher than among people who do not drink alcohol.
Speaking about the dangers of alcohol on the human body, it is necessary to say about the harmful effects of alcohol on reproductive system person. Alcohol can affect both the process of conceiving an unborn child, damaging sperm and eggs, and the process of embryo development. Experiments on animals show that after eight months of regular injection of alcohol into the body, a change occurs in the sperm. It decreases in size and can no longer carry the required amount of genetic information. That is why a child conceived in a state alcohol intoxication at least one of the biological parents often has developmental disabilities and defects. Moreover, under the influence of alcohol, the number of sperm in the seminal fluid decreases. Ninety percent of chronic alcoholics have been diagnosed with infertility.
The highest stage of manifestation of alcoholism is considered to be “delirium tremens” or, scientifically, delirium. This alcoholic state is accompanied by delusions, hallucinations, and sometimes convulsions.
Alcohol also has a negative impact on the human psyche. A person suffering from alcohol addiction does not think about the development of his personality and often conflicts with the people around him. In such a situation, there is a delay in the development of a person’s thinking, and the alcoholic may have an inadequate perception of the surrounding reality. For an alcoholic, a person’s developing abilities are lost; often the alcoholic does not understand the moral and ethical concepts of society.
Thus, we can say that the effect of alcohol on the human body is harmful and irreversible. A conscious person must understand that the imaginary state of relaxation from alcohol cannot be compared with the consequences for the body. Leading a healthy lifestyle involves completely abstaining from drinking alcohol, including weak alcohol. It doesn’t matter what strength of alcoholic drink a person drinks, the harm to health from it is the same. Beer alcoholism, which has become widespread recently, has become a real problem for young people. But the erroneous understanding that a bottle of beer is not alcoholism can sooner or later result in a disturbance in the state of the body. A modern and conscious person should be fully aware of the high degree of harmful effects of alcohol on the human body.
When people drink alcohol, it travels through the blood throughout the body. Alcohol reaches every organ and spreads throughout the cellular fluid in our body. Organs such as the brain, which contain a lot of water and need sufficient blood supply to function properly, are especially susceptible to the effects of alcohol. Others, including the liver, heart, pancreas and kidneys, are also affected by alcohol after it enters the bloodstream for a few minutes.
Now let's look at how alcohol affects the body's four main systems: the digestive system, the central nervous system, the circulatory system, and the endocrine system.
Alcohol abuse today is a pressing problem in modern society throughout the world. Alcohol consumption causes accidents, injuries and poisoning, regardless of a person’s standard of living and status in society.
Of particular concern is the consumption of alcoholic beverages among the younger generation. Drinking alcohol among young people, students and pupils can be considered as national suicide. It destroys a young and still healthy organism and personality much faster, which affects the entire society. Young people have the highest mortality rate from alcohol consumption.
It is very important to learn as early as possible about the action and influence of alcohol on the body, what consequences a passion for alcoholic beverages, even the weakest, can lead to.
The effect of alcohol on the digestive system
Alcohol use and its consequences begin at the point of entry. Alcohol is an irritant. It begins to burn when it comes into contact with any mucous membrane.
When you take your first sip of alcohol, you don't really feel the effects, especially if you're drinking a high-quality drink. You will notice an immediate burning sensation as it enters your mouth and travels down your esophagus.
This is a burn that can ultimately kill living tissue in your body. With prolonged and excessive consumption, alcohol can lead to the development of various head and neck diseases. Drinking five or more drinks a day can double or triple the risk of developing cancer in the mouth, throat or vocal cords.
Let us now consider in detail the route of alcohol. Entering the mouth, it then enters the stomach, the circulatory system, the brain, kidneys, lungs and liver. As the alcohol is absorbed, the following may occur.
Alcohol passes through sensitive membranes, which can become irritated if the alcohol content is high enough;
Frequent drinkers are at significantly greater risk of mouth and throat cancer.
Alcohol does not need to be digested, since its molecules are very small and can easily pass through the stomach lining.
When the stomach is empty, alcohol passes directly into the bloodstream.
When there is food in the stomach, especially food high in protein, the rate of alcohol absorption slows but does not stop.
Alcohol in small quantities stimulates appetite by increasing the production of gastric juices.
Because of large quantity gastric juices produced, large amounts of alcohol suppresses appetite and can cause malnutrition.
Excessive alcohol consumption stimulates the production of gastric acid in the stomach, which, combined with high alcohol content, causes irritation of the stomach lining, leading to ulcers.
When the concentration of alcohol and gastric juice becomes high enough, and irritation of the mucous membrane increases, a reflex urge to vomit is triggered, as a protective way of the body to partially reduce this irritation.
20% of alcohol consumed enters the bloodstream through the stomach, and 80% (the remaining alcohol) is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine.
When alcohol enters the stomach, it is absorbed into the bloodstream or passes into the intestines. However, some types of alcohol can remain in the stomach, increasing stomach acidity and irritating the protective lining of the stomach. This irritation in chronic alcoholism can lead to corrosion of the gastric mucosa, i.e. cause peptic ulcer disease. Even moderate alcohol consumption can cause or worsen existing stomach and intestinal ulcers.
When alcohol moves into the small intestine, it can also cause damage digestive system. It blocks the body's absorption of thiamine, folic acid, vitamin B1, B12, fats and amino acids.
The effect of alcohol on the cardiovascular system
Drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period of time or drinking too much at one time can have harmful influence on the cardiovascular system. Alcohol abuse can lead to:
- Cardiomyopathy;
- Arrhythmia;
- Stroke;
- Hypertension.
The effect of alcohol on the heart and blood vessels lasts on average for 5-7 hours. Full heart function is restored only after 2-3 days, when the body is completely cleansed of alcohol.
Once alcohol enters the bloodstream, it is quickly distributed evenly throughout the body. At the same time, the blood vessels dilate causing:
More blood flow to the surface of the skin (this is why the face turns red);
Temporary feeling of warmth;
Increased heat loss and rapid decrease in body temperature;
Increased blood pressure.
In the short term, as alcohol passes through the heart, it can cause inflammation in the walls of the heart muscles.
When drinking strong alcoholic drinks, the frequency of heart rate, it either slows down or increases.
Cardiomyopothia
This is the worst thing that can happen with excessive alcohol consumption. Moreover, regardless of the degree of its strength. As doctors say, it can develop after 10 years with regular drinking of alcoholic beverages. Main reason secondary cardiomyopathy It's called alcohol addiction. The main signs of this disease may be:
Fast fatiguability;
Cough that occurs mainly at night;
Breathing problems;
Pain in the heart area.
Progression of the disease leads to heart failure. There may be the following accompanying symptoms:
Swelling of the legs;
Enlarged liver.
The function of the heart is disrupted, it begins to poorly perform its role - pumping blood throughout the body. As a result, oxygen transfer to cells and tissues, including the brain, is disrupted. Oxygen starvation develops - hypoxia. And since alcohol is eliminated from the body within several days, myocardial ischemia persists.
Effect of alcohol on blood
Once alcohol enters the body, it has an immediate effect on red blood cells. Their deformation occurs due to rupture of the membranes, they stick together, forming blood clots. This in turn leads to impaired blood circulation in coronary vessels. The heart, trying to do its job, increases in size. This may lead to:
Cardiac arrhythmia;
Myocardial dystrophy;
Stroke;
Heart attack.
Myocardial dystrophy is when, instead of cells killed due to hypoxia, connective tissue develops, which affects the contractile function of the heart muscle.
When drinking alcohol, adrenaline and norepinephrine are released into the blood, and the heart muscle's need for oxygen increases. Any amount of alcohol consumed can cause coronary artery disease.
As doctors note, the risk of heart attack and stroke is much higher in people who abuse alcohol. It increases blood pressure, which leads to heart attacks and premature death.
The harmful effects of alcoholic beverages on the heart and blood vessels are a scientifically proven fact. The risk of cardiovascular disease is directly proportional to alcohol consumption.
According to statistics, people who drink are 56 percent more likely to suffer from ischemic stroke.
The effect of alcohol on the liver
The liver takes the brunt of alcohol consumption. Frequent drinking of vodka, wine, beer can lead to various problems and serious diseases of this organ, including:
Alcoholic hepatitis;
One of the reasons for the appearance of steatosis or fatty liver disease liver is a constant impact toxic substances, which include the consumption of various alcoholic beverages.
When the liver tries to break down alcohol, the result of this reaction may be alcoholic hepatitis. With constant exposure, it is possible to develop an irreversible process of damage to liver cells, which in turn can lead to deeper damage and the development of cirrhosis.
When alcohol enters the liver, the normal flow of bile is disrupted. When bile stagnates, yellowing occurs in the liver cells skin, eye. This condition is caused when the breakdown pigment of red blood cells, bilirubin, is not excreted in the bile, but is reabsorbed in the blood and distributed throughout the body.
Jaundice is an ominous sign of alcohol abuse and may indicate the development of liver failure at its final stage.
The effect of alcohol on the pancreas
Long-term heavy drinking causes irreversible damage to the pancreas. It has been proven that even a single case of drinking can cause an exacerbation of pancreatitis. Alcohol-induced inflammation of the pancreas can lead to chronic fibrosis, which can cause deficiency in both the exocrine (digestive enzymes) and endocrine (insulin) systems.
The main function of the pancreas is to direct digestive enzymes to small intestine to digest food.
When inflammation blocks the production of digestive enzymes and they do not enter the gastrointestinal tract, they can attack the pancreas themselves and also leak into other surrounding tissues.
