Alcohol intoxication. Process and mechanism of alcohol intoxication Mechanism of intoxication

The paragraph is based on an article by E.G. Batrakova.

When culture drinkers offer a drink, they are very jealous of the choice of product. “You shouldn’t confuse “noble” products with some kind of mumbo-jumbo,” they say. Good wine, proper beer or the best well-refined vodka. But what is vodka? Vodka is a mixture of purified ethyl alcohol and water. Consequently, to obtain this product we need exactly alcohol, which, according to the common everyday understanding, is a poison, and according to true scientific understanding, it is a dangerous, nervous, protoplasmic poison.

So, we take poison, but, of course, pure poison, exceptionally good quality poison and, of course, only a little bit, so as to become slightly drunk. However, this is hampered by the statement from the psychiatry manual: “Alcohol intoxication is acute intoxication caused by the psychotropic effect of “drinks” containing ethyl alcohol. Acute alcohol intoxication, as a rule, manifests itself in the form of simple alcohol intoxication. According to clinical manifestations, three degrees of intoxication are distinguished: mild, moderate and severe." And here’s what experts say: “A mild degree of simple alcohol intoxication is characterized by a feeling of mental and physical comfort.

The mood improves, a feeling of vigor and contentment arises. Pleasant thoughts and associations predominate. The perception of what is heard and seen is predominantly positive. Troubles that arise in this state are often perceived more calmly and simply.” This is what many drunks want to get. What is, for example, “mental and physical comfort”? According to the dictionary, the word “comfort” means “peace, a state of calm, the absence of discord with oneself and the world around us.” How does alcohol cause this condition? Based on the essence of the example, we understand: in order to find peace, you need to not have it, and someone who is not at peace is agitated. Therefore, having found comfort, he eliminated his arousal with the help of alcohol? Is this possible? It turns out yes. And this is confirmed by the great pillars of our domestic science: “We tried to give the smallest doses of alcohol and never received a stimulating effect. This must be understood in such a way that from the very beginning the effect of alcohol is a paralyzing effect, not a stimulating one. I.P. Pavlov ". I.M. Sechenov talks about the same thing: “As for the dog’s alcoholic excitement, despite the assurances of Mitscherlich and Orfil ,she doesn't have one. Pommer already in 1834 drew this conclusion from all his experiments.”. And further in the same place he talks about the frog: “Its alcohol paralysis is the same as that of a person; The frog does not have a period of excitation, but neither does the dog, rabbit, cat, etc.” (p.51). Modern research favors this theory.

Thus, American researcher M.A. Schukit states: “Ethanol depresses the central nervous system and reduces the activity of neurons. Increases the fluidity (permeability) of nerve cells."

Well, first of all, alcohol, as a universal solvent, at its first meeting with the cells of the body produces a uniform destruction of the latter. As a result, the blood becomes literally oversaturated with decay products, which the liver - a chemical laboratory - does not have time to cope with. The central nervous system is one of the first targets of alcohol: the membrane of nerve cells is damaged, the conduction of nerve impulses and axon metabolism (an elongated outgrowth of the cytoplasm of a neuron) are disrupted.

As a result of increased permeability, the membrane of the nerve cell becomes a target for the influence of any pathological substances, of which there are plenty of them as a result of alcohol intake (even in the most minimal doses): ethanol triggers a number of biochemical reactions that produce compounds that are toxic to the body. As American researchers write Lawrence D.R. and Benit P.N., after consuming alcohol: “Hyperuricemia increases, adenine nucleotides decompose, and the level of uric acid and its precursors increases.” All these chemicals are absolute poisons for the nerve cell: the neuron loses the ability to carry out its function, i.e. simply becomes paralyzed, or, in the worst case, dies. Due to the inhibition of gluconeogenesis, this is also facilitated by increasing hypoglycemia (decreased blood sugar), which leads to irreversible brain damage. Is this really the comfort that drunkards talk about?

As you know, in understanding comfort we usually include a feeling of warmth in the esophagus, stomach, warmth throughout the body, slight dizziness, relaxation, fog.

But feeling of warmth in the esophagus and stomach- nothing more than inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and esophagus. In addition, alcohol causes pylorospasm (a disorder of the motor function of the stomach), damages the mucous membrane, causing reverse diffusion of hydrochloric acid, and increases epithelial detachment, resulting in cracks, erosions, and hemorrhages. And is all this perceived by the drinker as a sign of comfort?

