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 doctor’s appointment.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 earlier aging and illness in the long term.However, the number of addicts continues to grow, and the Ministry of Health’s warnings aboutharmwhen drinking alcohol 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 that it causes.ethylalcohol.
The reason for this is paradoxical changes in the human psyche.Many processes associated with the work of neurotransmitters in the brain are disrupted, so the dependent:
- cannot experience a feeling of joy and pleasure without alcohol;
- becomes depressed and may attempt suicide;
- becomes aggressive, his character and behavior change greatly.
At the second stage of alcoholism, a dose of alcohol can still lead to pleasant sensations.Depending on the dose and characteristics of the nervous system, the addict may feelcalmnessand relaxation, if ethanol acts on him as a relaxant, or joy and desire to move, if the euphoric effect of alcohol is predominant.
At the terminal stageaddictiona person 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 again needs alcohol.
In addition to the increased 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 absent-minded;
- the coordination of a person in a state of intoxication is impaired, which is why drunk people are prohibited from driving a car and performing work that requires high concentration of attention, however, coordination disorders are present in a chronic alcoholic even in a sober state;
- ethanol changes a person's personality, making him 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 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 addicts who havechronicdiseases or factors provoking their development, they are either forced to give up the bad habit, or die from complications that develop.The rest can actually drink alcohol in large quantities for a long time, surviving complications relatively steadfastly and becoming an illustration of the erroneous statement that “nothing takes away alcoholics.”
Human immunity, regularlyconsumingalcohol is disrupted, 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 work 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 severe complications of alcoholism, in which protective bodies begin to destroy their own cells.Such pathologies cannot be eliminated completely, and treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Immune system diseases can lead tofailuresin other systems, primarily 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 do contain beneficial components, but you can find them in much 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 less favorable prognosis, since it is difficult for a weakened body to fight both the disease itself and the consequences of complex and lengthy 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 bloodstream, and together with the blood affects other organs of the digestive system: liver, pancreas, etc.
List of diseases you may encountersick, wideAs an example, we can cite only the most common ones.
- Domesticbleeding- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which causes unnoticed, provoking only abdominal pain, which many do not pay attention to.The phenomenon is caused by the dilation of blood vessels on the mucous membrane of organs: since the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often brittle due to high cholesterol and a deficiency of nutrients, damage occurs, and venous blood begins to pour into the person’s stomach.
- Cirrhosis– an extremely serious disease that cannot be cured 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 condition lies in the fact that liver pathologies often occur unnoticed, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas, causing frequent severe abdominal pain, nausea and dyspeptic disorders.The abdomen becomes bloated, the patient is bothered by increased gas formation and fatty stools, and his quality of life deteriorates significantly.
Stateaggravateother components included in alcoholic beverages: dyes, preservatives, foaming agents.
Urinary system
The kidneys remove 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 dead nephrons, but when replacement tissue exceeds 50%, the glomerular filtration rate will begin to decline, 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 be able to receive a donor kidney, and his body will be able to withstand immunosuppressive therapy after surgery, is small.
Heart pathologies
Diseases related to the functioning of the heart and the condition of blood vessels kill most people in the world.In countries where there is an active fight against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorusually lower, which proves the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- When intoxicated with ethyl alcohol, the body rapidly 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 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 cholesterol plaques and triglycerides (brown fat), disrupts blood flow, including the nutrition of the heart, and increases the risk of cardiovascular accidents several times.
During intoxication and binge drinking, the heart workslimittheir capabilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide the patient with medical care on time, his condition may be aggravated by acute processes: stroke, heart attack.
What determine 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 did not encounter anyseriousdisease.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research confirming that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic disorders of organs;
- provokes addiction, due to which a person cannot give up 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 withdrawal.
Which ones specifically?complicationsarise in a particular person depends on his:
- 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 the fact that a drink containing it is solddearin a wine market or in a pharmacy under the guise of a medicinal hawthorn tincture, the quality of other components, as well as the degree of purification of the alcohol, matters.
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 replenish the state budget.This means that there will always be people who benefit from alcoholic beverages being 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 narcologist at a drug treatment clinic.