What does this mean? When intoxicated, the ducts become clogged, enzymes do not enter the small intestine to participate in further digestion of food, but remain in the pancreas. This condition leads to the destruction of pancreatic cells and disruption of metabolic processes. Inflammation occurs, which can cause exacerbation of pancreatitis. Additionally, chronic exposure to alcohol increases the risk of developing diabetes.
Not all people react the same way to the effects of alcohol. Diseases of the pancreas and exacerbations associated with its work can occur regardless of whether a person drinks only 20-50 grams of alcohol or his daily norm is much more. Some drinkers may never encounter this problem at all.
Effect of alcohol on the kidneys
Alcohol, and especially beer, is considered a diuretic. The more you drink, the more often you urinate. This may not be a very pleasant, but still tolerable effect of alcohol on the kidneys and bladder.
However, alcohol can have a much more sinister effect on chronic drinkers. By affecting the mucous membrane, it can lead to inflammation of the bladder, causing it to enlarge and stretch to dangerous size. If the bladder becomes enlarged, it can block drainage from the kidneys, which in turn can cause kidney failure.
Kidney function is not only related to the formation and distribution of urine. They participate in balancing the acid-base and water-electrolyte balance and produce hormones.
When alcohol enters, they switch to an intensive operating mode, pumping a larger volume of liquid and trying to remove harmful substances from the body.
Constant overload weakens the function of the kidneys and a moment comes when they can no longer work in an enhanced mode. That's why for some people, their time actively spent drinking a bottle is visible on their face: a swollen face, swelling under the eyes. This was the fluid that the kidneys could not remove.
In addition, toxins accumulate in the kidneys and then form stones, increasing the risk of inflammatory diseases of the kidneys and bladder. 
The effect of alcohol on the brain
The human brain is a kind of control panel for the entire body. Its cortex contains centers for memory, reading, movement of body parts, smell, and vision. Poor circulation and death of brain cells are accompanied by a shutdown or weakening of its functions. This certainly leads to a decrease in mental abilities and affects behavior, coordination, and mood. It is not for nothing that drunk people become more aggressive and do not realize the consequences of their actions. Constantly drinking alcohol leads to complete degradation of a person’s personality.
The main risks of alcoholic beverages are associated with:
Memory impairment;
Decreased intelligence;
Manifestation of immoral and illegal actions;
Loss of a critical attitude towards oneself as an individual;
Hallucinations;
Mental disorders.
Under the influence of alcohol on the nervous system, people's behavioral reactions change. He loses his shyness and restraint. He does things he wouldn't do sober.
Refers to comments critically, with the manifestation of unmotivated aggression, rage and anger. A person’s personality degrades in direct proportion to the amount and duration of alcohol consumption.
Gradually a person loses interest in life. His creative and labor potential is declining. All this negatively affects career growth and social status. As they say, a person sinks: he stops taking care of himself, leads an immoral lifestyle, quits his job and withdraws from society.
This is not a complete list of all the consequences of alcohol abuse. Affecting the entire body, nerve endings, diseases such as polyneuritis of the lower extremities develop. This is the result of not only constant exposure to nerve endings and their inflammation, but also a deficiency of essential nutrients. Alcoholics often suffer from a deficiency of B vitamins.
The disease manifests itself as a feeling of acute weakness in the lower extremities, numbness, pain in the knees. Ethanol affects muscles and nerve endings, which causes atrophy of the entire muscular system, which ends in neuritis and paralysis.
Drinking alcohol leads to disruption of the blood supply to brain cells. Constantly experiencing oxygen starvation, cells die. If you look at the brain of an alcoholic, it looks like an unknown planet with craters and depressions: the brain is wrinkled, its surface is covered with ulcers and scars.
If liver cells can be cleansed and they are able to recover, then brain cells die forever.
The effect of alcohol on blood pressure
Drinking alcohol can increase blood pressure to a critical level. Drinking alcohol once temporarily increases arterial pressure, but repeated and regular drinking can lead to persistently high values.
People who constantly drink alcohol in large quantities, while limiting their consumption, can reduce their blood pressure by 1-3 mmHg. Art. But this is not so much if it was at a critically high level.
If you are one of these people, then abruptly giving up alcohol is also dangerous. You need to reduce your blood pressure gradually, reducing the amount you drink accordingly. People who suddenly stop drinking have a higher risk of stroke and heart attack.
The effect of alcohol on the female body
Alcohol and female body- two incompatible things. The female body perceives the effects of alcohol completely differently and the risks from such a hobby are much more serious than for men.
That is why female alcoholism comes much earlier. If a man can abuse alcohol for years and not become a degenerate alcoholic, then for a woman this period takes much less time.
In addition to influencing moral and social behavior, the entire woman’s body suffers from it, including reproductive function. The risk of having a sick child drinking woman is several times higher than drinking man a woman who does not drink alcohol.
Alcoholism is the scourge of our modern society. And no arguments that drinking alcohol in small doses is good for health can be compared with the risks that its use can bring. They exceed all the benefits from it. Moreover, many people, starting with small doses, do not notice how they become chronic alcoholics.
How alcohol affects our body
What dose of alcohol is harmless
Alcohol, ethyl alcohol (ethanol), wine alcohol, C2 H5 OH– colorless volatile liquid with characteristic odor and pungent taste, mixes well with water.
Alcohol is a waste product of yeast fungi and can be produced chemically. It is highly flammable, burns, is used as a technical fluid in shock absorbers, brakes, etc., and is a good solvent for many organic substances. Used as raw material in chemical industry and also as fuel.
Alcohol is used in medicine to prepare tinctures and extracts. It destroys the cell membrane and through the destroyed membrane the necessary medicinal substances are delivered faster into the cell. In the Western pharmaceutical industry, when creating pharmaceuticals strive to do without ethyl alcohol. Alcohol-based medications are not recommended for children.
At local application alcohol causes denaturation of proteins in the cytoplasm of microbial cells. This property is used for treating the hands of healthcare workers, sterilizing instruments, etc.
Alcohol is a cellular toxin When ingested, the body tries to neutralize it. This is what the liver does. In liver cells and hepatocytes, ethanol, under the action of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, is converted into acetaldehyde, which, under the action of another enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, is oxidized to acetic acid.
Acetaldehyde is several times more toxic than ethyl alcohol. It causes a hangover, which is essentially serious poisoning. In people who abuse alcohol, the body has to protect itself from excessive doses of alcohol. They increase the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase, which processes alcohol and accumulates acetaldehyde.
The second enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, cannot be activated. As a result, severe poisoning with acetaldehyde occurs.
With the systematic consumption of alcoholic beverages, alcohol dehydrogenase cannot cope with the decomposition of alcohol. In the body, weaker additional enzymes come into action and the concentration of acetaldehyde in the body increases even more. In the future, even small doses of alcohol sharply increase the concentration of acetaldehyde, self-control is lost and a craving appears for the next dose of alcohol to replace the one that quickly disintegrated.
Back at the beginning of the twentieth century in 1915. At the XI Pirogov meeting of Russian doctors, alcohol was recognized as a narcotic poison. Doctor of Medicine A.L. Mendelssohn in the "Textbook of Temperance", published in 1913. in St. Petersburg wrote: “Alcohol cannot be considered a food product in the usual sense of the word. This is a poison for the nervous system, classified as a narcotic substance: it, however, not only paralyzes the brain, but also has a detrimental effect on internal organs. Science is unable to indicate a harmless dose of beer, wine or vodka.” Further, “No one really needs them... Only complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages is a reliable protection against possible alcoholism and all its consequences.”
Great Soviet Encyclopedia (vol. 2, p. 116): “Alcohol is a narcotic poison.”
Foreign experts classify alcohol as a drug such as a depressant.
Modern narcologists consider alcohol to be a cytoplasmic poison that has a destructive effect on all human systems and organs, and an officially approved drug.
The medical consequences of alcohol consumption can be divided into 4 groups:
Effect on the central nervous system;
– influence on the reproductive organs and gene pool;
Impact on the development of cardiovascular diseases;
Other physiological consequences of alcohol consumption.
Effect of alcohol on the central nervous system
Drinking alcohol causes intoxication. Alcohol intoxication is acute alcohol poisoning. It is caused by hypoxia (oxygen starvation) of cerebral cortex cells.
Alcohol causes blood clots to form in small vessels brain. Due to hypoxia of cortical cells, some of them die and a cemetery of neurons is formed in the brain. How more people drank alcohol, the more neurons died.
Alcohol inhibits the activity of nerve cells, developing
lethargy, slow speech, impaired mental activity, decreased concentration. Increases the possibility of injury, accidents and deaths. Large doses of alcohol lead to the development of a coma, and death may occur from respiratory failure due to its suppression or from aspiration of vomit.
Scientists have found that 85% of “moderate drinkers” and 95% of alcoholics have a decrease in brain volume. After four years of drinking alcohol, the brain becomes “shrunken” due to the death of billions of neurons. Systematic alcohol consumption leads to a decrease in brain mass. In women, this degradation, associated with the loss of brain matter, occurs faster than in men.
The mental abilities of such people decrease, the freshness and originality of thoughts are lost. Creative abilities disappear. It becomes difficult to process current information, and the replenishment of life and professional skills is disrupted. Efficiency decreases, desire to work decreases. Those who are addicted to alcohol are incapable of systematic work. Character deteriorates, morality declines.
Alcohol suppresses the function of the cerebral cortex, and subcortical formations begin to control human behavior. A person’s behavior becomes aggressive, his base biological instincts manifest themselves.
Determined that mental capacity and memory deteriorate under the influence of even the smallest doses of alcohol. Coordination of movements, vigilance, and intelligence are impaired. Just 25 grams of vodka impairs memory by 60–70%.