"Warmth throughout the body" occurs as a consequence of inhibition of the vasomotor center with subsequent expansion of peripheral vessels.

"A state of slight dizziness" after drinking alcohol, can be regarded as a result:

· slide syndrome – blockage of small vessels with agglutinated (glued) red blood cells;

· reduction of platelet aggregation;

· inhibition of thromboxane A2 release processes;

· inhibition of myocardial contractility.

As a result, peripheral vasodilation (vasodilation) is caused, blood pressure decreases, after which the body reacts with an adaptive spasm of large vessels.

"Relaxation, brain fog" felt after drinking alcohol, is a consequence of a violation of the coordinated functioning of the central nervous system as a result of paralysis and death of part of its cells and parts.

By the way, the state of subjectively experienced comfort can also be explained as a result of the influence of alcohol poison on the activating pathways of the reticular formation of the brainstem, strengthening inhibitory processes in the thalamus (anatomical structures of the brain responsible for the perception of external signals): visual and hearing acuity decreases, perception is impaired taste, smell, the ability to assimilate information is lost, i.e., the poisoned person becomes deaf and blind.

It is this state of insensibility in the light false information and is perceived as a state of comfort. The person who drinks will object to us: but it’s not just a feeling of comfort, understood as a state of peace we received by drinking “good wine.” Yes, indeed, “not only.” And about this also in the book “Alcoholism”: “The mood improves, a feeling of vigor and contentment arises.” The feeling of vigor, as we understand it, is not very similar to a state of rest, is it? About the same thing in V.I. Dahl’s dictionary: “cheerful - lively, lively, sleepless, sluggish.” Where does “glitness” come from after alcohol, if alcohol, as we stated above, is a paralyzer? And that’s precisely where the glibness comes from! That’s why the glibness is that “alcohol is a nervous poison”!

Firstly, “from a physiological point of view, drinking any amount of alcohol is stressful for the body”. It is important to understand that stress is state of excitement, - represents reaction for presence poison, and not the result of the specific property of alcohol to excite.

What does this mean and how does it happen?

Alcohol drunk by a person immediately has a pathological effect on all human organs, to which the body, as a stressor - and alcohol is a stressor - according to the theory of G. Selye, reacts by activating the sympathetic-adrenal system, mobilizing all its adaptive reserves, i.e. ., a person enters the stage of excitement, but... due to the body’s response for presence aggressive pathological substance!

Secondly, as I.P. Pavlov argued: with paralysis or necrosis of the governing centers of the cerebral cortex, the underlying centers are disinhibited, which is also subjectively experienced as a state of excitement (euphoria, high, fun). "Cheerfulness" thus obtained through alcohol, There is scream our central nervous system!

Further, from the description of the alcohol intoxication clinic it follows that after drinking alcohol "prevail pleasant thoughts and associations. The perception of the audible and visible has predominantly positive coloring." How to explain the occurrence of these positive emotions?

It seems quite obvious that a person who turns to alcohol is in a state of certain dissatisfaction at the time of drinking, for it is dissatisfaction and only dissatisfaction that is the motivating factor for poison absorption, as, indeed, for absolutely any activity in general. Moreover, if the process of drinking contributes (due to the paralysis of the nervous system) to a decrease in dissatisfaction, it is subjectively regarded as a process of achieving what it should be and, accordingly, is experienced as pleasure, joy, fun, buzz, euphoria. However, it should be kept in mind: emotion is an experience associated with assessment the sensations experienced, and the assessment depends on information that can be not only true, but also false. Consequently, we can mistakenly take something pleasant for something useful, in particular, paralysis of the nervous system, in which the level of arousal actually decreases, can be called a “feeling of contentment,” “a feeling of pleasure,” etc.

It is not in vain, but it is not precisely said: “alcohol is a great deceiver.” “Not exactly” because it is not alcohol that deceives, it is people who deceive, some intentionally, some out of thoughtlessness, who spread lies about alcohol, precisely the lies through which a person who has taken up poison drinking considers all the symptoms of poisoning, naming it, of course , in the best words.

