The truth about the physiology of the process of intoxication. Formation of the state of alcoholic intoxication

There is not a single organ in the human body that would not be destroyed by alcohol. But the strongest changes and in the very first place occur in the human brain. It is there that this poison tends to accumulate. After taking a mug of beer, a glass of wine, 100 grams of vodka, the alcohol contained in them is absorbed into the bloodstream, goes to the brain with the bloodstream, and the process of intensive destruction of the cerebral cortex begins in a person. The destruction mechanism is very simple.

In 1961, the three American physicists Nicely, Muskaui and Pennington examined the human eye through a long-focus microscope they had made. They focused through the pupil on the smallest vessels of the retina of the eye, gave illumination from the side, and for the first time in the history of science, physicists managed to look inside a human vessel and see how blood flows through the vessel. What did physicists see?

They saw the walls of the vessel, they saw leukocytes (white blood cells) and erythrocytes (red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, and carbon dioxide in the opposite direction) 8 Blood flowed through the vessels, everything was filmed. One day, physicists put another client at the microscope, looked him in the eye and gasped. In a person, blood clots were walking through the vessel: clots, gluing of red blood cells. Moreover, in these gluings, they counted 5, 10, 40, 400, up to 1000 pieces of erythrocytes. They figuratively called them grapes.

The physicists were frightened, but the man is sitting and it seems nothing. The second third is normal, and the fourth has blood clots again. They began to find out and found out: these two had been drinking the day before. Immediately, physicists performed a barbaric experiment. A sober man, in whom everything was normal in the vessels, was given a mug of beer to drink. After 15 minutes, alcoholic gluing of red blood cells appeared in the blood of a former sober person. Physicists decided that they had made the greatest scientific discovery - they directly proved that alcohol coagulates blood (it is a thrombogenic agent) in human vessels, and not only in a test tube, as was known from experience. This experience, which was previously shown at school in the 9th grade in biology lessons, is as follows. Water is poured into a test tube and a few drops of blood are dripped into it. Against the background of the lamp, the water turns bright orange. Immediately, a few drops of vodka are dripped into this test tube and right before our eyes the blood coagulates in flakes.

So, as it turned out, not only in a test tube, but also in vessels, alcohol coagulates blood. Just in case, physicists turned to the medical encyclopedia and discovered with amazement that for 300 years medicine has been diagnosing alcohol as a narcotic neurotropic and protoplasmic poison, that is, a poison that affects both the nervous system and all human organs; a poison that destroys their structure at the cellular and molecular levels. As you know, alcohol is a good solvent. As a solvent, it is widely used in industry in the manufacture of varnishes, varnishes, in a number of chemical industries for the synthesis of paints, synthetic rubber, and others. It dissolves everything: grease, dirt, and paint ... Therefore, alcohol is used in technology to degrease the surface.

But once in the blood, alcohol behaves like a solvent there! What happens when alcohol (always containing alcohol) passes through the stomach and intestines into the bloodstream? What happens to the brain from vodka? In the normal state, the outer surface of erythrocytes is covered, as it were, with a thin layer of lubricant, which, when rubbed against the walls of blood vessels, is electrified. Each of the erythrocytes carries a unipolar negative charge, and therefore they have the original property to repel each other. Alcohol-containing liquid removes this protective layer and relieves electrical stress.

As a result, red blood cells, instead of repelling, begin to stick together. At the same time, red blood cells acquire a new property: they begin to stick together with each other, forming larger balls. The process goes on in the mode of snowballs, the size of which increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. The diameter of capillaries in certain parts of the body (brain, retina) is sometimes so small that red blood cells literally "squeeze" through them one by one, often pushing the walls of the capillaries apart.

The smallest diameter of a capillary is 50 times thinner than a human hair, equal to 8 microns (0.008 mm), the smallest diameter of an erythrocyte is 7 microns (0.007 mm). Therefore, it is clear that a formation containing several erythrocytes is not able to move through the capillaries. Moving along the branching arteries, and then along the arterioles of ever smaller caliber, it eventually reaches the arteriole, which has a diameter smaller than the diameter of the clot, and blocks it, completely stopping the blood flow in it, therefore, the blood supply to individual groups of brain neurons stops.