Complete restoration of brain function, including its capabilities for systemic analytical thinking, after drinking alcohol occurs within 18–20 days. Thus, scientific evidence is confirmed that if people drink alcohol twice a month, then their brain is not able to work at the level of capabilities given to them by nature. That is why the consumption of alcohol by politicians, government officials, leaders who make responsible decisions and shape public opinion is unacceptable. Otherwise, it will lead to inadequate guidance and decisions and may set a bad example for the entire society.
Typical forms of alcohol damage to the central nervous system:
Alcohol withdrawal syndrome;
Hangover seizures (alcoholic epilepsy);
Variants of delirium tremens, which occur in a state of alcohol withdrawal and are accompanied by delirium (delirium), occur at stages II-III of alcoholism, during the period of cessation of drunkenness, delirium, visual, auditory and/or tactile hallucinations appear, there may be chills and fever. Hallucinations are usually threatening in nature, often presented in the form of small dangerous creatures (insects, devils). Sometimes it ends in death. The main danger with delirium is the risk of self-harm.
Wernicke encephalopathy - brain damage as a result of thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, usually occurring with chronic alcoholism, blurred vision, disturbances in gait and coordination of movements, disorientation - confusion;
Korsakoff psychosis is a combination of polyneuritis with severe memory impairments that relate to remembering current events and reproducing the recent past;
Alcoholic dementia - impairment of mental (cognitive) functions, loss of normal perception, thinking, counting, speech, attention;
Manifestations of cognitive dysfunction: memory loss, mental performance, violation of rational knowledge of the world and interaction with it, perception of information, violation of its processing and analysis, memorization and storage.
Atypical forms of alcohol damage to the central nervous system:
Atypical variants of delirium tremens - occur after repeated psychoses, often with fantastic content - alcoholic oneiroid;
Alcoholic paranoid – delusional perception of the environment, anxiety, fear and psychomotor restlessness;
Acute and chronic alcoholic hallucinosis;
Alcoholic delirium of jealousy.
The effect of alcohol on the reproductive organs and gene pool
When drinking alcohol, it is retained in the gonads, and in women it is 35%, and in men it is 55% more than in the blood.
Research has established that even a single dose of 250–300 ml of alcohol reduces the concentration of the male sex hormone, testosterone, in the blood by 4 times and, accordingly, reduces sexual function in men. Within an hour after drinking alcohol, it is found in the semen of a man and in the ovaries of a woman. When male and female reproductive cells, poisoned by alcohol, merge, defective embryos are obtained.
Children conceived while intoxicated are the main population of auxiliary schools. More than 90% of children with mental and physical disabilities are born to parents who started drinking at school age.
In children whose fathers used alcohol before the birth of the child. alcoholic drinks for at least 4 to 5 years, signs of mental disability have been detected.
A break in the consumption of alcohol by male alcoholics for 2–3 years against the background of general restorative and anti-alcohol treatment creates favorable conditions (but does not guarantee) for normal mental development children conceived during this period.
Alcohol consumption by a woman before and during pregnancy leads to toxicosis of pregnancy, miscarriages, premature births, intrauterine malformations of the child, a deficiency of fetal weight at the time of birth, and a slowdown in the rate of psychophysical development. Mentally retarded people born from drunken parents inevitably produce the same offspring.
WHO experts believe that in Russia alone, more than 30% of the population currently have mental defects due to drunkenness and alcoholism. At the same time, 13% of the total number of children are lagging behind in intellectual development from the average level, and 25% cannot master the general education curriculum.
The effect of alcohol on the development of cardiovascular diseases
Alcohol is one of the leading risk factors for morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Alcohol is in second place in the risk of causing the prevalence of arterial hypertension.
Elderly man with heart disease vascular problems can die suddenly from drinking a relatively small dose of alcohol. There are three external factors, provoking sudden cardiac death: drinking alcohol, exercise stress, psycho-emotional stress. If these factors coincide in time, the probability sudden death increases.
Alcohol contributes to the formation of blood clots in the arteries, the development of cerebral strokes, and myocardial infarction.
Chronic alcohol intoxication reduces the life expectancy of men with cardiovascular diseases by an average of 17 years.
Thus, there is a direct relationship between mortality from cardiovascular diseases and alcohol consumption.
In recent decades, publications have appeared on the protective effects of small doses of alcohol on cardiovascular diseases in older people, in particular, with coronary heart disease.
According to research at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the director of the institute commented: “Although moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of developing coronary disease heart disease, science is not convinced that alcohol is the cause of this risk. The risk reduction may be due to as yet unidentified factors associated with drinking alcohol in combination with factors that reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, such as lifestyle, diet or physical activity, or with substances in alcoholic beverages.”
Current research is controversial and is limited to the age groups of men over 45 and menopausal women.
From the standpoint of preventing cardiovascular damage, the most reasonable and correct thing would be not to drink alcohol, since the harm from alcohol significantly outweighs the benefits.
Other physiological effects of alcohol consumption
Alcohol causes the development of acute and chronic gastritis, acute and chronic pancreatitis, fatty liver, acute and chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, chronic renal failure, and anemia.
Alcohol contributes to the development of gastric and duodenal ulcers, acute pneumonia, aggravates the course of hepatitis B and C, and suppresses the immune system.
Alcohol lovers are more likely to suffer from pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung diseases.
According to WHO experts, alcohol can cause more than 60 diseases and disorders in humans.
The effect of alcohol on children and adolescents
Children are very sensitive to alcohol. A case of death of a child, who was under 1 year old, was described due to three times applying vodka compress during the day on chest when coughing. There was a case of death of a five-year-old child who drank 10 g of alcohol as a result of an oversight. The younger the body, the more harmful the effects of alcohol are on it.
Children and adolescents very quickly develop an addiction and a positive attitude towards alcohol. Children imitate adults and parents. They may drink alcohol in secret and may experience alcohol poisoning. In this case, they may experience loss of consciousness, and pulmonary and cardiovascular activity may be impaired.
If a family often hosts alcoholic feasts, then the children of this family subsequently associate holidays and weekends with drinking alcohol.
In adolescence, the desire for alcohol develops 8 times faster than in adults. Their behavior is disrupted, aggressiveness appears, and a hangover syndrome develops. And all this 1 to 3 years after the start of systematic drunkenness. The sons of persons suffering from alcoholism are 4 times more likely to become alcoholics, compared to the sons of those who did not have alcoholism.
Peculiarities of the influence of alcohol depending on the type of drinks
Alcoholic drinks are mixtures of water and alcohol with the addition of other substances that give the drink a certain taste and smell.
Everyone starts drinking alcohol with typical drinks - beer, wine, vodka.
Beer
Women who love beer inject additional amounts of female hormone into their bodies. This leads to an enlargement of the uterus, proliferation of uterine tissue, secretion of excess secretion and mucus in the fallopian tubes, disruption menstrual cycle. This reduces a woman's reproductive capacity. At the same time, women become more attracted to men and exhibit dominant behavior towards men. However, excess estrogen in women can cause breast cancer.
Hops, like hemp, contain drugs such as marijuana and hashish, in slightly smaller quantities. Hops produce some morphine, the active principle of opium and heroin.Thus, beer is a “bouquet” of narcotic substances. The German Chancellor Bismarck also said: “Beer makes people stupid, lazy and powerless.”
Beer contains glucose, sucrose, fructose, dextrins and other carbohydrates, amino acids, polypeptides, B vitamins, ascorbic, folic, nicotinic acids, potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus ions. This useful material, but there are very few of them and when drinking beer they are washed out of the body and excreted in the urine, since beer has a diuretic effect.
According to research, people reach for beer to get a slight alcoholic intoxication. One liter of beer has the same effect on the body as 87 ml of vodka, and the total toxic effect exceeds the toxicity of vodka.
Low-alcohol drinks are especially dangerous for teenagers and women, since these categories quickly become accustomed to drinking alcohol through beer. A habit is formed that turns into an addiction.
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink obtained by complete or partial alcoholic fermentation of grape juice. Alcohol and other substances can be added to wine to create fortified wine.
Based on quality and aging time, wines are divided into:
- young;
- without exposure;
- seasoned;
- vintage (aged wines from the same grape varieties, preserving a certain aroma and taste);
- collection (wines with a very long aging time of up to tens and hundreds of years).
Alcohol and sugar content in wines
Table or natural wines:
- dry - prepared by complete fermentation of the wort with a residual sugar content of no more than 0.3%, alcohol - 8.5 - 15% vol., sugar up to 4 g/l; The wine is called “dry” because it is “dry” and the sugar is completely fermented;
- semi-dry – alcohol 8.5 – 15% vol., sugar – 4 – 18 g/l;
- semi-sweet – alcohol 8.5 – 15% vol., sugar – 18 – 45 g/l;
- sweet - alcohol 8.5 - 15% vol., sugar - at least 45 g/l.
Special, that is, fortified wines:
- strong – alcohol – 17 – 21% vol., sugar – 30 – 120 g/l;
- sweet - alcohol – 14 – 20% vol., sugar – up to 150 g/l;
- semi-dessert – alcohol – 14 – 16% vol., sugar – 50 – 120 g/l;
- dessert – alcohol – 15 – 17% vol., sugar – 160 – 200 g/l;
- liqueur – alcohol – 12 – 16% vol., sugar – up to 210 – 300 g/l.
Flavored wines– alcohol – 16 – 18% vol., sugar – up to 6 – 16 g/l.
Sparkling wine– saturated during secondary fermentation carbon dioxide. The most famous sparkling wine in the world is champagne. It contains alcohol – 9 – 13% vol., sugar – 0 – 15 g/l. When drinking champagne, alcohol penetrates the blood faster, and intoxication occurs faster, and the consequences of such intoxication are more severe, the headache is greater than from drinking vodka.
