The information provided in the article is for informational purposes only and cannot be used to make a diagnosis or prescribe treatment and does not replace a medical consultation.Contact your doctor!
Psyche and nervous system
Alcohol is a poison and a drug that causes nausea and headaches in the morning, as well as premature aging and long-term illness.However, the number of drug addicts continues to grow and warnings from the Ministry of Health aboutto harmwhen drinking alcoholic beverages they remain without due attention.
Ethyl alcohol causes an uncontrollable craving for alcohol, in which a person either does not perceive information about the dangers of alcohol, or believes that the pleasure of intoxication is worth the harm it causes.ethylalcohol
The reason for this is paradoxical changes in the human psyche.Many processes associated with the functioning of neurotransmitters in the brain are disrupted, so the addict:
- cannot experience a feeling of joy and pleasure without alcohol;
- becomes depressed and may attempt suicide;
- becomes aggressive, his character and behavior change a lot.
In the second phase of alcoholism, a dose of alcohol can still cause pleasant sensations.Depending on the dose and the characteristics of the nervous system, the addict may feelcalmand relaxation, if ethanol acts as a relaxant, or joy and desire to move, if the euphoric effect of alcohol is predominant.
In the terminal phaseaddictiona person is no longer capable of receiving pleasure.A dose of alcohol alleviates the discomfort for a short period, but after a few minutes the person needs alcohol again.
In addition to the greater need for ethyl alcohol, patientsare developingand other complications associated with the functioning of the psyche:
- due to the toxic effect of alcohol on neurons, the cognitive functions of the brain slow down, the person becomes forgetful and distracted;
- the coordination of a person in a state of intoxication is impaired, which is why drunk people are prohibited from driving cars and performing work that requires high concentration of attention, however, coordination disorders are present in chronic alcoholics even in a sober state;
- Ethanol changes a person's personality, making them inhibited or lethargic, or irritable and moody.
In the early stages of addiction, a person may feel that drinking helps them relax, relieve stress, and feel better.Unfortunately, this is the impressionwrong: 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 a cold, do not get sick and, as a rule, have extremely good health, is based on the fact that a large number of drug addicts who havechronicdiseases or factors that provoke their development, they are either forced to abandon the bad habit or die due to the complications that develop.The rest can actually drink alcohol in large quantities for a long time, surviving complications relatively firmly and becoming an illustration of the erroneous statement that “nothing takes away alcoholics”.
Human immunity, regularlyconsumingalcohol is stopped, causing various pathologies.
- If the immune system cannot resist the antigens surrounding a person, the patient begins to suffer from continuous respiratory diseases, food poisoning, dermatological, genital and other infections.
- If the immune system begins to function actively, but incorrectly, it overreacts to factors that cannot cause significant harm to the body.Thus, intolerance to specific foods, pollen, plant and synthetic components, etc. occurs.
- Autoimmune diseases are one of the most serious complications of alcoholism, in which the protective organs begin to destroy their own cells.Such pathologies cannot be completely eliminated and treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Immune system diseases can lead tofailuresin other systems, mainly nervous and endocrine.
This category of complications can becountand oncology, since a healthy immune system helps fight cancer, prevent its development and quickly destroy pathological cells.
There is a myth that some drinks, such as wine, contain many antioxidants that are effective in preventing malignant tumors.Natural wines contain beneficial components, but you can find them in much greater quantities in any fresh vegetable or fruit.Putstatistics, addicts often suffer from oncology of various organs, from cancer of the larynx and esophagus to damage to the liver and rectum.Oncological treatment for drug addicts has a less favorable prognosis, as it is difficult for a weakened organism to combat both the disease itself and the consequences of complex and time-consuming therapy.
Digestive system
When alcohol enters the body, it first comes into contact with the gastrointestinal tract: oral mucosa, 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.
List of diseases you may encountersick, broad As an example, we can only mention the most common ones.
- Domesticbleeding- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which causes unnoticed, causing only abdominal pain, which many do not pay attention to.The phenomenon is caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the mucous membrane of organs: as the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often fragile due to high cholesterol and nutrient deficiency, damage occurs and venous blood begins to flow into the person's stomach.
- Cirrhosis– an extremely serious disease that has no cure and for which there is no supportive therapy, as in kidney failure.An alcoholic's liver is under a lot of stress.The organ's hepatocytes are damaged, functional tissues are replaced by scar tissue or fat, and the liver gradually fails.The danger of the disease lies in the fact that liver pathologies often occur unnoticed, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas, causing intense and frequent abdominal pain, nausea and dyspeptic disorders.The abdomen becomes swollen, the patient is uncomfortable with the increased formation of gas and fatty stools, and his quality of life deteriorates significantly.
Conditionaggravateother components included in alcoholic beverages: dyes, preservatives, foaming agents.
urinary system
The kidneys remove half-life products of ethyl alcohol from the blood, which is why they also often suffer from its toxic effects.There are several mechanismsdefeatskidney 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).
The kidneys canlong termtime to condense the function of dead nephrons, but when replacement tissue exceeds 50%, the glomerular filtration rate will begin to decrease, causing:
- swelling;
- high blood pressure;
- intoxication and vomiting;
- ammonia smell from mouth and skin, etc.
When organs fail, patients are forced to constantly undergo hemodialysis procedures (3-4 times a week for 3-6 hours) or resort to organ transplantation.At the same timeprobabilityThe likelihood that an alcoholic will be able to receive a kidney from a donor and that his or her body will be able to withstand immunosuppressive therapy after surgery is small.
Cardiac pathologies
Diseases related to the functioning of the heart and the state of blood vessels kill the majority of people in the world.In countries where there is an active fight against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorgenerally smaller, which proves the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- When intoxicated with ethyl alcohol, the body quickly loses potassium and magnesium, which play an important role in maintaining the health of the organ.The muscle wears out and cardiomyopathy often occurs, in which the heart enlarges, but its health and ability to perform its assigned function rapidly decreases.This disease is also called beer heart syndrome.
- Due to disturbances in lipid metabolism and damage to the organs of the digestive system, the vascular cavity from the inside begins to become covered with plaques of cholesterol and triglycerides (brown fat), disrupts blood flow, including nutrition of the heart, and increases the risk of cardiovascular accidents several times.
During intoxication and excessive alcohol consumption, the heart workslimittheir capabilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide medical care to the patient on time, his condition may be aggravated by acute processes: stroke, heart attack.
What determines the complications of alcohol consumption?
People who deny the harm of alcohol to the body cite the example of friends who drank alcohol for a long time, but did not find anyseriousillness.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research confirming that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic disorders of organs;
- causes addiction, whereby the person is unable to abandon a bad habit, even understanding the degree of danger of using ethanol;
- causes mental disorders: from pathological intoxication syndrome, when a person loses control of himself after a small amount of alcohol, to suicide due to acute depression against the background of abstinence.
Which ones specifically?complicationsarise in a specific person depends on him:
- age;
- lifestyle;
- existing chronic diseases;
- hereditary factor and genetic predisposition.
Both the quantity and quality of the “fire water” consumed are important.Despite the fact that ethanol itselfharmful, despite a drink containing it being solddearin a wine market or in a pharmacy under the guise of a medicinal hawthorn tincture, the quality of the 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 alcohol production and sale market in our country and around the world is a way of replenishing the state budget.This means that there will always be people who benefit from the fact that alcoholic beverages are perceived as a safe and sometimes healthy form of leisure.You can learn about the dangers of alcoholism and how to treat it during a consultation with a narcologist at a drug treatment clinic.