The clots are irregular in shape and contain an average of 200-500 erythrocytes, their average size is 60 microns. There are separate clots containing thousands of red blood cells. Of course, thrombi of this size overlap the arterioles of not the smallest caliber. Due to the fact that oxygen stops flowing to the brain cells, hypoxia begins, that is, oxygen starvation (oxygen deficiency). It is hypoxia that is perceived by a person as an allegedly harmless state of intoxication.

And this leads to “numbness”, and then the death of parts of the brain. All this is subjectively perceived by those who have drunk alcohol as "freedom" from the outside world, similar to the euphoria of being released from prison after a long "time in prison". In fact, just a part of the brain is artificially turned off from the perception of often "unpleasant" information from the outside. It is hypoxia that is an imitator of freedom, the feeling of which arises in the psyche of people who drink under the influence of alcohol. It is for this feeling of freedom that everyone who drinks is drawn. But the feeling of freedom is not freedom, but the most dangerous illusion of the drinker.

Having thus decided to “free” himself from those around him and from problems, the drunk continues to be surrounded by people and circumstances, ceasing to be aware of his actions and thoughts. Note that the "sleep" that occurs as a result of strong intoxication is not sleep in the usual physiological sense. This is precisely the loss of consciousness due to neurochemical disorders caused by alcoholic hypoxia of the brain - an alcoholic coma.

In other words, during oxygen starvation, a waking organism cannot breathe, and in order to facilitate breathing (so that a person does not die), a protective reaction of the body occurs - “sleep”, in order to reduce the metabolic rate in it. For large vessels (in the arm, in the leg), the gluing of erythrocytes in the initial stages of alcohol consumption is not particularly dangerous. Unless people who have been drinking alcohol for many years have a characteristic complexion and nose. A person in the nose has a lot of small vessels that branch. When an alcoholic gluing of erythrocytes approaches the site of the branching of the vessel, it clogs it, the vessel swells (aneurysm 10), dies, and the nose subsequently acquires a blue-violet color because the vessel no longer works.

In the mind of all, the situation is exactly the same. The human brain is made up of 15 billion nerve cells (neurons). Each nerve cell (neuron, denoted by a triangle with a dot) ultimately feeds its own microcapillary with blood. This microcapillary is so thin that erythrocytes can only squeeze into one row for normal nutrition of a given neuron. But when the alcoholic gluing of erythrocytes approaches the base of the microcapillary, it clogs it, 7-9 minutes pass and the next brain cell of a human neuron irrevocably and forever dies.

Blockage of the microcapillary by gluing red blood cells After each so-called "moderate" drink, a new graveyard of dead nerve cells of neurons appears in the head of a person. And when doctors-pathologists open the skull of any so-called moderately drunk person, they all see the same picture - a wrinkled brain, a brain smaller in volume and the entire surface of the cerebral cortex in microscars, microulcers, lunges of structures. These are all areas of the brain destroyed by alcohol. The insidiousness of alcohol is further enhanced by the fact that the body of a young person has a significant, approximately 10-fold supply of capillaries. That is, only about 10% of all capillaries function at any given moment.

Therefore, alcoholic disorders of the circulatory system and their consequences are not as obvious in youth as in later years. However, over time, the “reserve” of capillaries is gradually exhausted, and the consequences of alcohol poisoning become more and more noticeable. With the current level of alcohol consumption, the “average” in this respect, a man “suddenly” encounters a wide variety of ailments at the age of about 30 years. Most often, these are diseases of the stomach, liver, and cardiovascular system. Neurosis, disorders in the sexual sphere. However, diseases can be the most unexpected: after all, the effect of alcohol is universal, it affects all organs and systems of the human body.

Some scientists believe that after 100 grams of vodka, at least 8 thousand actively working cells die forever, mainly germ cells and brain cells. The irreversible death of neurons as a result of thrombosis and microstrokes in the cerebral cortex leads to the loss of part of the information and to short-term memory impairments (FIRST OF ALL, THE BRAIN CELLS responsible for memory die, so those who “slightly” sorted out the next morning do not remember anything).