IN positive reviews about wine indicate that red grape wine contains polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that have cardioprotective, anti-atherosclerotic effects, inhibit platelet aggregation, and increase the concentration of lipoproteins high density, and also have anti-inflammatory properties.
Chronic consumption of alcohol to prevent the development of coronary heart disease can lead to alcohol-induced liver damage.
Research by domestic and foreign scientists points to healthy alternatives to red wine.
Thus, John D. Folts from the Medical School of Wisconsin points out that 3 glasses of red grape juice prevents the formation of plaques in the blood vessels, as well as 1 glass of red wine. The scientist reports that it is not alcohol that helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, but flavonoids, which are also found in grape juice.
Dr. Crasey points out that there are less toxic sources of the antioxidants, polyphenols and other substances found in red wine. These are vegetables, fruits, garlic, spices, herbs and nutritional supplements. They have much more antioxidants than wine. Wine is drunk, as a rule, not for the sake of antioxidants, but for the sake of intoxication, because of its narcotic properties.
Vodka
Vodka — alcoholic drink, a colorless aqueous-alcohol solution with a characteristic taste and alcoholic odor. The vodka production process includes mixing rectified ethyl alcohol from food raw materials with treated water, treating the aqueous-alcohol solution with activated carbon or modified starch, filtering it, adding certain ingredients if they are provided for in the recipe, stirring, control filtration, bottling into consumer containers and design of finished products.
Alcohol (including vodka) culture is the main source of high Russian mortality. Strong alcoholic drinks resulting from distillation contribute to the rapid achievement of dangerous high concentration alcohol in the blood and pose a greater danger to human life and health than beer and wine. The exceptional severity of the alcohol situation in the CIS countries is explained by the combination of the vodka culture of alcohol consumption of the “northern” type (consumption large doses strong alcohol) and the presence of alcohol-tolerant policies in these states.
In countries where the most popular drinks are wine or beer, even high levels of alcohol consumption are not accompanied by catastrophic consequences. This is evidenced by the experience of not only France, Portugal, Germany, Austria, but also the post-socialist Czech Republic, Poland, Armenia, and Georgia.
In all countries of the alcohol belt, without exception, there is a severe complex of alcohol problems: excess mortality leading to the extinction of the nation, degradation of the social environment, an increase in crime due to alcohol abuse, etc.
In some cases, when preparing cheap varieties of vodka, no purification is carried out at all; the mixture of alcohol and water is blended with various artificial additives (Alcosoft, glycerin, soda, etc.), which mask the taste of the drink, making it soft. The harm to the human body who has taken such a product increases many times due to exposure to toxic impurities (etheraldehyde fractions and other fermentation by-products).A single dose of 400 grams of undiluted ethyl alcohol (95-96%) is a lethal dose for the average person (death occurs in 30-50% of cases). Drink to a short time a lethal dose in the form of a liter of vodka or moonshine is quite possible, but drinking 4 liters of wine is extremely difficult, and drinking 10 liters of beer is almost impossible.
Half a liter of vodka or moonshine is a dose that can lead to stroke, cardiac arrest, death from injury, as a consequence of inappropriate behavior.
Regular consumption of vodka inevitably leads to diseases internal organs(cirrhosis of the liver). Initially, deep-seated damage to the body manifests itself in the form of a hangover syndrome.
The most common causes of death for alcoholics are myocardial infarction, stroke, liver cirrhosis and cancer.
Ethyl alcohol has a narcotic effect on the central nervous system, which affects occupational safety. Drinking even small amounts of alcohol impairs coordination of movements, the speed of visual and motor reactions, and negatively affects thinking. With severe intoxication, the real perception of the outside world is disrupted, and a person becomes unable to consciously control his actions.
Significant alcohol consumption at work and at home increases injuries, occupational diseases, accidents, etc.
Liqueurs
In liqueurs, alcohol is used with attractive additives, which is why women and youth are often attracted to liqueurs. Liqueurs are usually served at the end of a meal with tea or coffee, and also as digestifs - drinks served at the end of a meal. Used both undiluted and as part of a variety of mixed drinks and cocktails, mixes well with various juices. They are also used for preparing all kinds of dishes, especially desserts.
Liqueurs are “heavy” alcoholic products and can cause nausea and vomiting, so they are usually diluted with water.
Cocktails
Cocktails make alcohol attractive, especially for young people and women. Unlike ethyl alcohol, even diluted with water, cocktails taste pleasant and do not cause a gag reflex. Alcohol disguised as natural food additives destroys this reflex.
"Energetic drinks" - contain heavy doses of caffeine and up to 4–9% alcohol.
Small doses of alcohol
Recently, a lot of research and speculation has appeared about the benefits of small doses of alcohol. They write that “light and moderate” alcohol consumption can have a protective effect against coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, cholesterol gallstones, atherosclerosis, “prolongs life,” “stimulates mental activity.” Nowadays, everyone understands the comprehensive harm of alcohol both for the individual and for society as a whole. However, the leaders of the alcohol business, having great financial resources, promote the benefits of small doses of alcohol and pay for “research” indicating the benefits of alcohol.
In modern medical literature there is evidence that the mortality rate of the population increases after exceeding the dose of 15 ml of alcohol per day. When consuming moderate doses of alcohol (about 25 g per day), the incidence of liver cirrhosis, alcoholism, upper respiratory tract cancer, digestive cancer, breast cancer, hemorrhagic stroke, and pancreatitis significantly increases. At daily use One glass of red wine per day increases the risk of developing oncological diseases. It turns out that even small and moderate doses of alcohol increase the morbidity and mortality of the population.
The “benefits” of small doses of alcohol are refuted by studies by a number of Western scientists. Thus, Joanne Hietall from the School of Medicine at the University of Tampere in Finland convincingly proved that the consequences of drinking so-called “moderate” doses of alcohol, although poorly distinguishable, a person may not subjectively feel them, but internal processes in the body are disturbed. She divided the consequences of alcohol into eight categories.
Some researchers believe that small doses of alcohol can improve the sensitivity of the body's cells to insulin and reduce the risk of developing diabetes mellitus Type II.
According to some publications, it is observed positive effect from small doses of alcohol in coronary heart disease, but it is refuted by other researchers.
The results of such studies were first published in 1974. Hardy Friedman and Abraham Ziegelaub presented information on the effects of alcohol in moderate doses in nonsmoking patients. IN this study It was noted that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of alcohol and the risk of developing myocardial infarction. After the publication of this information, similar experiments began to be carried out in different countries of the world.
The research results allow us to see the connection between the health status of patients and the amount of alcohol. In 2000, scientists from Italy summarized the results of earlier tests. Based on 28 papers, they presented their own analysis, confirming the opinion that 25 g of alcohol per day will reduce the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction by 20%. To date, it has not been possible to establish the real reasons for these results.
Less quantity cholesterol plaques formed because HDL redirects cholesterol from the blood back to the liver. Thanks to this, it is eliminated from the body and does not accumulate in the vessels. Scientists have not established for certain the mechanism of the effect of alcohol on HDL content. There is an assumption that alcoholic drinks can affect the liver enzymes involved in their production.
At present, it is only precisely established that drinking alcohol in moderation reduces the risk of developing coronary artery disease and this occurs due to high-density lipoproteins.
Another theory is based on the effect of alcohol on the biochemical reactions that ensure the process of blood clotting. Violations of this mechanism lead to the formation of blood clots, which can clog the vessel. There is an assumption that platelets under the influence of alcohol lose their high “stickiness” properties.
In the 1980s, researchers at Brown University Memorial Hospital conducted a study in which they found that alcohol increases levels of prostacyclin, which reduces blood clotting. At the same time, the level of thromboxane in the body, which promotes this process, decreased. The experiments were carried out by Walter Logue from the Keck Medical College of the University of Southern California, who was able to prove that alcohol increases the level of the activator profibrinolysin, which allows dissolving blood clots. A decrease in blood clotting can also be considered an indirect reason for reducing the risk of coronary artery disease.
Another factor is a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. It is this disease that predisposes to the development of IHD. Alcoholic drinks increase sensitivity to insulin. Thanks to this, the process of normal glucose utilization is established. But this applies only to “moderate”, that is, small doses. Alcohol abuse leads to the opposite results and stimulates the development of diabetes.
Thus, a comprehensive study was carried out on the effect of alcoholic beverages on the development of coronary artery disease. Scientists have been able to identify some factors that contribute to the positive effects of alcohol in moderation. Please note that these recommendations are not universal.
Positive and negative effects depend on the general condition of the patient, the presence of concomitant ailments, etc.
Acceptable volumes of alcohol consumption
A moderate dose for women is 10-20 g. ethanol, for men – 30-40 g. These are "standard portions".
In 2002, data on the relationship between alcohol and the risk of developing coronary heart disease were presented at the meeting of the American Cardiovascular Association. The results of the examination of 128,934 patients were analyzed. Death occurred in 16,539 cases, including 3,001 from coronary heart disease. Their medical histories were checked, and it turned out that those who drank 1-2 standard servings every day were 32% less likely to die from this disease.
The risk of the disease is also reduced in those people who drink two or fewer standard servings of alcoholic beverages per day. In this case, the fact of reducing blood clotting is of primary importance. In small doses, alcohol has virtually no effect on HDL levels.
Is it possible to drink alcohol if you have IHD?
Previously, numerous studies have been reviewed that confirm the existence of a connection between drinking alcohol and reducing the risk of developing the disease. Thus, IHD and alcohol are compatible. It should be remembered that alcohol consumption is allowed only in moderate doses.