But is living in deception worthy of a reasonable person? Moreover, if, “in general, the picture of mild alcohol intoxication is in many ways similar to the hypomanic state of circular psychosis”? Psychosis, in which the most expensive company of smart and kind guests turns into a rude crowd of ordinary idiots, the most ordinary, cheerful crazy people? After all, this is when the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca remarked: "Intoxication is nothing more than voluntary madness"? The state of madness, the state of circular psychosis, is this exactly what we are so methodically and persistently oriented towards? “Well, okay, drinking is harmful, we understand even without academics, but we’re not completely drunk all year, are we? And wasn’t it the crowned Solomon who said: “Everything passes, this too will pass”? After drinking, do I become a normal person? After all, by the way, am I ever sober?” Sober - yes, but healthy no longer. Having taken a step, it is impossible to stay in place: having consumed a dose of poison, it is impossible not to harm your own health. That is why there is reason to agree with the Krasnoyarsk scientist A.P. Sugonyako, who argued: “Everything that a person feels when drinking alcohol are signs that indicate the destruction of health, poisoning, and the onset of a disease.” If a person consumes this or that poison - nicotine, alcohol, heroin - he already Now from the first sips, from the first puffs, injections, it creates a platform for some kind of disease. Today's your condition is a state of alcohol poisoning, which is exactly what will provide you in future 100% disease, only in some cases it will be an ulcer or stomach cancer, in others - hypertension or heart attack, liver cirrhosis or pancreatitis, nephrosis or urolithiasis, polyradiculoneuropathy or alcoholic encephalopathy. This - " in future " But you should also think about the fact that if you even thought about taking a sip of beer, wine or vodka, you are already in an abnormal state, because, as the modern outstanding scientist Erich Fromm said: “The thirst for what is harmful is the essence of mental illness.”. And this mental illness - alcoholism - begins long before a person drinks, begins to drink a lot and often: “Alcoholism begins not with the first drink, but with the first seen the glass that dad or mom drinks.”(G.A. Shichko). Alcoholism begins with the first portion of false information, finds its continuation in the next sips of a poisonous potion, bringing suffering and shameful death to a person, family, and society. Disability, inferiority, death... The black shadow of intoxication. Simple and easy including...

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is largely explained by the resulting result in the form of intoxication. A person becomes cheerful and relaxed, and this happens due to the impact of the breakdown products of alcohol and ethanol itself on the central nervous system. There are no special receptors for alcohol, but after the product enters the body, a cascade of enzymatic reactions is launched. The released neurotransmitters contribute to the feeling of intoxication and create a feeling of euphoria.

Mechanism of development of intoxication

Alcohol intoxication develops in all people according to the same principle, but with different speed and strength. After entering the body, ethanol begins to be partially absorbed in the oral cavity and penetrates the blood. The rest of it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the stomach and small intestine. Then the algorithm or mechanism of the process is described from the point of view of physiology and biochemistry:

• ethanol is carried through the bloodstream and mixed with lipids and water;
• the substance penetrates the blood-brain barrier into the brain;
• there the neurotransmitter GABA is activated, triggering the processes of inhibition of the central nervous system;
• at the same time, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released, giving a feeling of pleasure;
• at the same time, the enzymes alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase are activated;
• Enzyme systems break down ethanol into acetaldehyde and acetic acid.

Acetaldehyde, a breakdown intermediate (highly toxic), then enters the brain and combines with dopamine to form a morphine-like substance. It is this that gives the feeling of intoxication, disrupts coordination of movements, memory, and dulls the receptors of the senses. A person may behave atypically and even aggressively.

If the secreted enzymes become insufficient to neutralize ethanol, and alcohol continues to flow, protective mechanisms are triggered. A person gets drunk from alcohol and falls asleep. Less commonly, loss of consciousness or respiratory arrest occurs due to blockage of the respiratory center in the medulla oblongata. Inhibition processes prevail until all the alcohol is converted into acetic acid and excreted by the kidneys or lungs.

Why does a person get drunk quickly?

The rate of intoxication depends not only on the amount of alcohol consumed and its strength, but also on other reasons. The length of time you lose sobriety is influenced by genetic factors. Microbiologists studied the activity of enzymatic systems for processing alcohol and realized that it depends on the suppressor gene. This gene suppresses the production of alcohol dehydrogenase.