At the same time, the processes of processing current information are hampered, which lead to the fixation of its most significant part in neural structures that provide long-term memory. When doctors autopsy alcoholics who died from alcohol poisoning, they are surprised not at how the brain is destroyed, but at how a person could continue to live with such a brain. Thus, alcohol is, as it were, an invisible, but very powerful weapon aimed at depriving a person of reason. And if a whole nation drinks, as our people were driven into this abyss of drunkenness, then this means depriving the mind of the entire nation and turning people from people who are intelligent, creative, thinking, forward-minded — into just a two-legged working herd.

Noisy fun, constant toasts and dances - these are the criteria for successful fun for many citizens. However, such a pastime in the morning can result in vomiting, headache and intense thirst. There are all signs of a condition, which in the ICD-10 reference book is called alcohol intoxication, the degree of which is measured by several criteria at once: ppm, degree and form of dependence.

What is alcohol intoxication

Slow reactions to stimuli, absent-mindedness, a feeling of euphoria and impaired coordination, due to the ingestion of ethyl alcohol into the blood, is a state of intoxication. Depending on the stage and form of manifestation, alcohol intoxication can affect a person's behavioral functions or cause a complete loss of control over what is happening, a disorder of personality, memory, and attention.

signs

Everything good should be in moderation, but the concept of measure is different for everyone. Alcohol in any form is a poison of universal action. Getting into the blood through the gastrointestinal tract, ethyl alcohol dramatically disrupts all processes in the body: a person begins to breathe more often, the pulse speeds up, and a feeling of detachment appears. With frequent and uncontrolled intake, all the signs of intoxication are "obvious": the drunk loses control over the situation, overestimates his abilities, his orientation is disturbed.

Stages of intoxication

According to the concentration of alcohol in the blood, alcohol intoxication is conventionally divided into several stages: mild, moderate and severe intoxication. The last alcoholic degree is extremely dangerous, can lead to loss of consciousness, prolonged coma or death. In medical practice, it is customary to display the degree of intoxication in ppm:

0.2-0.5 ppm causes a feeling of excitement, cheers up, a person becomes talkative.
0.5-1 ppm - a state of mild intoxication. The gait is shaky, speech is confused, there is a decrease in the reaction to a slight stimulus.
1-1.5 ppm - an intermediate stage of intoxication. A person is irritable, prone to bickering, articulates indistinctly.
1.6-3 ppm alcohol is a strong degree. Skin integuments turn pale, speech becomes incoherent, behavior is inadequate.
Above the scale of 3 ppm - the clinical degree of intoxication. Alcohol affects the nervous system, the brain, causes heart failure.

Light

If a drunken object begins to do things that are unusual for him - he can fulfill any wish, becomes too cheerful or, on the contrary, aggressive, but does not yet get into a fight - this is a slight degree of intoxication. Depending on the amount taken, the alcohol detoxification period lasts from a few minutes to one or more hours. At the same time, even slight intoxication will adversely affect the functions of the autonomic and psycho-emotional system:

coordination is disturbed;
there will be confusion;
blood will rush to the skin;
pulse, breathing will become more frequent;
sweating will increase.

Medium

The next stage of alcohol dependence causes disorders of the autonomic apparatus, the work of the central nervous system. The average degree of alcohol intoxication is expressed in the following signs:

the appearance of incoherent speech, difficulty in the thought process;
complete lack of coordination;
obscene language;
manifestation of sexual harassment;
aggression towards others;
sweeping nervous movements of the hands;
the emergence of a desire to openly meet the needs in public places.

For an average degree of intoxication, an impulsive perception of reality is characteristic: irritability can be abruptly replaced by rudeness, frustration - by euphoria. However, the drinker does not always behave this way, sometimes the reactions can proceed differently: the person, on the contrary, becomes withdrawn, silent, gloomy. After alcohol intoxication, some episodes disappear from memory, vigorous activity decreases sharply, severe thirst and headache appear.

strong

The extreme degree of alcohol intoxication is characterized by severe consequences:

serious damage to the central nervous system;
absolute shutdown of consciousness;
spontaneous urination;
muscle cramps and epileptic seizures may occur.