Alcohol abuse can cause serious harm to health, including a negative impact on the cardiovascular system. In addition, you should remember and understand that alcohol is not a means of healing. It should not be taken with certain medicines, as this may provoke side effects. Alcohol in moderate doses is allowed for ischemic heart disease, but only if there are no contraindications.
Remember that a single large dose of alcohol can cause death or brain strokes. It is not recommended to drink alcohol if the patient has elevated blood triglycerides or is on an anti-obesity diet.
Which drink do you prefer?
Scientists have not been able to find out whether there is a difference in the positive effects of certain alcoholic beverages. Data about greatest benefit red wine emerged from studies of mortality rates in different countries. Thus, in France, the capital of winemakers, the number of deaths from ischemic heart disease is half that in the United States. The benefits of red wine are explained by the presence in its composition of a large number of substances with antioxidant properties. They are the ones who help curb the development of atherosclerosis.
Scientists who support “small” doses have discovered methodological errors in their own studies on the effects of alcohol. So, Kay Fillmore and her working group in 2009 rechecked 54 out of 56 studies and found that only 2 out of 35 studies on mortality from coronary heart disease did not contain errors!
In 2007 A study by Australian scientists led by L. Harris, “Alcohol consumption and mortality from cardiovascular diseases in the light of possible classification errors of subjects,” was completed. The work concluded that in men there was no statistically significant “protective” effect of alcohol, while in women it was observed, but only for red wine. In this case, it was not the alcohol that caused the protective effects of red wine in the group of women, but the antioxidants contained in red wine.
For preventive purposes, red wine can be replaced with grape juice, wine vinegar, fresh fruit and vegetables. They contain more antioxidants and without the admixture of the poison ethanol.
The following arguments indicate the dangers of “small doses” of alcohol.
1. The use of alcohol by adults for “medicinal” purposes, even in small doses, is an undesirable provocative example for children. Children do not need alcohol, in any quantity.
2. Regular use of small doses disrupts, changes consciousness, the logic of thinking is disrupted, but thinking should be clear.
3. The “permissible” dose of alcohol varies depending on the country of study by 2–3 times. Calculate safe dose for a particular person it is difficult, it changes at different periods of life, even for one person. People become drunkards gradually and unnoticed. Drinking alcohol in small doses is a path to drinking alcohol in large doses.
4. If there are benefits from small doses of alcohol, then why can’t we teach people to drink it in teaspoons? Because main goal Drinking alcohol is not about getting health benefits, but about getting stupefied, changing consciousness, and getting alcoholic “pleasure.”
5. Alcohol consumption tends to increase in doses, which means the threshold for safe consumption is high probability will be transferred.
6. Propaganda for regular consumption of small doses of alcohol is provocative from the point of view of state security: if this idea is introduced into the consciousness of the residents of our CIS countries, then the question of “to drink or not to drink” alcohol will be resolved in favor of sobriety.
What regular alcohol consumption leads to can be clearly seen in the examples of countries with traditional alcohol consumption: France, where they drink only dry and high-quality wines, Germany, where they love beer, are increasingly filled with people from more sober civilizations: Turks, Arabs, Chinese, people from countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Thus, recommendations to drink alcohol in small doses, particularly in the form of beer, wine or “energy drinks,” are provocative, have commercial interests and political implications and are aimed at destroying the health of individuals, families and the state.
"Cultural" drinking
Nowadays, families are introduced to the “drinking culture” from an early age. Children are included in home drinking parties. Children are given diluted wine so that they believe that it is a “seasoning” for dishes. And it is used “culturally”. After all, this is what the French and Italians do.
IN modern Russia and other CIS countries there are too few families where wine is just a seasoning for dishes. Adults in these cases cannot be a positive example for children. Many generations living in the CIS countries did not drink wine and managed quite well without instilling a “drinking culture” in their minor children. In childhood, alcohol is quite dangerous for health. In addition, the earlier a child starts drinking alcohol, the greater his chances of becoming an alcoholic.
Even the great Avicenna allowed the prescription of small doses of red wine for stomach upsets, but warned that wine should not be given to children.
In Western countries, medicines for children are not alcohol-based.
IN medicinal tinctures alcohol is strictly dosed, and they are prescribed in limited doses by drops.
Alcohol capital and business want to disrupt the natural sobriety of children, so that children do not create a stereotype that they can simply be sober. After all, the earlier the introduction to alcohol begins, the more income there will be.
Drunkenness and alcoholism
Domestic drunkenness- this is not a disease yet, this is a tribute to the traditions existing in our society, these are “drinking” attitudes in individual groups, among colleagues, friends or relatives, this is a way of life.
Domestic drunkenness does not require drug treatment; a person, of his own free will, can stop drinking alcohol at any time or significantly reduce it without experiencing any unpleasant sensations from abstinence. Household drunkenness can continue throughout a person’s life; the amount of alcohol consumed can remain unchanged or increase to certain limits. But everyday drunkenness can turn into alcoholism.
Many people who drink believe that they are not alcoholic. In their view, an alcoholic is a degraded person, with a blue nose, unwashed, unshaven, uncut, with shaking hands, lost human form and dignity, as a rule, having lost his job, often his family, drinking with random drinking buddies, lying around anywhere. There are such alcoholics, and they are in late stages diseases.
But there are other alcoholics who drink and this does not yet affect their health, work, or family relationships. So far everything is fine with them, there are no hangovers, binges, alcoholic personality changes, social degradation, but they already have alcoholism.
Alcoholism– this is already a disease that requires treatment. Unlike everyday drunkenness, a patient with alcoholism cannot independently stop drinking alcohol and cannot arbitrarily regulate its amount.
In the body of a patient with alcoholism, changes occur in which the body rebels, demanding the intake of alcohol. This does not happen with everyday drunkenness.
Alcoholism is a progressive disease, and if its first symptoms appear, then it will steadily develop, new clinical manifestations, personality degradation and all the consequences of alcoholism will arise.
Stages of alcoholism
Alcohol disease has 3 stages.
The first stage of alcoholism is preceded by a stage of “cultural” drinking from one to ten years. People predisposed to alcoholism go through this stage quite quickly within a few months. Then comes the stage of poor drinking, and this is the first stage of alcoholism.
First stage
Second stage
Life becomes uncontrollable. Alcohol occupies the main place in consciousness; without alcohol, life becomes uninteresting and meaningless. Family, children, work and everything else fade into the background. Some drink almost constantly, others drink intermittently, but in both cases the disease progresses. Only absolute sobriety can stop the progression of alcoholism. At this stage, people stop drinking or try to stop drinking frequently, as fatigue sets in and their health begins to fail.
Third stage
Alcohol disease is treated exclusively by long-term sobriety and nothing else.
Often, alcohol is absolutely contraindicated for healthy individuals who, after small doses of alcohol, become violent, aggressive, and insane. They don't remember what they did or what happened to them. This condition is classified as pathological intoxication. Due to unmotivated aggressiveness and altered consciousness, such people commit illegal actions and criminal offenses. Unlike ordinary intoxication, which is caused by large doses of alcohol, pathological intoxication is caused by small amounts of alcohol. And if it happened once, it can always happen again. Such people need to always remain sober.
The relationship between the state of intoxication and blood alcohol content(V.I. Prozorovsky, A.F. Rubtsov, I.S. Karandaev, 1967)
Blood alcohol content Functional assessment
Less than 0.3 g/l No influence of alcohol
0.3 – 0.5 g/l Minor influence
0.5 – 1.5 g/l Mild intoxication
1.5 – 2.5 g/l Moderate intoxication
2.5 – 3 g/l Strong intoxication
3.0 – 5.0 g/l Severe poisoning, possible
fatal outcome
Over 5 g/l Fatal poisoning
Acute ethanol poisoning
The strength of ethanol depends on the dose, tolerance to alcohol (liver function), and the degree of individual production of enzymes that neutralize alcohol (alcohol dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase).
As a result of the action on the cerebral cortex, intoxication with characteristic alcoholic arousal occurs. Ethanol poisoning develops nausea, vomiting and dehydration (alcohol dehydrates the body).
In large doses, an anesthesia effect occurs. The inhibitory effect on the central nervous system is caused by stimulation of GABA receptors (gamma - aminobutyric acid). GABA is the main neurotransmitter involved in the processes of central inhibition.
Sensory sensations become difficult, attention decreases, and memory weakens. Defects in thinking and judgment appear, orientation and self-control are disrupted, and a critical attitude towards oneself and surrounding events is lost. There is often an overestimation of one's own capabilities. Reflex reactions are slow and inaccurate. Talkativeness, euphoria, pain sensitivity decreases (analgesia).
Spinal reflexes are reduced and coordination of movements is impaired. When taking large doses of alcohol, excitement gives way to depression and sleep occurs. At severe poisoning stuporous or coma: the skin is pale, moist, breathing is rare, the exhaled air smells of ethanol, the pulse is rapid, the body temperature is low.
Emergency care for acute alcohol poisoning includes the following measures:
1. Gastric lavage to clean rinsing water.
2. Water load with forced diuresis with diuretics.
3. In case of respiratory failure of central origin - artificial ventilation.
4. Alkalinization therapy with 4% sodium bicarbonate solution intravenously.
5. Symptomatic therapy according to indications
In the presence of alcoholic coma the patient is sequentially administered naloxone at a dose of 0.01 mg/kg in 10 ml of 40% glucose solution, and then 1 ml of 6% thiamine bromide is injected there. An awakening effect occurs in case of poisoning with alcohol, drugs and sleeping pills. Activated carbon is not effective for ethyl alcohol poisoning; it does not absorb alcohol.
