Long Term Effects of Alcohol

Subscribe:

Recommend This(6)

(0)Comments

Print

Email

Subscribe

Ethanol, the sedative-hypnotic ingredient in alcoholic drinks, like beer, wine and spirits, is widely consumed throughout the world.  Being as such, it is easily abused resulting in a variety of symptoms and conditions.  In small quantities, alcohol may actually be good as it reduces anxiety and slows the heart rate.  Studies have shown that alcohol can improve life span when taken as one or two small drinks per day.  If the drink of choice is wine, especially red wine, it may have added health benefits including the extension of life, anti-inflammation and anti-cancer properties.  The resveratrol in the skin of the grapes is purported to produce these effects.

 

In higher doses or increased consumption, alcohol may have severe, debilitating long term effects.  Acutely, alcohol seems depress the central nervous system and is a cardio-depressant (i.e. slows or stops heart rate).  Too many drinks in one night may lead to blurred vision, slurred speech, ataxia (lack of muscle control such is inability to stand straight), and impaired judgment as well as hangover symptoms (headaches, nausea) the next day due to lack of hydration.  Alcohol is a diuretic or an agent that induces the loss of bodily water.  In the serious cases of overdose, alcohol poisoning can result, which is marked by unconsciousness, slow breathing and cold skin.  In that condition, emergency treatment is urgently needed; otherwise coma and death are likely to happen.   The normal treatment at the hospital for alcohol poisoning is gastric lavage or pumping of the stomach to remove alcohol.

 

Chronic overuse of alcohol may result in long-term effects.  This condition is usually termed alcoholism.  It is known that alcohol can be absorbed not only through the intestine as normal food and drinks do, but can be absorbed through the stomach.  Over time, chronic abuse of alcohol leads to bleeding and ulcers.   In the liver, where all digested food and drinks are metabolized or broken down, abuse can cause damage resulting in alcoholic fatty liver.  This condition can be reversed with stoppage, however if drinking does not stop, it may escalate into liver damage (cirrhosis), liver disease, and ultimately failure can result.  This damage is often seen to occur with co-infection of hepatitis C which causes greater liver damage.  The ethanol makes the liver susceptible to attack by viruses such as hepatitis C.  Other areas of concern for chronic alcohol abuse are a higher vulnerability to cancer, especially of the mouth and esophagus, and increased infection as a result of impairment of the immune system.

 

The major problems seen with alcoholism are due to its effects in the brain.  Chronic use results in tolerance, meaning the drinker can “handle more alcohol”, and physical dependence, where abrupt halt of alcohol ingestion leads to withdrawal symptoms.  These symptoms include convulsions, psychosis and even delirium tremens (agitation, confusion, and disorderly body movements).  This causes or compels the drinker to return to his/her drinking ways.  If treatment is not given or the drinker refuses treatment, these problems may precipitate over time into neurological problems such as dementia or Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.  The syndrome is characterized as paralysis in the body, most notably in the eyes, which could lead to a coma and death.

 

Current therapies for alcoholism fall under two categories, psychosocial and pharmacological.  Psychosocial treatments involve changing the behavior of the drinker.  These therapies may include motivational, behavioral and cognitive approaches. On the pharmacological side, disulfiram and naltrexone are approved for FDA use.  Disulfiram blocks aldehyde dehydrogenase, an important enzyme in the breakdown or metabolism of ethanol.  To non-drinkers, this drug has little or no effect, but when ingested along with alcohol, it blocks alcohol metabolism resulting in an increase in the metabolite acetaladehyde.  This metabolite in high concentrations causes headache, nausea, vomiting and other discomforting symptoms.  The goal of this treatment is to cause the drinker to associate imbibing alcohol with pain and therefore, persuade the drinker to stop abusing alcohol.  Naltrexone works differently.  It is an opiod receptor antagonist that blocks the craving and wanting of alcohol.  It has been shown to reduce the relapse or falling back into drinking that is seen drinkers trying to stop.  The current thought here is that naltrexone blocks the rewarding properties (euphoria) of alcohol thereby reducing the craving for alcohol.

Write comment :

Want to leave a comment and join the discussion?

Click here to register for Monkme

Already a member? Click here to log in