Such alcohol intoxication is extremely life-threatening. If you notice that a drunk person has become lethargic, stopped responding or reacting in any way to stimuli, the pupils are dilated, breathing is rare and slow, and the skin is pale, call an ambulance immediately. However, even this does not guarantee that the severe stage of intoxication will not leave mental changes in consciousness: visual or auditory hallucinations, seizures, and so on.

Types of intoxication

In addition to the degree in ppm, alcohol intoxication is divided into several types:

If alcohol causes irritability, conflict and other things, this form of intoxication can be defined as dysphoric.
The paranoid type of alcohol intoxication is characterized by excessive suspicion. A person with this type of intoxication can perceive the attempts of loved ones as a reason to inflict injury, harm, physical damage on him.
In people with high self-esteem, serious ambitions, the drunk state is manifested by the desire to impress: the drunk person plays for the public, arranges demonstrations.
With the epileptoid form of intoxication, a moment of complete disorientation is observed: goodwill is sharply replaced by hostility, and pathological fear may appear.
The hebephrenic version of intoxication is more often inherent in adolescents and manifests itself as foolishness, antics.
Hysterical type of intoxication - demonstrative suicidal attempts, imitation of madness or rampage, a person tries to express despair, oppression, grief in scenes.

What happens in the body when you drink alcohol

Upon contact with the gastric mucosa, any alcoholic drink begins to gradually penetrate into the bloodstream. Alcohol and red blood cells interact - the first actively destroys the outer shell of the second, as a result, the blood cells stick together. Clots block the blood flow, the provision of the central nervous system and soft tissues with oxygen and nutrients is suspended. Over time, brain cells die. The problem is that neurons don't regenerate. Scars form on the gray matter, and with the constant use of alcoholic beverages, the brain gradually shrinks.

Why does a person get drunk

The mechanism of action of alcohol on the human body is due to the production of a special enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase. It is he who breaks down ethyl, which is present in any alcoholic beverage, into water, carbon dioxide and energy - glucose. Alcoholic drinks in small doses will not harm the body in any way, and in some cases a glass of red wine will help. However, excessive alcohol levels exceed the amount of alcohol dehydrogenase, the person quickly gets drunk.

Why do you want to sleep

Alcohol weakens and slows down the body. Therefore, when intoxicated, he is forced to spend a double dose of energy on recovery. When the reserve stocks approach zero, the drunk patient simply switches off. The second reason why you want to sleep after alcohol, scientists compare with the effect of alcohol on the nervous system. A sharp jump in mood will necessarily be replaced by a recession, and then lead to a transition to a sleepy state.

Subjectively, alcohol intoxication- this is a feeling of euphoria, permissiveness and impunity, characteristic of a person whose blood has got ethyl alcohol. Objectively, these are certain chemical reactions that lead to blockage of blood vessels and, as a result, oxygen starvation of the brain. Find out what "laboratory experiments" on your own health lead to in the following article. The simple scientific facts speak for themselves...

“The drunk does not need a knife, you pour him a little bit - and do with him what you want!” Have you heard this? Alcohol has an unparalleled impact on the human body. Everywhere and everywhere they say that drinking is harmful. This is already a hackneyed statement that does not make any impression on us. And if you try to ask what exactly is harmful alcohol, most will not be able to give an exhaustive answer.

In our society, the law of moderate drinking flourishes, and it is even believed that in small doses alcohol useful. There has been a lot of medical research done on this subject to support this theory. Perhaps this is so. But that's not what we're talking about. And about the physiology, or rather, the physiological processes that occur in our body after consumption alcohol. I promise, it will not be boring, I will try to state it as clearly as possible for any reader.

Red blood cells (erythrocytes) carry oxygen throughout the body. Outside, they are covered with a lipid membrane, which does not allow them to stick together. The alcohol that enters the blood degreases the surface of red blood cells, leading to their sticking together and the formation of clots that increase like a snowball.

Naturally, these clots cannot first pass through thin capillaries, but with an increase in the number of adherent erythrocytes, even through larger blood vessels. Moreover, the more alcohol is drunk, the larger these clots reach. Sooner or later, such clots get stuck in the vessels, completely paralyzing the blood flow. The tissues begin to lack oxygen. And under the influence alcohol this process occurs in the tissues of all organs.