Planned treatment of alcoholism is carried out by psychiatrists - narcologists in drug treatment rooms and hospitals.
Treatment of alcoholism includes two main stages:
1. Relief of acute alcohol disorders.
2. Anti-relapse therapy.
Relief of acute alcohol disorders, prevents and eliminates withdrawal syndrome and its complications – hangovers seizures and alcoholic delirium.
For this, ethanol analogs are used - benzodiazepines: diazepam, chlordiazepoxide (Elenium), lorazepam. Barbiturates and anticonvulsants are also used. These drugs are prescribed by psychiatrists and narcologists to eliminate withdrawal symptoms, prevent seizures and delirium tremens.
Vitamins are also prescribed: thiamine (vitamin B1), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) and nicotinic acid (vitamin PP). To restore the electrolyte balance of potassium and magnesium ions and eliminate dehydration, intravenous drip infusions (glucose, hemodez, panangin) are performed.
Anti-relapse (maintenance) therapy is aimed at reducing the severity of alcoholic excesses, preventing binge drinking and mitigating the adverse consequences of alcohol abuse.
It is carried out with the following medications: disulfiram, naltrexone, acamprosate. These drugs inhibit acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme that converts toxic acetaldehyde into acetic acid. In this case, acetaldehyde syndrome or disulfiramalcohol reaction (DAR) develops:
- increased blood pressure;
- tachycardia;
- heartbeat;
- throbbing pain in the head;
- blurred vision;
- nausea and vomiting;
Shortness of breath and feeling of lack of air;
- redness of the skin;
- fear of death, prompting a patient with alcoholism to stop drinking alcohol.
A successful and innovative dosage form of disulfiram is water-soluble (effervescent) tablets called Antabuse. The tablets are tasteless and odorless and can be added to food and drink by the patient's relatives. Each dose of a soluble tablet will ensure that the drug enters the patient’s body and assumes the timely development of the therapeutic effect.
Treatment for alcoholism will be effective when the patient has good motivation to treatment, that is:
-
he must admit that he is a sick person suffering from alcoholism;
- he must be willing to be treated for alcohol addiction;
- he must have the intention not to drink alcohol in any form in the future.
One of the old methods of treating alcoholism is "Hemming". The patient is sewn under the skin or injected intravenously with a drug (Torpedo, Esperal, NIT, SIT, MST, etc.). When alcohol enters the body, these drugs begin to produce toxic substances that cause nausea, vomiting, fear of death and form a negative attitude towards alcohol in a person. At the same time, if a person takes a large dose of alcohol, heart rhythm disturbances, angina attacks occur, and myocardial infarction and cerebral edema may develop.
The drugs used for filing are harmless if the person is in a state of sobriety. But they do not relieve the primary craving for alcohol. It turns out that you want to drink, but you are scared - there is a fear of death. This method is painful for many, but for some patients it can be quite effective.
"Coding"- This is emotional stress therapy. A “code” is laid in the subconscious that prohibits the consumption of alcohol. This method was developed by the Ukrainian doctor and narcologist A. Dovzhenko, with whom the term “coding for alcoholism” is associated.
Through emotional stress, a program is introduced into the patient’s consciousness possible occurrence, life-threatening severe health problems when consuming even small doses of alcohol. This method is effective for people susceptible to hypnosis.
In a state of hypnosis, a person is instilled with indifference and aversion to alcohol, and the appearance of bad consequences if it is consumed. The doctor conducting such treatment must test the patient for sensitivity to hypnosis. For patients who are less susceptible to hypnosis, additional techniques are performed, for example, when pronouncing the hypnosis formula, the phrase “if you drink even a little, you will die” is said and at the same time the doctor presses on the eyeballs. “Coding” is also carried out.
Hardware treatment carried out using special medical equipment that affects the human brain. As a result of this impact, they are restored healthy functions brain, the activity of the centers of attraction to alcohol is neutralized. This removes the primary craving for alcohol, and a person without
“withdrawal” enters a sober life. The most famous technique of electrical brain stimulation, TES, is a therapy developed by scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Professor V.P. Lebedev, used in 17 countries around the world.
Psychotherapy– this is soft psychotherapeutic work to maintain the patient’s emotional and volitional sphere. Psychotherapy can be used as independent method and in combination with other methods. To effectively recover from alcoholism, the patient’s family must be involved in the treatment process. The participation of family members in the treatment process increases the effectiveness of treatment, up to lifelong abstinence from alcohol consumption.
Group psychotherapy, in particular participation in Alcoholics Anonymous groups, is effective in maintaining resistance to alcohol.
Reflexology– can be effectively used in the treatment of alcoholism. Doctors-reflexologists, using needles, magnets and other reflexotherapeutic techniques, harmonize the energy system of the human body, which is unbalanced in various diseases, including alcoholism. And eliminating excess desire in alcoholism, as with any other addiction (tobacco, drugs, food, gaming), allows you to effectively get rid of alcohol addiction and be completely indifferent to alcohol.
Endorphins are “internal hormones of happiness”, the production of which in a patient with alcoholism is sharply reduced. It is precisely because of the deficiency of one’s own endorphins that numerous manifestations of alcohol dependence arise: pathological craving for alcohol, depression, feelings of guilt, and withdrawal syndrome develops.
Reflexologists successfully treat these conditions by “forcing” the patient’s body to produce endorphins in the required quantities. These methods are based on the body’s reaction in response to a corrective, therapeutic effect received from the external and internal environment with needles or magnets, carried out with the participation of the nervous system.
Reflexology can be used as an independent method in the treatment of alcoholism, and can also be combined with other therapeutic methods, for example, when withdrawing from heavy drinking, you can use points that calm the nervous system and thereby reduce the drug load on the body of a patient with alcoholism, significantly increasing their effectiveness.
Treatment of alcoholism using reflexology is effective and ensures a sober life for a person in the future. According to numerous reviews of patients who have undergone treatment for alcoholism using reflexology, the vast majority have good long-term results in the treatment of alcoholism. Patients who have undergone reflexology treatment enjoy their sober life; they always, even after many years, note the powerful healing effect that they felt after treatment. The craving for alcohol disappears, and indifference to it appears.
“There is alcohol, but it is not needed, not interesting and even disgusting” - this is how those who had an alcohol addiction after the treatment that I provide treat alcohol. I carry out the treatment with magnets, which I place on certain points on the hands and feet, and secure them with adhesive tape for several hours. Already after 1 – 2 sessions, alcohol becomes unnecessary, indifference to alcohol appears, alcohol disappears from life. Full course treatment is 8 – 10 sessions. The effectiveness of the method is up to 90%. These people continue to lead sober healthy image life without alcohol.
To recover and get rid of alcohol addiction, you must desire to recover from alcoholism, and have the intention in the future not to drink alcohol at all. Positive result will definitely be.
Conclusions about alcohol and the consequences of its use:
1. Alcohol is a poison in any form, including small doses. Separate beneficial features alcohol products cannot exceed their harm and recommend their use for medicinal or nutritional purposes.
2. Alcohol causes mental and physical dependence, leads to disability and premature death.
3. Alcohol causes moral and mental degradation, destroys families, and leads to crimes.
4. Alcohol leads to the birth of inferior offspring and the degeneration of individuals, social groups and entire nations.
5. Promoting regular use of “small doses” of alcohol is harmful to people and is incorrect in its essence, since alcohol is harmful even in small doses.
6. Promoting early introduction to the “culture” of drinking in the family is harmful and dangerous for the younger generation, as it contributes to the education of future alcohol consumers; alcohol producers and sellers need this to increase the production and sale of alcohol.
Bibliography:
Mendelson A.L. Sobriety textbook– St. Petersburg, Russian Society for the Fight against Alcoholism, 1913;
Permyakov A.V., Viter V.I. Pathomorphology and thanatogenesis of alcohol intoxication– Izhevsk, Expertise, 2002;
Egorov A.Yu., Shaidukova L.K. Modern features of alcoholism in women: age aspect. Narcology. 2005;
Nemtsov A.V. Alcoholism in Russia: history of the issue, current trends. Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry named after S. Korsakov. 2007; Alcoholism (appendix), episode 1:37:
www.lecheniealcogoliizma.ru Article: Clinic for the treatment of alcoholism of Professor V.L. Malygina;
www.president-med.ru Article: A few words about the principles of treating alcoholism;
www.tes.by Article: Possibilities of medicine in the treatment of alcoholism;
www.medportal.ru Article: Controlled drinking: myth or reality;
www.grinchenko.tveresa.info Article: Alcohol and its properties;
www.likar.info Article: What you know and don't know about alcoholism;
www.alcogolism.ru Article: Stages of alcoholism;
www.mycharm.ru Article: Ten facts about alcohol you need to know;
Toxicology of ethanol;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/ Article: Alcoholic drinks;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/ Article: Beer;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/ Article: Wine;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/ Article: Vodka;
http://medi.ru/ Yu.P. Sivolap Article: Alcoholism and modern methods of its treatment.
Alcoholism is a topical and important problem modern society, our country in particular. An unstable economic situation, constant crises and problems, and the availability of alcoholic beverages are all factors contributing to the spread of this problem. The age of people who start drinking alcohol is constantly getting younger. So, high school students in schools are already fully formed consumers of alcoholic beverages, especially beer. Then, with the onset of student age, the level of consumption only increases, and gradually the person is drawn into regularly taking doses of alcohol, sometimes without noticing it. The effect of alcohol on the human body is difficult to underestimate, since alcohol is one of the most common causes of disability, loss of ability to work, health and death of the population. At the same time, alcoholism most often affects able-bodied men of the most productive age. Cases of poisoning from low-quality alcohol are common.