The population in Asia has this genetic code, so they get drunk quickly. Enzymes simply do not have time to break down alcohol. Representatives of the Caucasian race get drunk slowly, so they can drink more drinks. They have a predominant fast cleavage complex and alcohol dehydrogenase is activated faster.

The most dangerous option, which is typical for residents of the CIS countries, is the presence of alcohol dehydrogenase and a small amount or suppression of the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Then the toxic substance acetaldehyde accumulates in the blood, causing a severe hangover.

A person quickly gets drunk at an older age, after 40 years, due to a slowdown in metabolic processes. Women are faster than men due to the high activity of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver and its deficiency in the gastrointestinal tract. Low weight and calmness of the body are other reasons for the rapid loss of control.

In people with excess body weight, alcohol binds with fats, leaving the bloodstream, and in thin people, it binds only with water, circulating in the blood. In addition, an excited mood helps speed up metabolism and activate all metabolic processes, even after drinking alcohol. But in a balanced state, people get drunk quickly.

How to drink and not get drunk

It must be remembered that alcohol begins to be absorbed into the blood from the oral cavity. Therefore, taking the drink in slow sips will lead to rapid intoxication. To avoid losing control, you need to drink in one gulp.

Do not mix different types of alcohol. If the evening begins with champagne, then it is not recommended to snack on sweet foods. This will speed up the process of intoxication. In addition, you should not drink on an empty stomach. Before the feast, it is recommended to eat protein foods or, for example, drink yogurt.

Activated carbon will help you get drunk more slowly. It should be drunk half an hour before starting to drink intoxicants in age-appropriate doses. Additionally, while eating with ethyl, you can take a Pancreatin or Mezim tablet, this will speed up the metabolic processes of other substances (lipids, proteins). Each glass of wine (or shot of strong drink) should be diluted with a glass of clean water.

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Alcohol has been known to people for a long time, and since then scientists have been haunted by the question of what are the mechanisms of development of intoxication, why some people get drunk very quickly, while others, on the contrary, are not affected by alcohol at all.

Why does intoxication develop?

When asking the question of why intoxication develops after alcohol, it is necessary to understand which substance contributes to this and how.

A negative process in the body is triggered by ethanol, which contains any alcohol. Ethanol, having entered the body through the oral cavity, is absorbed in the stomach and intestines and enters the bloodstream.

In the bloodstream, red blood cells become the first target for the toxin. The impact is as follows:

• the special protective layer of red blood cells is broken;
• the special charge that repels red blood cells from each other disappears;
• red blood cells stick together;
• Microthrombi are formed that block the flow of blood in small-caliber arteries.

First of all, of course, the vessels of the brain are clogged, in which there are most arteries with a small lumen. As a result, a sufficient amount of oxygen seems to enter the human body, but it does not completely reach the brain structures, which leads to the formation of hypoxia.

Hypoxia, that is, a lack of oxygen, explains all the changes that occur in the body against the background of intoxication. Moreover, if alcohol enters the body in high concentrations, as more blood vessels become blocked.

Important! Alcohol that enters the body will one way or another lead to the formation of a small number of microthrombi. Another thing is that alcohol in small quantities will not lead to serious interruptions in blood flow.

What happens during a hangover

If it is clear why a person gets drunk from alcohol, then what are the changes in the body during a hangover? Especially often, many are interested in the question of where it comes from.

The fact is that alcohol that enters the body ensures active leaching of magnesium, sodium, potassium and calcium salts from it. In this case, there is an active accumulation of an alcohol metabolite called acetaldehyde.

It is the accumulation of acetaldehyde that can provoke nausea, vomiting, and headaches. In this case, these are banal symptoms indicating poisoning of the body and its attempts to remove the harmful substance from the blood so that it does not cause even more harm to the body.

The fastest and most effective way to get rid of toxins if they have already entered the body is to drink large amounts of plain water while using diuretics. Such a simple approach will allow you to quickly cleanse the body of ethanol breakdown products and alleviate the general condition of a person.

Important! If the alcohol contained not ethanol, but methanol, which is a much more toxic substance, then the help of specialists will be needed. Methanol is removed from body tissues tens of times slower than ethanol, and its toxicity is so high that it poses a threat to human life.

What are the causes of this unpleasant syndrome?

