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 an appointment with a doctor.Contact your doctor!
Psyche and nervous system
Alcohol is a poison and a drug that causes nausea and morning headaches, as well as premature aging and long-term illnesses.However, the number of addicts continues to grow and the warnings from the Ministry of Health aboutdamageWhen they drink alcohol they are left without due attention.
Ethyl alcohol causes an uncontrollable craving for alcohol, in which a person 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 the paradoxical changes in the human psyche.Many processes associated with the work of neurotransmitters in the brain are disrupted, so the dependent:
- I cannot experience a feeling of joy and pleasure 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 cause pleasurable sensations.Depending on the dose and the characteristics of the nervous system, the addict may feelcalmand relaxation, if ethanol acts on it as a relaxant, or joy and desire to move, if the euphoric effect of alcohol predominates.
In the terminal stageaddictiona person can no longer receive pleasure.A dose of alcohol relieves 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, patientsthey are 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 drunken state is impaired, so drunk people are prohibited from driving a car and doing work that requires high concentration of attention, however, coordination disorders are present in a chronic alcoholic even in a state of sobriety;
- Ethanol changes a person's personality, making them inhibited 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 this is the impression.evil: 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 colds, do not get sick and, as a rule, are in very good health, is based on the fact that a large number of addicts who havechronicdiseases or factors that cause their development, they are forced to abandon the bad habit or die from the complications that develop.The rest can, in fact, drink alcohol in large quantities for a long time, surviving complications relatively firmly and becoming an example of the erroneous statement that "nothing takes away from alcoholics."
Human immunity, regularlyconsumingAlcohol is altered, 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.This produces intolerance to specific foods, pollen, vegetable and synthetic components, etc.
- Autoimmune diseases are one of the most serious complications of alcoholism, in which the protective organs begin to destroy their own cells.These pathologies cannot be completely eliminated and treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Diseases of the immune system can causefailuresin 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 larger quantities in any fresh vegetables or fruits.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 for addicts has a less favorable prognosis, since it is difficult for a weakened organism to fight both the disease itself and the consequences of complex and prolonged 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 blood, affects other organs of the digestive system: liver, pancreas, etc.
List of diseases you may encountersick, width As an example, we can cite only the most common ones.
- Nationalbleeding- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which goes unnoticed and only causes abdominal pain, which many do not pay attention to.The phenomenon is caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the mucous membrane of the organs: since the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often brittle 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 cannot be cured and for which there is no supportive therapy, such as 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 this condition lies in the fact that liver pathologies often go unnoticed, in a latent form.
- Pancreatitis– inflammation of the pancreas, which causes frequent severe abdominal pain, nausea and dyspeptic disorders.The abdomen swells, the patient is bothered by increased gas formation and fatty stools, and his quality of life deteriorates significantly.
Conditionaggravateother components included in alcoholic beverages: colorants, preservatives, foaming agents.
urinary system
The kidneys remove the half-life products of ethyl alcohol from the blood, so they often also suffer from its toxic effects.There are several mechanismsdefeatskidney tissue:
- the development of malignant hypertension, in which intrarenal vessels and capillaries are damaged;
- the appearance of autoimmune processes that affect the kidneys (SLE, glomerulonephritis, vasculitis).
The kidneys canlong termIt is time to condense the function of dead nephrons, but when the replacement tissue exceeds 50%, the glomerular filtration rate will begin to decrease, causing:
- swelling;
- hypertension;
- poisoning and vomiting;
- ammonia smell from mouth and skin, etc.
When organs fail, patients are forced to constantly undergo hemodialysis procedures (3 to 4 times a week for 3 to 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.
Heart pathologies
Diseases related to the functioning of the heart and the state of blood vessels kill most people in the world.In countries where there is an active fight against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorgenerally lower, demonstrating the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- When intoxicated with ethyl alcohol, the body rapidly loses potassium and magnesium, which play an important role in maintaining the health of the organ.The muscle wastes away, often resulting in cardiomyopathy, 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 disturbances in lipid metabolism and damage to the organs of the digestive system, the vascular cavity from the inside begins to be covered with cholesterol and triglyceride plaques (brown fat), disrupts blood flow, including the nutrition of the heart, and increases the risk of cardiovascular accidents several times.
During intoxication and excessive alcohol consumption, the heart works.limitits capabilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide medical care to the patient in 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 their friends who drank alcohol for a long time, but did not find anything.Seriousdisease.
These isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research confirming that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic disorders of organs;
- causes addiction, so a person cannot give up a bad habit, even understanding the degree of danger of consuming ethanol;
- provokes 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 “firefighting water” consumed are important.Although ethanol itselfharmful, despite the fact that a drink containing it is solddarlingin a wine market or in a pharmacy under the guise of a medicinal hawthorn tincture, the quality of the other components matters, as well as the degree of purification of the alcohol.
There are many myths about how alcohol affects the body.Do not trust unreliable sources: it is important to remember that the alcohol production and sale market 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 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.