The information provided in the article is for informational purposes only and cannot be used to make a diagnosis or prescribe treatment and is not a substitute for a doctor's appointment.Contact your doctor!
Psyche and nervous system
Alcohol is a poison and a drug that causes morning sickness and headaches, as well as earlier aging and disease in the long run.However, the number of addicts continues to grow, and the Ministry of Health's warnings aboutharmwhen drinking alcohol, they remain without the necessary attention.
Ethyl alcohol causes an uncontrollable desire 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 related to the work of neurotransmitters in the brain are disturbed, so addicts:
- cannot experience a sense of joy and pleasure without alcohol;
- becomes depressed and may attempt suicide;
- becomes aggressive, his character and behavior change greatly.
In the second stage of alcoholism, a dose of alcohol can still lead to pleasant sensations.Depending on the dose and the characteristics of the nervous system, the addict may feeltranquilityand relaxation if its ethanol acts as a relaxant, or joy and a desire to move if the euphoric effect of alcohol predominates.
At the terminal stageaddictionone is no longer able to receive pleasure.A dose of alcohol dulls 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, patientsare developingand other complications related to 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, therefore, drunk people are prohibited from driving a car and doing work that requires a high concentration of attention, but coordination disorders are present in a chronic alcoholic even in a sober state;
- ethanol changes a person's personality, making them depressed or lethargic, or irritable and short-tempered.
In the early stages of addiction, a person may feel that drinking helps them relax, relieve stress, and feel better.Unfortunately, that's the impressionwrong: alcohol quickly destroys the nervous system and it is not always possible to restore the brain functions lost as a result of addiction.
Immunity
The myth that alcoholics never catch colds, never get sick, and are generally in extremely good health is based on the fact that a large proportion of addicts who havechronicdiseases or factors provoking their development, they are either forced to give up the bad habit or die from the complications that develop.The rest can actually drink alcohol in large quantities for a long time, experiencing complications relatively steadily and becoming an illustration of the erroneous statement that "nothing takes away alcoholics."
Human immunity, regularlyconsumingalcohol is disturbed, causing various pathologies.
- If the immune system cannot resist the antigens around a person, the patient begins to suffer from continuous respiratory diseases, food poisoning, dermatological, genital and other infections.
- If the immune system begins to work actively, but incorrectly, it overreacts to factors that cannot cause significant harm to the body.Thus, intolerance to specific foods, pollens, plant and synthetic components, etc. occurs.
- Autoimmune diseases are one of the most severe complications of alcoholism, in which the immune system begins to destroy its own cells.Such pathologies cannot be completely eliminated and the treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Diseases of the immune system can lead tofailuresin other systems, mainly nervous and endocrine.
This category of complications can benumberand oncology, as a healthy immune system helps fight cancer, prevents its development and quickly destroys pathological cells.
There is a myth that certain 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 larger quantities in any fresh vegetable or fruit.fromstatistics, addicts often suffer from oncology of various organs, from cancer of the larynx and esophagus to damage to the liver and rectum.Oncological treatment of addicts has a less favorable prognosis, since it is difficult for a weakened body to fight both the disease itself and the consequences of complex and long-term therapy.
Digestive system
When alcohol enters the body, it first comes into contact with the gastrointestinal tract: the oral mucosa, esophagus and stomach.From the stomach, ethanol actively enters the blood and, together with the blood, affects other organs of the digestive system: liver, pancreas, etc.
List of diseases you may encountersick, wide As an example we can cite only the most common.
- Homemadebleeding- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which causes an unnoticed, provoking only abdominal pain, which many do not pay attention to.The phenomenon is caused by the expansion of the blood vessels of the mucous membrane of the organs: since the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often fragile due to high cholesterol and nutrient deficiency, damage occurs and venous blood begins to pour into the person's stomach.
- Cirrhosis– an extremely serious illness that cannot be cured and for which there is no supportive therapy, such as kidney failure.The alcoholic's liver is under severe 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 condition lies in the fact that liver pathologies often go unnoticed, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas, causing frequent severe abdominal pain, nausea and dyspeptic disorders.The abdomen swells, the patient is worried about increased gas formation and fatty stools, the quality of life deteriorates significantly.
Conditionmake worseother components included in alcoholic beverages: coloring agents, preservatives, foaming agents.
The urinary system
The kidneys remove the half-life products of ethyl alcohol from the blood, so 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).
Kidneys canlong termtime to condense the function of the dead nephrons, but when the replacement tissue exceeds 50%, the glomerular filtration rate will begin to decrease, causing:
- swelling;
- high blood pressure;
- intoxication and vomiting;
- smell of ammonia from the 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 receive a donor kidney and their body will survive immunosuppressive therapy after surgery is small.
Cardiac pathologies
Diseases related to the work of the heart and the state of the blood vessels kill most people in the world.In countries where there is an active fight against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorusually lower, demonstrating the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- In case of intoxication with ethyl alcohol, the body quickly loses potassium and magnesium, which have an important function in maintaining the health of the organ.The muscle wears out, and cardiomyopathy often occurs, in which the heart increases in volume, but its health and ability to perform its assigned function rapidly decline.This disease is also called beer heart syndrome.
- Due to disorders 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), disrupts blood flow, including the nutrition of the heart, and increases the risk of cardiovascular incidents several times.
During intoxication and binge drinking, the heart workslimittheir possibilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide timely medical assistance to the patient, his condition may worsen from 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 drink alcohol for a long time, but have not encounteredseriouslydisease.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific studies confirming that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic organ disorders;
- provokes addiction, due to which a person cannot give up a bad habit, even if he understands the degree of danger of using ethanol;
- causes mental disorders: from a syndrome of pathological intoxication, when a person loses control over himself after a small amount of alcohol, to suicide due to acute depression against the background of abstinence.
Which ones specifically?complicationsarise in a particular person depends on his:
- age;
- way of life;
- existing chronic diseases;
- hereditary factor and genetic predisposition.
Both the quantity and the quality of the "fire water" consumed are important.Despite the fact that ethanol itselfharmful, despite the fact that a drink containing it is solddearin the wine market or in a pharmacy under the guise of a medicinal tincture of hawthorn, the quality of the other components, as well as the degree of purification of the alcohol, matter.
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 fill the state budget.This means that there will always be people who take advantage of alcoholic beverages, which are perceived as a safe and sometimes healthy way of leisure.You can learn about the dangers of alcoholism and how to treat it during a consultation with a drug addict at a drug treatment clinic.