People suffering from headaches in the morning after actively drinking alcohol are wondering what are the reasons for the appearance of this symptom? There are several main reasons:

• Oxygen starvation

Due to increased blood clotting, miniature blood clots form in the brain. They are not capable of causing serious circulatory problems, but they can significantly reduce oxygen levels, leading to the development of oxygen starvation. As a result, the person will feel a headache until the dead cells are removed from the body along with the breakdown products of ethanol.

• Increased load on the liver

The liver, taking on the job of neutralizing toxins, ceases to supply the body with a sufficient amount of glucose. As a result, headaches develop, since this substance is vital for brain function.

• Increased urination

Drinking alcohol causes fluid to leave the body faster. As a result, the water balance is disrupted, which leads to headaches due to a lack of micro- and macroelements.

• Prostaglandin block

Prostaglandin is a special substance in the body responsible for the perception of pain and the transmission of pain impulses. Due to its blocking, more active transmission of impulses occurs and the person feels attacks of pain that he would not normally feel.

Important! The process of development of intoxication and the subsequent process of hangover are closely interconnected precisely in the hypoxia stage. Without oxygen starvation of the brain, the development of intoxication is impossible and, as a result, the further appearance of a hangover syndrome cannot be imagined.

Oxygen starvation that develops while drinking alcohol does not pose a threat to most people. However, if a person already has any cerebral circulation disorders, it is better for him to completely stop drinking alcohol. For him, such an addiction can become destructive, since the brain is already damaged by the irregular supply of oxygen necessary for normal functioning. If it is difficult to quit, then special tools from the Internet can solve this problem quite well.

The development of intoxication in a person is a normal reaction to ethanol entering the body. The main thing is that this condition does not pose a threat to life and health!

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Alcohol intoxication is a disorder of consciousness, as a result of which a person loses touch with real life. It is caused by the psychoactive effects of ethanol. In such a disturbed consciousness, a person can commit both harmless acts and any crimes.

Alcohol intoxication affects the psychological, physiological and behavioral functions of a person.

Pathological intoxication

For alcoholic intoxication, it is not necessary to drink large volumes of alcohol that cause complex intoxication. This condition can be caused even after drinking a small amount of alcohol.

Pathological intoxication occurs even in absolutely healthy people when certain factors are combined with drinking strong drinks:

• Physiological factors: fatigue, prolonged forced sleep disturbance, exhaustion of the body.
• Emotional factors: anxiety and excitement, constant stress, fears.

This condition can develop when a person has experienced any disorders of the nervous system or trauma to the skull and brain. The consequences of such injuries may be minor or occur unnoticed, and the person may not be aware of them at all. Most likely, the person did not consult a specialist after receiving a head injury.

The brain suffers the most from alcohol; it is also an active user of energy in the body. Alcohol only has a negative effect on it, because it reduces the supply of oxygen molecules to nerve cells during the period of alcohol intoxication.

Due to regular drinking of alcohol, brain cells die. Therefore, alcoholics are often distinguished by visible dementia.

Pathological intoxication can occur not only as a result of drinking large quantities of alcohol, in which the body experiences severe intoxication, but the cause can be the consumption of a small dose of alcoholic beverage.

Why does intoxication occur?

Intoxication is due to the fact that ethanol contains fusel substances, which cause disruption of the normal functioning of the cerebral cortex. Someone loses their balance, which is explained by insufficient functioning of the cerebellum, a part of the brain. Others quickly lose control of their actions.

In addition, it often happens that after a heavy alcoholic feast, when the ethanol has already disappeared from the body, and the person seems to have sobered up, he cannot remember what happened to him the day before.

The maximum concentration of alcohol in the blood occurs after 1.5 hours, but this is different for everyone.
Alcoholic drinks with a strength of no more than 30%, beer, champagne, various wines and cocktails are absorbed into the blood quite quickly. The rate of intoxication increases when many factors influence the body, they increase the permeability of the gastric and intestinal mucosa. This is possible with gastritis, peptic ulcer, enterocolitis, as well as with elevated temperature.

In men and women, intoxication is expressed and manifested differently. For example, in women, impairment of motor functions precedes emotional ones, while in men the same happens in the opposite order.