It should be noted that alcoholism is a disease that, in addition to its medical nature, also has a social nature. People susceptible to alcoholism commit crimes, their families are more likely to break up, children lose their fathers, and sometimes even their mothers. Household drunkenness, which is an ordinary feast, contains a threat to the individual himself and to society as a whole. Approximately 25% of people who start “using” in everyday situations - holidays, family celebrations - have every chance of becoming alcoholics.
Alcohol has a detrimental effect on absolutely all organs and systems of the human body and psyche, and this has already been proven by scientists and pathologists. It also contributes to the development of chronic diseases.
Effect of alcohol on the brain
Alcohol disrupts the access of oxygen atoms to brain molecules, thereby providing it with oxygen starvation. If fasting becomes regular and prolonged, it can lead to memory loss, partial dementia, and sometimes death. All these are consequences of the death of brain cells that do not receive sufficient nutrition for a long time. The effect of alcohol on the brain is also expressed in its effect on the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the “thinking” function of the brain. Accordingly, when a person becomes an alcoholic, he is no longer able to think fully and correctly, which makes him a moderately useful member of society.
The cardiovascular system
Diseases of the heart and blood vessels are the most common reason death of people not only in our country, but throughout the world. Alcohol affects the heart muscle, which is already under severe stress, which has a detrimental effect on health. This is why people who drink alcohol often die at a young age. Doctors involved in autopsies claim that in people who suffered from alcoholism, the heart after death is increased in size, sometimes quite significantly.
Even those people who drink alcohol moderately and in small quantities sometimes experience heart rhythm disturbances after drinking a glass or two of alcohol. Under the influence of alcohol, coronary disease and hypertension quickly progress, and the heart is often affected by a heart attack.
Respiratory system
Alcohol abusers often develop chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and tuberculosis. At the same time, the breathing rate itself increases significantly, since oxygen access to the lungs is difficult. Drinking alcohol is often accompanied by smoking. In this case, the load on the respiratory system increases several times. These two habits - alcohol and smoking - are very harmful in themselves, but in combination they represent a doubly dangerous force that affects human health.
Gastrointestinal diseases
The first to be affected is the gastric mucosa, which takes the brunt of the blow. Due to regular consumption of alcohol, the mucous membrane becomes irritated, then gastritis and peptic ulcers develop. Stomach diseases - more often than all other diseases accompany alcoholism. If you drink alcohol for a long enough time, the normal functioning of the salivary glands is destroyed. In this case, the secretion of saliva becomes less abundant and its chemical composition changes, which impairs food processing.
Liver diseases
Since the liver is responsible for cleansing the entire body of various toxins, impurities and poisons, it often simply cannot cope with the volume of toxic substances entering the body with alcohol. At the same time, health suffers greatly. Therefore, it is so common with regular and long-term drinking of alcohol, especially Low quality, people develop hepatitis, which then gradually turns into cirrhosis of the liver.
Three stages of liver damage:
- Fatty degeneration. Develops in moderate but regular drinkers. The liver increases in size and cannot cope with the increased load. If you completely stop drinking alcohol at this stage, there is every chance of a successful outcome and full recovery person.
- Alcoholic hepatitis. At this stage, sometimes quite severe pain in the right side, which indicates that the disease is progressing. The whites of the eyes turn yellow because the liver can no longer cope with removing waste and toxins from the body.
- Cirrhosis. This stage is already extreme degree liver breakdown. It usually leads to death, as the organ completely ceases to perform its functions.
Effect on the kidneys
The vast majority of people suffering from alcoholism excretory function the kidneys are impaired. This occurs due to damage to the mucous membrane of the renal epithelium - the tissue lining the surface of the organ.
Alcohol also has a very detrimental effect on the human immune system, literally turning it off for some time. This gives harmful microbes and bacteria an opportunity to infect the body. The effect of alcohol on the human body is therefore very insidious. Alcoholics often have colds and other viral infections. In this case, the processes of blood purification and the production of new red blood cells are disrupted, and allergic reactions often develop.
Effect on the reproductive system
The gonads are very strongly influenced by alcohol. One third of men who abuse alcohol experience a significant decrease in the ability to have normal sexual activity. This is the so-called “alcoholic impotence”. As a result of such an important dysfunction for a man, he often develops neuroses, depression and other mental health problems. Women experience early menopause, the ability to conceive is lost or reduced, and during pregnancy, if it does occur, they are more often worried about toxicosis .
Effect on skin and muscle condition
Under the influence of alcohol, muscles often atrophy, lose tone and weaken. The effects of alcohol on the muscular system are similar to the effects of malnutrition. Skin diseases- frequent accompanying alcoholism. Because the immune system is half disabled, it may not be able to cope with viral attacks. The liver also does not function at full capacity, so cleansing the body is not carried out well enough. As a result, various boils, ulcers, pimples appear on the surface of the skin, allergic rashes and other "decorations".
Delirium tremens
Everyone knows the jokes about “delirium tremens.” And it would be funnier if it weren't so true. Hallucinations, convulsions, sudden numbness of the limbs - all this frequent consequences excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Delirium tremens is one of the most terrible forms of alcohol poisoning. It leads to death in two percent of cases, even with medical care. Without the timely arrival of doctors, it leads to death in 20% of cases. The disease is characterized by strong and fantastic delusional hallucinations, lapses in memory and consciousness, severe agitation, disorientation in space and time. The patient becomes feverish, loses complete control over himself, and often needs to be subdued by force.
The effect of alcohol on offspring
The harmful effects of alcohol on unborn children have been known since ancient times. So, in Ancient Greece newlyweds were forbidden to drink at the wedding, this was especially common in Sparta, known for its strict criteria for the health of newborns. And in ancient Rome, young men under 30 were generally prohibited from drinking until they started families and had children.
To date, medical research has collected many facts directly indicating the harmful effects of alcohol on the health of unborn children. Frequent cases stillbirth and premature babies. Also, mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy often give birth to children with pathologies, disabilities and chronic diseases from birth. In most cases of births of mentally retarded children, one or both parents abused alcohol.
In general, overall life expectancy with systematic alcohol intake is significantly reduced. Early aging of the body, the onset of disability, occurs on average 15-20 years later than in people who do not abuse alcohol.
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Alcohol abuse is a pressing problem of modern society, which gives rise to crimes, accidents, injuries and poisoning in all segments of the population. Alcohol addiction is especially difficult to perceive when it concerns the most promising part of society - students. The mortality rate of the working-age population due to the use of alcoholic beverages ranks high. Scientists estimate alcoholism as a collective suicide of the nation. Addiction to alcohol, like cancer, destroys the personality of an individual and society as a whole from within.
How does alcohol affect the human body? Let's look at the effect of alcoholic drinks on all organs and find out how alcohol affects the brain, liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels, nervous system, as well as men's and women's health.
Effect of alcohol on the brain
All organs suffer from the negative effects of alcoholic beverages. But most of all it goes to neurons - brain cells. People know how alcohol affects the brain from the feeling of euphoria, high spirits and relaxation.
However, on physiological level at this time, destruction of cells of the cerebral cortex occurs even after small doses of ethanol.
- Normally, the blood supply to the brain occurs through thin capillaries.
- When alcohol enters the blood, blood vessels narrow and red blood cells stick together, forming blood clots. They clog the lumen of the brain capillaries. In this case, the nerve cells experience oxygen starvation and die. At the same time, a person feels euphoria, without even suspecting the destructive changes in the cerebral cortex.
- Capillaries from congestion swell and burst.
- After drinking 100 g of vodka, a glass of wine or a mug of beer, 8 thousand nerve cells die forever. Unlike liver cells, which can regenerate after alcohol withdrawal, nerve cells in the brain do not.
- Dead neurons are excreted in urine the next day.
Thus, under the influence of alcohol on blood vessels, an obstacle to normal blood circulation in the brain is created. This is the cause of the development of alcoholic encephalopathy and epilepsy.
A postmortem autopsy of the skull of alcohol abusers naturally reveals destructive pathological changes in their brain:
- reducing its size;
- smoothing of convolutions;
- the formation of voids in place of dead areas;
- foci of pinpoint hemorrhages;
- the presence of serous fluid in the cavities of the brain.
With long-term abuse, alcohol affects the structure of the brain. Ulcers and scars form on its surface. Under a magnifying glass, the brain of an alcoholic looks like the lunar surface, pockmarked with craters and craters.
The effect of alcohol on the nervous system
The human brain is a kind of control panel for the entire body. Its cortex contains centers for memory, reading, movement of body parts, smell, and vision. Poor circulation and cell death of any center are accompanied by shutdown or weakening of brain functions. This is accompanied by a decrease in a person’s cognitive (cognitive) abilities.
The influence of alcohol on the human psyche is expressed in a decrease in intelligence and personality degradation:
- memory impairment;
- decreased IQ;
- hallucinations;
- loss of critical attitude towards oneself;
- immoral behavior;
- incoherent speech.
Under the influence of alcohol on the nervous system, a person’s behavioral reactions change. He loses his modesty and restraint. He does things that he wouldn't do in his right mind. Stops being critical of your emotions. He experiences unmotivated attacks of rage and anger. A person’s personality degrades in direct proportion to the amount and duration of alcohol consumption.
Gradually a person loses interest in life. His creative and labor potential is declining. All this negatively affects career growth and social status.
Alcoholic polyneuritis of the lower extremities develops after prolonged use of ethyl alcohol. Its cause is inflammation of the nerve endings. It is related to acute shortage in the body of B vitamins. The disease is manifested by a feeling of severe weakness in the lower extremities, numbness, and pain in the calves. Ethanol affects both muscles and nerve endings - it causes atrophy of the entire muscular system, which ends in neuritis and paralysis.