First of all, the brain suffers when the blood supply to certain groups of its neurons stops. Then oxygen starvation sets in, leading to the death of individual, albeit very small, sections of the brain. This state of hypoxia is perceived as a harmless state of intoxication.

At a certain stage of oxygen starvation, a state of euphoria, high spirits occurs. If the dose taken alcohol increases, then as a result of strong intoxication, a person falls asleep. But that's what we think. From a physiological point of view, alcoholic coma, i.e. loss of consciousness due to neurochemical disturbances caused by alcoholic brain hypoxia.

The awake body needs more oxygen, so when it is lacking, the body turns on such a protective reaction to reduce the intensity of metabolism. As a result of blockage of blood vessels in the cerebral cortex, irreversible death of neurons and microstrokes occur, leading to memory impairment.

Because first of all, the brain cells responsible for memory die. I think everyone knows how as a result of heavy drinking people can not remember anything after they sober up. And what happens in the body after that? And the next day, a hangover syndrome sets in ... While a person comes to his senses, a general cleaning is going on in the body at that time.

It gets rid of dead cells in the cerebral cortex, increasing the flow of fluid into the disaster area and thereby creating increased pressure there. It is literally brainwashing. Here is the explanation for the headache and the feeling of thirst: after all, the body needs a lot of fluid to eliminate the consequences of yesterday.

Dead cells are excreted in the urine. You can even say that a person urinates with his brains, or rather with what he turned them into the day before. Do you want to know what happens in the stomach? Consider this on the example of an experiment conducted by American scientists. Gastroscopic examination was performed in 19 participants with healthy stomachs.

Each subject swallowed a miniature device such as an iconoscope, from which an image of the walls of the stomach was transmitted to the TV screen. Everyone was given to drink on an empty stomach 200 grams of whiskey without soda. Within a few minutes, the mucous membrane was swollen and reddened, after an hour bleeding ulcers appeared on it, after a few hours strips of pus stretched along the mucous membrane.

The picture was the same for all subjects. This is a clear example of the impact alcohol on empty stomach. It’s even scary to imagine what happens to ulcers, who often continue to drink alcohol, despite the prohibitions of doctors. Thus, doses safe for the body alcohol basically does not exist. First of all, intelligence suffers significantly.

Surely anyone who has ever drunk a sufficient dose of alcohol is wondering how the state of alcoholic intoxication is actually formed. How does the process of disorientation in space proceed and what causes the initial effect of euphoria. This is discussed in detail in the material below.

Important: alcohol has a negative impact on absolutely all organs and systems. However, the brain suffers most of all and first of all.

Factors affecting the process of intoxication

It should be understood that alcohol that enters the human body is absorbed through the walls of the stomach and intestines (and sometimes through the oral cavity in the case of sparkling wines) and, together with the blood flow, is sent to the brain. This is where the most unpleasant thing for the body of the drunk begins. That is, the cerebral cortex begins to gradually collapse. And even from small doses of alcohol.

The main negative point of ethanol is that it acts as a solvent. That is, everyone is familiar with the situation when, with the help of alcohol-containing products, we try to dissolve the paint that has fallen on our hands at home or wipe off the dirt. Yes, you never know what solvents are used for. But they have one principle - to dissolve. This is exactly how ethanol works in human blood, dissolving the outer shell of red blood cells - erythrocytes.

The mechanism of formation of intoxication

Alcohol intoxication is nothing more than oxygen starvation of the brain or scientifically hypoxia. And such a pathology is formed in a similar way:

Important: it is worth knowing that all red blood cells (erythrocytes) in the normal state are covered with a special shell that plays the role of a lubricant. When rubbing against each other in the blood plasma, red blood cells simply repel each other, continuing their free movement along the bloodstream.

