Drinking Danger

Alcoholic beverages are no longer luxurious in the world nowadays. Who doesn't like alcohol? It makes you relax, at ease, and enjoying yourself. However, maybe you should think twice before being a slave to Grolsch or Jupiter because maybe you wouldn't be so happy after reading what's written below.

Those are several consequences of consuming excess alcohol

Alcohol abuse
In majority, the younger the people were when they had their first drink, the more likely they were to abuse alcohol as an adult. Kids who are begin to drink as teenagers are more likely to become seriously intoxicated during routine drinking episode later in life, presumably because they need more alcohol to get high.
Stroke
heavy drinkers are exposed to nearly three times the risk of hemorrhagic strokes, even light drinkers develop two fold risks. Hemorrhagic strokes occur when blood vessel in the brain leaks or ruptures. The effects of alcohol into hemorrhagic stokes was independent of other risks factor of strokes such as age, weight, blood pressure, and smoking.

Lungs
Chronic alcoholics have a high incidence of pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, in which the lungs become inflamed, filled with fluid, and can be quckly fatal. Alcohol interacts with claudin, protein that keeps fluid from entering alveoli. Little leakage is not really a problem, but infection or injury can cause fluid buildup. Beyond that, alcohol disrupts a hormone that maintain immune response in the lungs, so infections are more likely to take holds in heavy drinkers.

Liver
Heavy drinkers exposing the liver into serious danger. Alcohol is rapidly absorbed by upper part of small intestine, travels to liver via veins and capillaries of the digestive tracks, which affects nearly all liver cells. Liver cells is the only organ in the body that can produce enough alcohol dehydrogenase to break down alcohol. However, liver prefer fatty acid as a fuel. When alcohol is present, liver is forced to first metabolize alcohol and letting the fatty acid accumulate. A liver clogged with fat causes liver cells to become less efficient at performing its tasks. The persistent condition of such leads to cirrhosis, where the normal liver cells are damaged and replaced by scar tissues, which is irreversible

In the latest stage of cirrhosis, urine and all bypass metabolism product that should be processed by the liver and discarded along with urine is accumulated in the body because the liver is not able to function properly. It leads to a "pregnant-bellied" prototype, where all grabage is accumulated in mid-section of the body. These bypass product then should be discarded by means of medical treatment.







Brain

Unlike foods, which needs time for digestion, alcohol is quickly absorbed by the body before most of other nutrients. About 20% is absorbed directly accross empty stomach and reach brain within one minutes. As the alcohol reach frontal lobes, you begin to loose control over your emotions. Go to the blood vessel, it makes vessel swelled up and increase pressure, which will give headache. When alcohol affects cerrebellum, you will loose the ability to walk straight. Now get to the serious part, drinking large amount of alcohol will affects medulla, which control body function such as breathing and heartbeat. If you drink large amount slowly, reticular activating system (part which control whether you are asleep or awake) will be affected first and you will pass out. If you binge drink or drink very fast, medulla could be shut down before RAS response, which means you could be put into coma, brain damage, or death. Moreover, alcohol is a depressant which slows the communication between nerve cells. In large amount, alcohol is neurotoxic, can actually kill brain cells.


Head and neck cancer
Pool analysis in head and neck cancer epidemiology showed people who are smoking and consuming alcohol in high amount develop risks of head and neck cancer for almost 50% compared to non-smoker non drinker. The risk is reduced into 24% for non-drinker smokers.


Facts:

Factors affecting alcohol metabolism:

1. The speed of alcohol metabolism depends on stomach condition in time of consuming. The higher dietary fat content, the more time stomach content is emptied into intestine, and the more time alcohol adsorption takes place.


2. Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently from men. They have higher Blood Alcohol Concentration's (BAC) after consuming the same amount of alcohol as men and are more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease, heart muscle damage, and brain damage. The difference in BAC's between women and men has been attributed to women's smaller amount of body water, likened to dropping the same amount of alcohol into a smaller pail of water. An additional factor contributing to the difference in BAC's may be that women have lower activity of the alcohol metabolizing enzyme ADH in the stomach, causing a larger proportion of the ingested alcohol to reach the blood. The combination of these factors may render women more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced liver and heart damage.


3. Recommended safe limits of alcohol drinking

• Men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week (and no more than four units in any one day).


• Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week (and no more than three units in any one day).


• Pregnant women. The exact amount that is safe is not known. Therefore, advice from the Department of Health is that pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant should not drink at all. If you do chose to drink when you are pregnant then limit it to one or two units, once or twice a week. And never get drunk.

Alcohol in the right dosage could:

1. Reduce renal cell cancer risks
   Drinking at least one glass alcoholic beverages a day reduce 30% of renal (kidneys) cell cancer, compared to non-alcoholic drinker. However, at the same time it increases risks of cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, liver, and breast, and probably the colon and rectum.


2. Decreased hypertension risk in young women
   Women between 20 – 40 years of age who are moderate drinkers develop less risks of hypertension. Light drinkers had a decreased risk compared with nondrinkers, but heavier drinkers had an increased risk. However, this advantage do not apply to people over 40 years of age. Mechanism of how alcohol decreased hypertension risk is unknown, but how excessive alcohol interfere with high blood pressure is obvious.