ALCHOL AFFECTS EVERYONE DIFFERENTLY

ALCHOL 
AFFECTS EVERYONE DIFFERENTLY

Alcohol affects everyone differently.  Some become intoxicated with the first drink; others can drink a lot more before they show effects.  As far as the body is concerned, alcohol is a poison.  Some of the effects of chronic alcohol consumption include damage to the brain, liver, pancreas, stomach, small intestine and central nervous system. It is one of the few substances that can penetrate the lining of the stomach and cause damage.  Alcohol can cause metabolic damage and depresses the immune system.

Alcohol is broken down in the liver.  The repeated consumption of alcohol inhibits the liver's production of digestive enzymes, impairing the body's ability to absorb proteins, fats, and the fat-soluble vitamins (A,D, E and K), as well as the B-complex vitamins and other water-soluble vitamins.  Normally the liver either stores nutrients it receives or, after processing, sends them back into your bloodstream to be used throughout the body. When the liver is not functioning well due to alcohol many essential nutrients are not retained for use by the body; they are rapidly eliminated through the urine. The toxic effect of alcohol on the liver is very serious.  First, excessive amounts of fat accumulate in the liver, a result of alcohol's effect on the body's ability to digest fats properly.   The liver is one of the most robust organs in the body.  It has the ability to regenerate itself after certain types of damage.  Up to one quarter of the liver can be removed, and within a short period of time, it will grow back to its original shape and size. Alcohol is one of the toxins that the liver doesn't handle as well as others. The liver cannot regenerate after being severely damaged by alcohol.
You wake up with a throbbing head; you can't stand the light, your trembling..... you have a hangover. Could this have been prevented? The formal name for hangover is veisalgia from the Norwegian word Kveis for "uneasiness following debauchery" and the Greek word Algia for "pain".  An appropriate title.  A hangover usually includes headache, poor sense of overall well-being, sensitivity to light and sound, diarrhea, loss of appetite, trembling, nausea, fatigue, increased heart rate and blood pressure, dehydration (dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry eyes), trouble concentrating, anxiety, difficultly sleeping, and weakness.   The severity and number of symptoms varying with the person.  It is true that the more alcohol that is consumed, the worse the hangover will be.  Hangovers can be made worse by drinking on an empty stomach, lack of sleep, increased physical activity while drinking, and dehydration before drinking and poor. health. When alcohol goes into the bloodstream it causes the pituitary gland to block the creation of "vasopression".  Without this chemical the kidneys send the water directly to the bladder instead of reabsorbing it into the body.  The body will lose 4 times the amount of liquid that it gained.    Thus you get really thirsty the next morning and a headache that is a result of dehydration.   The body will actually take water from the brain causing it to decrease in size and pull on the membranes that connect the brain to the skull.
Frequent urination also expels salts, electrolytes  such as magnesium and potassium that are necessary for nerve and muscle functions - this can result in headaches, fatigue and nausea as well.   The liver breaks down the body's store of glycogen and turns it into glucose and sends it out of the body resulting in a key energy source Alcohol is absorbed directly through the stomach.  The cells that line the stomach become irritated.  The message finally gets to the brain that the contents are hurting it and must be expelled through vomiting..  Unpleasant as it sounds this mechanism can actually lessen the hangover by getting rid of the toxins and makes you feel better.   The stomachs irritation also contributes to the diarrhea and lack of appetite.

Alcohol use during pregnancy is the leading cause of mental retardation in children.

Much of the damage from alcohol is done before the mother is even aware of her pregnancy. No one knows exactly how much alcohol can harm your baby. It's safest to not use any. Babies don't metabolize alcohol as well as adults do, so the alcohol a pregnant woman drinks has a greater effect on her baby than on her.

Although facial abnormalities are a key aspect of FAS, they are not always present and are only one component of alcohol-related birth defects. A child's physical, mental, and behavioral development are all at risk when a pregnant woman drinks.

if you are pregnant and drink alcohol, so does your baby. This can hurt your baby's growth and cause life-long physical and behavioral problems. One of the most severe effects of  drinking during pregnancy is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). FAS is a group of problems that can include

• Mental retardation
• Birth defects
• Abnormal facial features
• Growth problems
• Problems with the central nervous system
• Trouble remembering and/or learning
• Vision or hearing problems
• Behavior problems

FAS lasts for a lifetime. There is no cure. Special school services can help with learning problems. Routines and consistency at home may help with behavior problems. Women can prevent FAS and other problems related to alcohol use by not drinking when they are pregnant or might get pregnant.

Historically, part of the problem in determining what level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is harmful has been related to how to define consumption levels. The conventional method for measuring alcohol consumption in humans has been through interviews in which the participants are asked to recall their alcohol consumption ( e. g. , the number of drinks consumed) during a specific time period ( e. g. , a week) . Researchers then use the information from those interviews to convert the reported alcohol consumption into quantifiable measures, such as total grams of alcohol or ounces of absolute alcohol consumed per week. To facilitate this conversion and generate a standardized measure for reporting and analyzing alcohol consumption, regardless of the type of alcoholic drink consumed, investigators must define a standard drink that contains a specific, standardized amount of absolute alcohol regardless of the type of beverage. A standard drink frequently is defined as 12 fluid ounces of beer, 5 fluid ounces of wine, or 1.5 fluid ounces of hard liquor. Using this measure, investigators can categorize subjects into groups based on their amount of alcohol consumption,  then allows for hypothetical statistical tests relating maternal alcohol consumption to deficits in the offspring.

                                                              Prof. John Kurakar