The information provided in the article is for informational purposes only and cannot be used to diagnose or prescribe treatment and is not a substitute for a medical examination.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 term.However, the number of addicts continues to grow, as the Ministry of Health warnstoo badwhen they drink alcohol, they do not pay 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 related to the work of neurotransmitters in the brain are disturbed, so dependent:
- I cannot experience the feeling of joy and satisfaction without alcohol;
- becomes depressed and may attempt suicide;
- he becomes aggressive, his character and behavior change a lot.
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 feelcalmnessand relaxation, if ethanol acts on him as a relaxant, or joy and the desire to move, if the euphoric effect of alcohol is predominant.
In the terminal phaseaddictionthe person is no longer able to receive pleasure.A dose of alcohol temporarily dulls the symptoms, 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 absent;
- the coordination of a person in a state of intoxication is disturbed, which is why drunk people are forbidden to drive a car and perform tasks that require a 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 angry.
In the early stages of addiction, a person may feel that drinking helps them relax, relieve stress, and feel better.Unfortunately, that 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, never get sick and are usually in extremely good health is based on the fact that a large number of addicts who havechronicallydiseases or factors that cause their development, they are either forced to abandon the bad habit, or die from the complications that develop.The others can actually drink alcohol in large quantities for a long time, relatively steadily surviving complications and becoming an illustration of the erroneous claim that "nothing gets rid of alcoholics".
Human immunity, regularconsumptionalcohol is disturbed, causing various pathologies.
- If the immune system cannot resist the antigens that surround the 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 damage to the body.Thus, intolerance to certain foods, pollen, plant and synthetic components, etc. occurs.
- Autoimmune diseases are one of the most serious complications of alcoholism, in which the protective bodies begin to destroy their own cells.Such pathologies cannot be completely eliminated, and treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Diseases of the immune system can lead tofailuresin other systems, primarily nervous and endocrine.
This category of complications can becountand oncology, because 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 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.Oncological treatment of addicts has a less favorable prognosis, because a weakened organism struggles with 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: 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, wide As an example, we can list only the most common ones.
- Domesticbleeding- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which causes imperceptibly, causing only abdominal pain, which many do not pay attention to.The phenomenon is caused by the expansion of blood vessels on the lining of the organs: since 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 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 liver of an alcoholic is under a lot of stress.Hepatocytes of the organ are damaged, functional tissues are replaced by scar tissue or fatty tissue, and the liver gradually fails.The danger of the condition lies in the fact that liver pathologies often occur imperceptibly, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas that causes frequent severe abdominal pain, nausea and dyspeptic disturbances.The abdomen becomes bloated, the patient suffers from increased formation of gas and fatty stools, and his quality of life deteriorates significantly.
Conditionworsenother components included in alcoholic beverages: colors, preservatives, foaming agents.
Urinary system
The kidneys remove the half-decomposition products of ethyl alcohol from the blood, so they often suffer from its toxic effects.There are several mechanismsdefeatkidney tissue:
- development of malignant hypertension, in which intrarenal vessels and capillaries are damaged;
- occurrence of autoimmune processes affecting the kidneys (SLE, glomerulonephritis, vasculitis).
The kidneys canlong termtime to condense the function of the 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 probability that an alcoholic will be able to receive a donor kidney, and that his body will be able to withstand immunosuppressive therapy after surgery, is small.
Pathologies of the heart
Diseases related to the work 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.
- 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 organs.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 organs of the digestive system, the vascular cavity 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 accidents many times over.
During intoxication and drunkenness, the heart workslimittheir possibilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide the patient with medical help in time, his condition can be worsened 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 their friends who drank alcohol for a long time, but did not meet them.seriouslydisease.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research that confirms that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic organ disorders;
- causes addiction, due to which a person cannot give up the bad habit, even realizing the degree of danger of using ethanol;
- causes mental disorders: from the syndrome of pathological intoxication, 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?complicationsoccur in a certain person, depend on his:
- old age;
- lifestyle;
- existing chronic diseases;
- hereditary factor and genetic predisposition.
The quantity and quality of the spent "fire water" are also important.Despite the fact that I am ethanolharmful, despite the fact that a drink containing it is solddearat the wine market or in the pharmacy under the guise of medicinal hawthorn tincture, the quality of the other components is important, as well as the degree of alcohol purity.
There are many myths about how alcohol affects the body.We 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 benefit from alcoholic beverages being perceived as a safe and sometimes healthy form of entertainment.You can learn about the dangers of alcoholism and how to treat it during a consultation with a narcologist at a drug treatment clinic.