Alcoholism Treatment in Las Palmas

Alcohol: the effects and consequences of alcoholism

When we drink alcohol, it enters through the oesophagus, travels down the digestive tract, and reaches the stomach where the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and other substances oxidise it into acetaldehyde.

Before leaving the stomach, around 20% of the alcohol has already passed into the bloodstream, and the rest is then absorbed as it passes through the small intestine.

At this point, the blood carries the alcohol to the brain, where it stimulates neuronal activity to release dopamine.

As the liver metabolises the ingested alcohol, it generates from acetate the waste products carbon dioxide and water. These are then picked up by the kidneys, filtered, and subsequently sent to the bladder where they are expelled as urine. Approximately 95% of ingested alcohol is processed in this way, while the rest is eliminated through perspiration and exhalation.

Prolonged alcohol consumption gradually deteriorates brain functions, affecting thinking and the capacity for reasoning, which leads to growing emotional instability.

The function of the neurotransmitters undergoes serious alterations, those associated with the hedonic system and the peripheral nervous system.

The chronic decrease of vitamin B1 present in the body can cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, in which reality is altered because of damage to the individual's memory and thoughts.

In general, the irreversible brain damage that alcohol consumption can produce gradually causes deterioration of, among other things:

• Vision, memory and thinking, and results in growing irritability.
• Antisocial tendencies, depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, amnesia and hallucinations.
• Eventually one can suffer delirium tremens, psychosis, prolonged coma, or death.
• The long-term liver damage is devastating, since the liver is the organ responsible for metabolising alcohol. The metabolisation itself damages the liver proteins, oxidises fats and causes physical damage to the organ's tissue. This degenerates into alcoholic hepatitis and later hepatic cirrhosis, that is, the practical death of the liver. Jaundice, scleral discolouration and oedema are signs of this progressive liver degeneration.
• The well-known type II diabetes is also observed.
• Alcohol consumption also exposes one to contracting different types of cancer: cancer of the larynx, oesophagus, stomach and pancreas.
• In the pancreas there can be growing inflammation that results in acute pancreatitis and can become chronic. It is very painful and can also be fatal.

At Reconectar we can help you; if you have a problem with the way you drink or think you do, do not hesitate to call us. The consultation is completely confidential and free.