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Psychology and nervous system
Alcohol is a poison and a drug that causes nausea and headaches in the morning, as well as causing premature aging and illness in the long term.However, the number of addicts continues to increase and warnings from the Ministry of Health aboutharmWhen drinking alcohol, they still do not receive proper attention.
Ethyl alcohol causes an uncontrollable craving for alcohol, in which a person is not aware of 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 human psychology.Many processes related to the activity of neurotransmitters in the brain are disrupted, as a result of which the person depends on:
- cannot experience the feeling of joy and pleasure without alcohol;
- become depressed and may have suicidal thoughts;
- became aggressive, his personality and behavior changed greatly.
In the second stage of alcoholism, a dose of alcohol can still bring a pleasant feeling.Depending on the dose and characteristics of the nervous system, addicts may feelcalmnessand relaxation, if ethanol acts on him as a relaxant, or pleasure and desire for exercise, if the euphoric effect of alcohol prevails.
At the final stageaddictiona person can no longer receive pleasure.A dose of alcohol will relieve the feeling of discomfort in the short term, but after a few minutes the patient needs to drink alcohol again.
In addition to the increasing demand for ethyl alcohol, patientsis developingand other complications related to mental activity:
- Due to the toxic effects of alcohol on nerve cells, the brain's cognitive function slows down, people become forgetful and absent-minded;
- A person's coordination in a state of intoxication is impaired, which is why drunk people are prohibited from driving and performing work that requires high concentration, however, coordination disorders appear in chronic alcoholics even when sober;
- Ethanol changes human personality, making people become inhibited or lethargic, irritable and hot-tempered.
In the early stages of addiction, a person may feel that drinking alcohol helps them relax, reduce stress, and feel better.Unfortunately, this is the impressionwrong: alcohol quickly destroys the nervous system and it is not always possible to restore brain functions lost due to addiction.
immunity
The myth that alcoholics never catch colds, do not get sick, and generally enjoy extremely good health is based on the fact that a large number of alcoholics havechronicdiseases or factors that stimulate their development, they are forced to give up bad habits or die from the complications that develop.The rest of us can actually drink alcohol in large quantities over long periods of time, survive complications relatively steadfastly, and serve to illustrate the false claim that “nothing can get rid of an alcoholic.”
Human immunity, oftenconsumealcohol disorders, causing many different diseases.
- If the immune system cannot fight the antigens surrounding a person, the patient begins to suffer from constant 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.As a result, intolerances to specific foods, pollen, plant and synthetic ingredients, etc. occur.
- Autoimmune disease is one of the most serious complications of alcoholism, in which the body's defenses begin to destroy its own cells.Such pathologies cannot be completely eliminated, and treatment that inhibits their development has many side effects.
Immune system diseases may resultfailurein other systems, mainly nervous and endocrine.
This type of complication is possiblecountand cancer, because a healthy immune system helps fight cancer, stops its growth and quickly destroys pathological cells.
There is a myth that some drinks, such as wine, contain antioxidants that help prevent melanoma.Natural wine contains beneficial ingredients, but you can find them in much larger quantities in any fresh vegetable or fruit.BystatisticalAddicts often suffer from cancer in many organs, from cancer of the larynx and esophagus to damage to the liver and rectum.Cancer treatment for addicts has a less favorable prognosis, since the weakened body is less able to fight both the disease and the consequences of complex and prolonged therapy.
Digestive system
When alcohol enters the body, it first comes into contact with the digestive tract: the lining of the mouth, esophagus and stomach.From the stomach, ethanol actively enters the blood and with the blood affects other organs of the digestive system: liver, pancreas, etc.
List of diseases you may encountersick, wide As examples we can cite only the most popular ones.
- Domesticbleed- a deadly consequence of alcohol abuse, which goes unnoticed, only causing a stomach ache that many people do not pay attention to.This phenomenon is due to the expansion of blood vessels on the mucous membranes of organs: since the walls of blood vessels in alcoholics are often brittle 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 disease that cannot be cured and has no supportive therapy, such as kidney failure.An alcoholic's liver is under a lot of stress.The organ's liver cells are damaged, functional tissues are replaced by scar tissue or fat, and the liver gradually weakens.The danger of the condition lies in the fact that liver diseases often occur unnoticed, in a hidden form.
- Pancreatitis– Inflammation of the pancreas, causing frequent severe abdominal pain, nausea and indigestion.The abdomen becomes bloated, the patient is uncomfortable due to the formation of gas and fatty stools, and the quality of life is significantly reduced.
statusaggravateOther ingredients contained in alcoholic beverages: dyes, preservatives, foaming agents.
Urinary system
The kidneys remove half-life products of ethyl alcohol from the blood, so they are also often exposed to the toxic effects of alcohol.There are several mechanismsdefeatkidney tissue:
- the development of malignant hypertension, in which the vessels and capillaries in the kidneys are damaged;
- the appearance of autoimmune processes affecting the kidneys (SLE, glomerulonephritis, vasculitis).
Kidneys canlong termThe functional condensation time of the dead nephrons, but when tissue replacement exceeds 50%, glomerular filtration rate will begin to decrease, causing:
- swelling;
- high blood pressure;
- intoxication and vomiting;
- ammonia smell from mouth and skin, etc.
When organs fail, patients are forced to undergo continuous hemodialysis (3-4 times a week for 3-6 hours), or have an organ transplant.SimultaneouslyprobabilityThe likelihood that an alcoholic can receive a donor kidney and that his body can withstand post-operative immunosuppressive therapy is very small.
heart disease
Diseases related to the functioning of the heart and the condition of blood vessels kill most people in the world.In countries that are actively fighting against alcohol consumption, thisindicatorusually lower, this demonstrates the effect of ethanol on the heart.
- When intoxicated with ethyl alcohol, the body quickly loses potassium and magnesium, two substances that have important functions in maintaining the health of organs.Muscles wear out and cardiomyopathy often occurs, in which the heart's volume increases but its health and ability to perform assigned functions rapidly decrease.This disease is also known as beer heart syndrome.
- Due to lipid metabolism disorders and damage to the organs of the digestive system, the vascular cavity from the inside begins to become covered with plaques of cholesterol and triglycerides (brown fat), disrupting blood flow, including heart nutrition, and increasing the risk of cardiovascular events many times over.
When drunk and intoxicated, the heart workslimittheir capabilities: patients often complain of tachycardia, a feeling of sudden weakness, dizziness.If you do not provide timely medical care to the patient, the patient's condition can worsen due to acute processes: stroke, heart attack.
What determines the complications of drinking alcohol?
People who deny the harmful effects of alcohol on the body give the example of friends who have been drinking alcohol for a long time but have not encountered any cases.seriousillness.
Such isolated examples cannot compete with official statistics and scientific research confirming that alcohol:
- leads to functional and organic disorders of organs;
- addictive, making it impossible for a person to give up a bad habit, even understanding the danger of using ethanol;
- causes 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 during withdrawal.
Which ones specifically?complicationsarising in a particular person depends on him:
- age;
- lifestyle;
- existing chronic disease;
- Genetic factors and genetic predisposition.
Both the quantity and quality of “fire water” consumed are important.Despite the fact that ethanol itselfharmful, despite the fact that drinks containing it are solddearIn the wine market or in the pharmacy under the guise of tincture of hawthorn, the quality of other ingredients, as well as the degree of refinement of the wine, is very important.
There are many misconceptions about how alcohol affects the body.You 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 replenish the state budget.This means that there will always be people who benefit from alcohol being considered 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 drug doctor at a drug treatment clinic.