So, the alcohol that has entered the body begins its work as a solvent. Namely, it neutralizes the protective lubricant of erythrocytes, which leads to their difficult movement relative to each other and the walls of blood vessels. That is, now the erythrocytes do not slide, but stick together. This is where the snowball effect kicks in.
The size of such erythrocyte lumps was ground in direct proportion to the drink. The larger the dose of alcohol, the larger the formed blood clots. It has been proven that one such lump contains from 200 to 500 red blood cells.
Such formations try to continue their movement with the blood flow, but here comes the difficulty. Since the cross section of the capillaries in some cases is very small (0.008 mm), which leads to their blockage by formed lumps. Most often, this already occurs in the arterioles - the thinnest blood vessels.
The result is insufficient blood supply to groups of neurons in the brain. And, as you know, the lack of oxygen leads a person to a relaxed, almost euphoric state. This is the imaginary effect of intoxication.

Important: doctors have proven that sleep while intoxicated is nothing more than self-defense of the body. That is, with an extensive lack of oxygen in the brain, the body turns on its defenses and sends the body to sleep. Indeed, in a sleepy state, the metabolism slows down, which means that it does not require an increased oxygen content.

By the way, this is precisely the reason for partial memory loss during alcohol intoxication. So, when the blood supply to the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for remembering and storing information) stops, the transmission of impulses in it also stops. Thus, the process of storing and translating information into long-term memory is quickly disrupted.

The consequences of such a flow of the mechanism

Having figured out exactly how and how quickly alcohol intoxication occurs, it is worthwhile to understand that along with this negative effect on the brain, alcohol intoxication also occurs, which additionally slowly kills the body. With alcohol poisoning, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs of the human excretory system, are pathologically affected. That is, they neutralize and remove all the decay products of alcohol.

At the same time, it is very important to remember that if in sufficiently spacious capillary lumens (in the arms or legs) the glued erythrocytes feel quite at ease, then in small capillaries such erythrocyte sedimentation leads to ruptures of blood vessels. An example is a constantly red or blue nose in people who have been drinking for a long time, spider veins on the cheeks or on the surface of the skin of the palms and legs.

In the brain, the main structural unit is the neuron, which is powered by a microcapillary. At the same time, each neuron has its own similar small blood vessel. Thus, a thin microcapillary is not able to contain an erythrocyte thrombus, which leads to disruption of the blood supply to the neuron. As a result, parts of the brain gradually die off and this effect is irreversible.

Important: the death of one neuron of the human brain occurs within 7-9 minutes after blockage of the microcapillary by erythrocytes. As a result, even after moderate doses of alcohol, a new mini-graveyard of dead microns is formed in the human brain. Their body systems are trying to withdraw with a current of water under high pressure. Hence the familiar morning headache. It is the body that sends fluid to the affected brain and raises blood pressure in order to eliminate the consequences of the holiday.

Also, it will not be superfluous to know that the human body has a supply of capillaries that is a multiple of 10%. That is, at each specific moment of human life, only 10 of all capillaries in the body function.
Thus, with constant libations even at a young age, a person may not detect malfunctions in the work of organs and systems. The negative advancing effect of drinking will become apparent after 35 years, when the capillary reserves are completely exhausted. As a result, upon reaching a certain age, such pathologies as gastrointestinal diseases, sexual disorders, disorders in the endocrine system, etc., will very quickly appear.

"Bad" behavior of a drunk person

As a rule, a drunk person often looks and behaves stupidly. At the same time, the style of behavior differs for everyone, depending on which part of the brain at a particular moment is quickly damaged and dies. In principle, the picture looks something like this during hypoxia in various parts of the brain:

The person chatters and staggers. In this case, the ongoing processes in the human body affect the occipital part of the brain, which is responsible for the functioning of the vestibular apparatus. She dies off gradually, with each drunk glass.
The person does immoral things. It is often said about such drunkards that this is not typical for him. Sober, he would never do that. In this case, the "moral" center of the brain, which is responsible for behavior and moral principles, suffers. That is, it is gradually dying.
A person does not remember anything in the morning. It is in this case that the hippocampus (memory center of the brain) suffers very quickly.

Important: it is worth remembering that in place of dead neurons and brain cells, scarring occurs as thick as a human finger.

Tip: in order not to end up with a broken trough with age and not suffer from insanity as a result, protect your brain from the toxic effects of alcohol. Periodic libations, even in small doses, have irreversible consequences for the brain and human physiology. Therefore, before you drink, think a hundred times.