The information provided in the article is for informational purposes only and should not be used to make a diagnosis or prescribe treatment and does not replace a doctor's appointment.Call your doctor!
Soul and nervous system
Alcohol is a poison and drug that causes morning sickness and headaches, as well as premature aging and long-term disease.However, the number of addicts continues to rise, and the Ministry of Health warns aboutharmwhen drinking alcohol they remain without proper attention.
Ethyl alcohol causes an uncontrollable desire for alcohol, where a person either does not see the information about the dangers of alcohol, or believes that the pleasure of being drunk is worth the harm it causes.ethylalcohol
The reason is a paradoxical change in the human soul.Many processes related to the work of neurotransmitters in the brain are disrupted, so it depends:
- cannot experience feelings of joy and pleasure without alcohol;
- become depressed and may attempt suicide;
- became aggressive, his character and behavior changed a lot.
In the second stage of alcoholism, a dose of alcohol can still lead to a pleasant sensation.Depending on the dose and the characteristics of the nervous system, addicts may feeltranquilityand relaxation, if ethanol acts on it as relaxation, or joy and the desire to move, if the euphoric effect of alcohol is dominant.
At the terminal leveladdictionone can no longer receive pleasure.A dose of alcohol relieves the discomfort for a short time, but after a few minutes the person needs alcohol again.
In addition to the increased need for ethyl alcohol, patientsis developingand other complications related to mental function:
- due to the toxic effect of alcohol on neurons, the cognitive function of the brain slows down, the person becomes forgetful and thoughtless;
- the coordination of a person in a state of intoxication is disrupted, which is why drunk people are prohibited from driving cars and doing work that requires a high concentration of attention, however, coordination disorders are present in chronic alcoholics even in a conscious state;
- ethanol changes a person's personality, making them inhibited or lethargic, or irritable and hot-tempered.
In the early stages of addiction, a person may feel that drinking helps them relax, relieve stress, and feel better.Unfortunately, this is the effectwrong: alcohol quickly destroys the nervous system, and it is not always possible to restore brain functions lost as a result of addiction.
Immunity
The myth that alcoholics never catch colds, never get sick and, as a rule, have excellent health, is based on the fact that a large number of addicts who havechronicdiseases or factors that provoke their development, they either have to abandon the bad habit, or die from complications that develop.The rest can actually drink large amounts of alcohol for a long time, survive the complications relatively and become an illustration of the false statement that "nothing removes alcohol."
Human immunity, regularlyeatingalcohol is disturbed, causing various pathologies.
- If the immune system cannot withstand the antigens that surround a person, the patient begins to suffer from persistent respiratory diseases, food poisoning, dermatology, genital and other infections.
- If the immune system begins to work actively, but not correctly, it overreacts to factors that cannot cause significant harm to the body.Therefore, intolerance to certain foods, pollen, plants and synthetic components, etc.
- Autoimmune disease is one of the worst complications of alcoholism, in which the immune system begins to destroy its own cells.Such pathology cannot be completely eliminated, and treatment that prevents its development has many side effects.
Diseases of the immune system can causefailurein other systems, especially nervous and endocrine.
This category of complications cancountand oncology, because a healthy immune system helps fight cancer, prevents its development and quickly destroys pathological cells.
There is a myth that some drinks, such as wine, contain many antioxidants that are effective in preventing malignant tumors.Natural wine does contain beneficial components, but you can find them in larger quantities in any fresh vegetable or fruit.Bystatistics, addicts often suffer from oncology of various organs, from cancer of the larynx and esophagus to damage to the liver and rectum.Oncology treatment for addicts has a poor prognosis, because it is difficult for a weak body to fight both the disease itself and the consequences of complex and long therapy.
Digestive system
When alcohol enters the body, it first comes into contact with the gastrointestinal tract: the mucosa of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach.From the stomach, ethanol actively enters the bloodstream, and together with the blood affects other organs of the digestive system: liver, pancreas, etc.
A list of diseases you may encounterill, wide For example, we can only quote the most common.