After drinking a small amount of alcohol, excitement suddenly arises, which is accompanied by fear and anxiety. A person cannot normally perceive what surrounds him; everything seems aggressive to him and poses a threat to him. Therefore, he reacts to everything with irritation and aggression.

Outwardly, a person may not appear to be drunk at all; he or she may not show any lack of coordination, unusual facial expressions, or speech impairment.

Soon all the body's forces, which he directed towards survival, dry up, and excitement soon gives way to sleep. After rest, a person does not remember anything that happened recently.

According to doctors, this is a manifestation of the narcotic effect of consumed alcohol on the human nervous system. Therefore, you need to know that if there is an urgent need to sober up from alcohol, then it is possible to simply reduce its effect on the central nervous system, more precisely on the brain.

Alcohol acts as a narcotic substance, which entails a loss of sensitivity to pain. It does not have a wide therapeutic spectrum, so after the loss of pain, ethanol can very quickly cause a state of serious alcoholic coma.

Some people may experience temporary memory loss and severe thirst.

Severe intoxication can lead to coma or death

There is probably no organ in the human body that does not suffer from the destructive effects of alcohol. As mentioned above, the most obvious and complex changes occur in the brain. This is where alcohol toxins tend to accumulate.

After drinking any amount of alcohol, the ethanol in them penetrates the mucous membrane and enters the blood. Together with the blood flow, it moves to all tissues and to the brain. Then the unfortunate person undergoes a process of destruction of the cerebral cortex.

It is known that alcohol is an excellent solvent. Once in the blood, it is capable of dissolving, or rather, destroying cellular structures.

There is another harmful effect of alcohol on the body. As it turned out, ethanol in blood vessels is capable of clotting blood, forming numerous clots, that is, blood clots. Many people know what consequences they can lead to.

For more than 300 years, world medicine has considered alcoholic beverages to be a narcotic, neurotropic and protoplasmic poison. It destroys not only the nervous system, but also all human tissues and organs. The poison destroys their structure at the cellular, even molecular levels.

How does intoxication occur? Mechanism, chemistry of alcohol intoxication. Intoxication - what is it? Why does the memory turn off? Hangover and red nose. Alcohol as much as possible: What kind of alcohol you can drink. Harm of alcohol consumption and brain cells.

We sat together “soulfully”
We drank wine to our heart's content.
The next morning we sobered up -
Half the brain is missing!

What is intoxication? Why does a drunk person want to sleep? Why does memory loss occur quite often the next morning? Why am I thirsty in the morning? Why is drunken conception unacceptable? Why are drunkards called "blue" or "bruised"? Why do people who drink alcohol experience redness of the nose, ears, neck? Why do people who drink alcohol experience joy and euphoria?

Mechanism of effects of alcohol

Red blood cells in the blood during intoxication. Formation of blood clots.

There is not a single organ in the human body that is not destroyed by alcohol. But the most powerful changes, and first of all, occur in the human brain. It is there that this poison tends to accumulate. After drinking a mug of beer, a glass of wine, 100 grams of vodka, the alcohol contained in them is absorbed into the blood, goes with the bloodstream to the brain, and the person begins the process of intensive destruction of the cerebral cortex.

The destruction mechanism is very simple. In 1961, three American physicists Nicely, Maskaoui and Pennington examined the human eye through a long-focus microscope they had made. They focused through the pupil on the smallest vessels of the retina of the eye, gave backlight from the side and physicists For the first time in the history of science, it was possible to look inside a human vessel and see how blood flows through the vessel.

What did the physicists see? They saw the walls of the vessel, saw leukocytes (white blood cells) and erythrocytes (red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, and carbon dioxide in the opposite direction) 8

Blood flowed through the vessels, everything was filmed. One day, physicists put another client under a microscope, looked into his eye and gasped. A person had blood clots walking through the vessel: clots, red blood cell gluing. Moreover, in these gluings they numbered 5, 10, 40, 400, up to 1000 red blood cells. They figuratively named them grape bunches. The physicists were scared, but the man sat there and it seemed like nothing. The second and third are normal, but the fourth has blood clots again. We started to find out and found out: these two had been drinking the day before.

Immediately the physicists performed a barbaric experiment. We conducted an experiment with as much alcohol as possible. A sober man, whose blood vessels were normal, was given a glass of beer to drink. After 15 minutes, alcoholic red blood cells appeared in the blood of the former sober person.