The effect of alcohol on the cardiovascular system
The effect of alcohol on the heart is such that it works under load for 5–7 hours. While drinking strong drinks, your heart rate increases and your blood pressure rises. Full heart function is restored only after 2-3 days, when the body is finally cleansed.
After alcohol enters the blood, a change occurs in the red blood cells - they are deformed due to membrane rupture, stick together, forming blood clots. As a result, blood flow in the coronary vessels is disrupted. The heart, trying to push blood through, increases in size.
The effects of alcohol on the heart when abused include the following diseases.
- Myocardial dystrophy. In place of cells killed as a result of hypoxia, connective tissue develops, which impairs the contractility of the heart muscle.
- Cardiomyopathy is a typical consequence that develops over 10 years of alcohol abuse. It most often affects men.
- Heart arythmy.
- Coronary heart disease - angina pectoris. After drinking alcohol, the release of adrenaline and norepinephrine in the blood increases, which increases oxygen consumption by the heart muscle. Therefore, any dose can cause coronary insufficiency.
- The risk of developing myocardial infarction in heavy drinkers is higher than in healthy individuals, regardless of the condition of the coronary vessels of the heart. Alcohol increases blood pressure, which causes heart attack and premature death.
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is characterized by hypertrophy (enlargement) of the ventricles of the heart.
The symptoms of alcoholic cardiomyopathy are as follows:
- dyspnea;
- a cough, often at night, that people associate with a cold;
- fast fatiguability;
- pain in the heart area.
Progression of cardiomyopathy leads to heart failure. Shortness of breath is accompanied by swelling of the legs, enlarged liver, and cardiac arrhythmia. When people have heart pain, subendocardial myocardial ischemia is often detected. Drinking alcohol also causes hypoxia - oxygen starvation of the heart muscle. Since alcohol leaves the body over several days, myocardial ischemia persists throughout this time.
Important! If your heart hurts the next day after drinking alcohol, you need to get a cardiogram and consult a cardiologist.
Alcoholic drinks affect heart rate. After heavy drinking of alcohol, various types of arrhythmias often develop:
- paroxysmal atrial tachycardia;
- frequent atrial or ventricular extrasystole;
- atrial flutter;
- ventricular fibrillation, which requires anti-shock treatment measures (often fatal).
The presence of this kind of arrhythmias after taking large doses of alcohol is called “holiday” heart. Heart rhythm disturbances, especially ventricular arrhythmias, are often fatal. Arrhythmias can be regarded as signs of cardiomyopathy.
The effect of alcohol on the human cardiovascular system is a fact that has been scientifically established and substantiated. The risk of these diseases is directly proportional to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol and its breakdown product, acetaldehyde, have a direct cardiotoxic effect. In addition, it causes a deficiency of vitamins and proteins and increases blood lipids. During acute alcohol intoxication, the contractility of the myocardium sharply decreases, which leads to a lack of blood in the heart muscle. Trying to compensate for oxygen deficiency, the heart increases contractions. In addition, during intoxication, the concentration of potassium in the blood decreases, which causes rhythm disturbances, the most dangerous of which is ventricular fibrillation.
The effect of alcohol on blood vessels
Does alcohol lower or increase blood pressure? - even 1-2 glasses of wine increases blood pressure, especially in people with hypertension. After drinking alcoholic beverages, the concentration of catecholamines - adrenaline and norepinephrine - increases in the blood plasma, which increase blood pressure. There is a concept called “dose-dependent effect”, which shows how alcohol affects blood pressure depending on its amount - systolic and diastolic pressure increases by 1 mmHg when ethanol increases by 8-10 grams per day. People who abuse alcohol have a 3-fold increased risk of hypertension compared to abstainers.
How does alcohol affect blood vessels? Let's figure out what happens to our blood vessels when drinking alcohol. The initial effect of alcoholic drinks on the vascular wall is dilating. But after this a spasm occurs. This leads to ischemia of the blood vessels of the brain and heart, leading to heart attack and stroke. Alcohol also has toxic effect on the veins in such a way that the flow of blood through them is disrupted. This leads to varicose veins of the esophagus and lower extremities. People who abuse libations often experience bleeding from the veins of the esophagus, which ends in death. Does alcohol dilate or constrict blood vessels? - these are just stages of its sequential impact, both of which are destructive.
The main damaging effect of alcohol on blood vessels is related to how alcohol affects the blood. Under the influence of ethanol, red blood cells stick together. The resulting blood clots spread throughout the body, clogging narrow vessels. Moving through the capillaries, blood flow becomes significantly more difficult. This leads to disruption of blood supply to all organs, but the greatest danger is to the brain and heart. The body initiates a compensatory reaction - it increases blood pressure in order to push blood through. This leads to heart attack, hypertensive crisis, and stroke.
Effect on the liver
It's no secret how harmful alcohol affects the liver. The stage of ethyl alcohol release is much longer than absorption. Up to 10% of ethanol is released in pure form with saliva, sweat, urine, feces and during breathing. That is why after drinking alcohol a person has a specific smell of urine and “fumes” from the mouth. The remaining 90% of ethanol has to be broken down by the liver. Complex biochemical processes occur in it, one of which is the conversion of ethyl alcohol into acetaldehyde. But the liver can only break down about 1 glass of alcohol in 10 hours. Unsplit ethanol damages liver cells.
Alcohol affects the development of the following liver diseases.
- Fatty liver. At this stage, fat in the form of globules accumulates in hepatocytes (liver cells). Over time, it sticks together, forming blisters and cysts in the area of the portal vein, which interfere with the movement of blood from it.
- At the next stage, alcoholic hepatitis develops - inflammation of its cells. At the same time, the liver increases in size. Fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea appear. At this stage, after stopping ethanol consumption, liver cells are still able to regenerate (recover). Continued use leads to a transition to the next stage.
- Liver cirrhosis is a typical disease associated with alcohol abuse. At this stage, liver cells are replaced by connective tissue. The liver becomes covered with scars; when palpated, it is dense with an uneven surface. This stage is irreversible - dead cells cannot recover. But stopping alcohol consumption stops liver scarring. Remaining healthy cells perform a function with limited capabilities.
If alcohol consumption does not stop at the stage of cirrhosis, the process progresses to the stage of cancer. A healthy liver can be maintained with moderate consumption.
The equivalent is a glass of beer or a glass of wine per day. And even with such dosages, you should not drink alcohol every day. It is necessary to allow alcohol to completely leave the body, and this takes 2-3 days.
Effect of alcohol on the kidneys
The function of the kidneys is not only the formation and excretion of urine. They take part in balancing acid-base balance and water-electrolyte balance, produce hormones.
How does alcohol affect the kidneys? - when consuming ethanol, they go into intensive operation mode. The renal pelvis is forced to pump a large volume of fluid, trying to remove substances harmful to the body. Constant overload weakens the functional ability of the kidneys - over time, they can no longer work constantly in an enhanced mode. The effect of alcohol on the kidneys can be seen after a festive feast by a swollen face and increased blood pressure. Fluid accumulates in the body, which the kidneys are unable to remove.
In addition, toxins accumulate in the kidneys, then stones form. Over time, nephritis develops. Moreover, after drinking alcohol, it happens that the kidneys hurt, the temperature rises, and protein appears in the urine. The progression of the disease is accompanied by the accumulation of toxins in the blood, which the liver is no longer able to neutralize and the kidneys to remove.
Lack of treatment leads to the development of renal failure. In this case, the kidneys cannot form and excrete urine. Poisoning of the body with toxins begins - general intoxication with a fatal outcome.
How does alcohol affect the pancreas?
The function of the pancreas is to secrete enzymes into the small intestine to digest food. How does alcohol affect the pancreas? - under its influence, its ducts are clogged, as a result of which enzymes do not enter the intestines, but inside it. Moreover, these substances destroy gland cells. In addition, they affect metabolic processes involving insulin. Therefore, if you abuse alcohol, diabetes can develop.
When subjected to decomposition, enzymes and breakdown products cause inflammation of the gland - pancreatitis. It manifests itself in the fact that after drinking alcohol the pancreas hurts, vomiting appears and the temperature rises. Pain in the lumbar region is girdling in nature. Alcohol abuse affects the development of chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for breast cancer.
The effect of alcohol on the female and male body
Alcohol affects a woman's body to a greater extent than a man's. In women, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, is found in lower concentrations than in men, so they get drunk faster. The same factor influences the formation of alcohol dependence in women faster than in men.
Even after consuming small doses, women's organs undergo great changes. Under the influence of alcohol on a woman’s body, reproductive function is primarily affected. Ethanol disrupts the monthly cycle and negatively affects reproductive cells and conception. Drinking alcohol accelerates the onset of menopause. In addition, alcohol increases the risk of cancer of the breast and other organs. With age, the negative effect of alcohol on the female body increases because its elimination from the body slows down.
Alcohol negatively affects important brain structures - the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The consequence of this is its negative impact on male body- the production of sex hormones decreases, causing potency to decrease. As a result, family relationships collapse.
Alcohol negatively affects all organs. It has the fastest and most dangerous effect on the brain and heart. Ethanol increases blood pressure, thickens the blood, and disrupts blood circulation in the brain and coronary vessels. Thus, it provokes a heart attack, stroke, and hypertensive crisis. With long-term use, irreversible diseases of the heart and brain develop - alcoholic cardiomyopathy, encephalopathy. suffer the most important organs, designed to remove toxins from the body - liver and kidneys. The pancreas is damaged and digestion is disrupted. But stopping alcohol intake early in illness can restore cells and stop organ destruction.