- Domesticallybleeding- the fatal consequences of alcohol abuse, which causes without realizing it, only causes stomach aches, which many do not pay attention to.This phenomenon is caused by the dilation of blood vessels on the mucous membrane of the organ: because the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often fragile due to high cholesterol and lack of nutrients, damage occurs, and venous blood begins to flow into a person's stomach.
- Cirrhosis– very serious diseases that cannot be cured and there is no supportive therapy, such as kidney failure.An alcoholic's heart is under a lot of stress.Organ hepatocytes are damaged, functional tissue is replaced by scar tissue or fat, and the liver gradually fails.The danger of this condition lies in the fact that liver pathology often occurs unnoticed, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas, causing severe abdominal pain, nausea and frequent dyspeptic disorders.The stomach becomes bloated, the patient is bothered by increased gas formation and fatty stools, and his quality of life deteriorates significantly.
situationworsenother components included in alcoholic beverages: dyes, preservatives, foaming agents.
Urinary system
The kidneys remove the half-life product of ethyl alcohol from the blood, so they also often experience its toxic effects.There are several mechanismsdefeatkidney tissue:
- the development of malignant hypertension, in which intrarenal vessels and capillaries are damaged;
- the occurrence of autoimmune processes affecting the kidneys (SLE, glomerulonephritis, vasculitis).
Kidneys canlong termtime to concentrate the function of the dead nephron, but when the replacement tissue exceeds 50%, the glomerular filtration rate will begin to decrease, causing:
- swelling;
- high blood pressure;
- drunkenness and vomiting;
- ammonia smell from mouth and skin, etc.
When the organ fails, the patient has to constantly undergo hemodialysis procedures (3-4 times a week for 3-6 hours), or use an organ transplant.At the same timeprobabilityThe likelihood that an alcoholic will be able to accept a donor kidney, and that his body will be able to withstand immunosuppressive therapy after surgery, is small.
Heart pathology
Diseases related to heart function and blood vessel conditions kill most people in the world.In countries where there is an active struggle against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorusually lower, which proves the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- When drunk with ethyl alcohol, the body quickly loses potassium and magnesium, which have an important function in maintaining the health of organs.The muscles wear out, and cardiomyopathy often occurs, where the heart increases in volume, but its health and ability to perform its assigned functions quickly decreases.This disease is also called beer heart syndrome.
- Due to the disruption of lipid metabolism and damage to the organs of the digestive system, the vascular cavity from the inside begins to be covered with cholesterol plaques and triglycerides (brown fat), disrupting blood flow, including heart nutrition, and increasing the risk of cardiovascular accidents several times.
During drunkenness and excessive drinking, the heart workslimittheir ability: patients often complain of tachycardia, sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide medical care to the patient in time, the condition may be aggravated by acute processes: stroke, heart attack.
What determines the complications of drinking alcohol?
People who deny the harm of alcohol to the body cite the example of their friends who drank alcohol for a long time, but found nothingseriouslydisease.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research that confirms that alcohol:
- lead to functional and organic disorders of organs;
- causes addiction, which causes a person not to abandon bad habits, even to understand the level of danger of ethanol consumption;
- causing mental disorders: from the syndrome of pathological drunkenness, when a person loses control of himself after a small amount of alcohol to suicide due to acute depression against the background of withdrawal.
Which one specifically?complicationsarise in certain people depending on it:
- age;
- lifestyle;
- existing chronic diseases;
- hereditary factors and genetic predisposition.
Both the quantity and the quality of the "fire water" used are important.Despite the fact that ethanol itselfharmful, despite the fact that drinks containing it are soldhoneyin the wine market or in the pharmacy under the guise of medicinal hawthorn tincture, the quality of other components, as well as the degree of alcohol purification, are important.
There are many myths about how alcohol affects the body.You should not trust unreliable sources: it is important to remember that the market for the production and sale of alcohol in our country and in the world is a way to supplement the national budget.This means that there will always be people who benefit from alcoholic beverages that are considered a safe, and sometimes healthy, form of recreation.You can learn about the dangers of alcohol and how to treat it during a consultation with a narcologist at a drug treatment clinic.