Physicists decided that they had made the greatest scientific discovery - they directly proved that alcohol coagulates blood (is a blood clot-forming agent) in human vessels, and not just in a test tube, as was known from experience. Which one can you drink? The harm of drinking alcohol and 1 cell This experiment, which was previously shown at school in the 9th grade during biology lessons, is as follows. Water is poured into a test tube and a few drops of blood are dropped into it. Against the background of the lamp, the water turns bright orange. Immediately a few drops of vodka are dripped into this test tube and right before your eyes the blood coagulates into flakes. So, as it turned out, not only in vitro, but also Alcohol clots blood in blood vessels.

Just in case, physicists turned to the medical encyclopedia to find out how much alcohol can you drink and were amazed to discover that medicine has been diagnosing alcohol for 300 years as a narcotic neurotropic and protoplasmic poison, that is a poison that affects the nervous system and all human organs; a poison that destroys their structure at the cellular and molecular levels.

As you know, alcohol is a good solvent. As a solvent, it is widely used in industry in the manufacture of varnishes, polishes, and in a number of chemical industries for the synthesis of paints, synthetic rubber, and other things. It dissolves everything: grease, dirt, and paint... Therefore, alcohol is used in technology to degrease the surface. But once in the blood, alcohol behaves like a solvent there too!

What happens when alcohol (always containing alcohol) passes through the stomach and intestines into the blood?
What happens to the brain from vodka?

The harm of drinking alcohol. In the normal state, the outer surface of red blood cells is covered with a thin layer of lubricant, which becomes electrified when rubbed against the walls of blood vessels. Each of the red blood cells carries a unipolar negative charge, and therefore they have the initial property of repelling each other. An alcohol-containing liquid removes this protective layer and relieves electrical stress. As a result, the red blood cells, instead of being repelled, begin to stick together.

At the same time, red blood cells acquire a new property: they begin to stick together, forming larger balls. The process takes place in the mode of snowballs, the size of which increases with the amount of drinking. The diameter of capillaries in certain parts of the body (brain, retina) is sometimes so small that red blood cells literally “squeeze” through them one by one, often pushing the walls of the capillaries apart. The smallest diameter of a capillary is 50 times thinner than a human hair, equal to 8 microns (0.008 mm), the smallest diameter of a red blood cell is 7 microns (0.007 mm). Therefore, it is clear that a formation containing several red blood cells is not capable of moving through the capillaries. Moving along branching arteries, and then through arterioles of ever smaller caliber, it eventually reaches an arteriole with a diameter smaller than the diameter of the clot and blocks it, completely stopping the blood flow in it, therefore, the blood supply to individual groups of neurons in the brain stops. The clots have an irregular shape and contain an average of 200 - 500 red blood cells, their average size is 60 microns. There are individual clots containing thousands of red blood cells. Of course, blood clots of this size block arterioles of not the smallest caliber.

Due to the fact that oxygen stops flowing to the brain cells, hypoxia, that is, oxygen starvation (oxygen deficiency). It is hypoxia that is perceived by a person as a supposedly harmless state of intoxication. And this leads to “numbness” and then death of parts of the brain. All this is subjectively perceived by the drinker as “freedom” from the outside world, similar to the euphoria of being released from prison after a long “serve.” In reality, just part of the brain is artificially disconnected from the perception of often “unpleasant” information from the outside.

It is hypoxia that imitates freedom, the feeling of which arises in the psyche of people who drink under the influence of alcohol. It is this feeling of freedom that everyone who drinks is drawn to. But the feeling of freedom is not freedom, but the most dangerous illusion of the drinker. Having decided to “free” himself in this way from others and from problems, the drunk continues to be surrounded by people and circumstances, ceasing to be aware of his actions and thoughts.

Note that the “sleep” that occurs as a result of severe intoxication is not sleep in the usual physiological sense. This is precisely loss of consciousness due to neurochemical disorders caused by alcoholic hypoxia of the brain - alcoholic coma. In other words, during oxygen starvation, the waking body cannot breathe and, in order to make breathing easier (so that the person does not die), a protective reaction of the body occurs - “sleep”, in order to reduce the metabolic rate in it.

For large vessels (in the arm, in the leg), the gluing of red blood cells in the initial stages of drinking alcohol does not pose any particular danger. Unless people who have been drinking alcohol for many years have a characteristic complexion and nose. A person has a lot of small vessels in the nose that branch. When the alcoholic adhesive of red blood cells approaches the branching site of the vessel, it clogs it, the vessel swells (aneurysm), dies, and the nose subsequently acquires a blue-violet color because the vessel no longer works.

Blockage of a vessel by gluing red blood cells

In everyone’s head the situation is exactly the same. The human brain is made up of 15 billion nerve cells (neurons). Each nerve cell (neuron, indicated by a triangle with a dot) is ultimately fed by its own microcapillary with blood. This microcapillary is so thin that For normal nutrition of a given neuron, red blood cells can only squeeze into one row.

But when the alcoholic adhesion of red blood cells approaches the base of the microcapillary, it clogs it, 7 - 9 minutes pass and another human neuron brain cell dies irrevocably and forever.

Blockage of a microcapillary by gluing red blood cells

After each so-called “moderate” drink, a new cemetery of dead nerve cells and neurons appears in a person’s head. And when doctors-pathologists open the skull of any so-called moderate drinker, they all see the same picture - a shriveled brain, a smaller brain in volume, and the entire surface of the cerebral cortex covered in microscars, microulcers, and loss of structures. These are all areas of the brain destroyed by alcohol.

The insidiousness of alcohol is further enhanced by the fact that a young man’s body has a significant, approximately 10-fold supply of capillaries. That is, at any given moment only about 10% of all capillaries are functioning. Therefore, alcoholic disorders of the circulatory system and their consequences are not as obvious in youth as in later years.

However, over time, the “reserve” of capillaries is gradually exhausted, and the consequences of alcohol poisoning become more and more noticeable. At the current level of alcohol consumption, the “average” man in this regard “suddenly” faces a wide variety of ailments at the age of about 30 years. Most often these are diseases of the stomach, liver, and cardiovascular system. Neuroses, disorders in the sexual sphere. However, diseases can be the most unexpected: after all, the effect of alcohol is universal, it affects all organs and systems of the human body. Some scientists believe that after 100 grams of vodka, at least 8 thousand actively working cells, mainly germ cells and brain cells, die forever.

Irreversible death of neurons as a result of thrombosis and micro-strokes in the cerebral cortex leads to the loss of some information and to short-term memory impairments (BRAIN CELLS, responsible for memory, DIE FIRST, so those who have “slightly” overdidn’t remember anything the next morning). At the same time, the processes of processing current information, which lead to the consolidation of its most essential part in the neural structures that provide long-term memory, are hampered.

When doctors autopsy alcoholics who died from alcohol poisoning, they They are surprised not at how the brain is destroyed, but at how a person could continue to live with such a brain.

Thus, alcohol is like an invisible, but very powerful weapon aimed at depriving a person of reason. And if a whole people drinks, as our people were driven into this abyss of drunkenness, then this means depriving the whole people of reason and turning people from intelligent, creative, thinking, forward-oriented people into simply a two-legged working herd.

The mechanism of alcohol intoxication

How does intoxication occur? Mechanism, chemistry of alcohol intoxication.

Intoxication - what is it? Why does the memory turn off? Hangover and red nose.

Why does a person go crazy from alcohol?

This is not an idle question. Drunkards often say that they are poets: “we get drunk, we get drunk.” In general, they came up with different words to justify themselves. But a sober person can see that under the influence of alcohol a person naturally becomes stupid (becomes a fool, that is, perceives the surrounding reality not as it really is), and does not get drunk. How does this happen?

A person, due to ignorance, immorality and lack of will, pours alcohol-containing liquid into himself (beer, wine, vodka - there is no difference). Alcohol is absorbed into the blood, damages, and sticks together red blood cells. These adhesives travel through the bloodstream to the brain and clog brain cells. Brain cells begin to starve of oxygen. Brain cells begin to die en masse. The normal functioning of the cerebral cortex is disrupted and the person therefore becomes stupid. We already know this. However, the process of alcohol intoxication occurs differently in different people.

• For some, the occipital part of the brain is primarily damaged - vestibular apparatus. They start to chatter and start to lose their balance.
• The second ones come first the “moral” center is destroyed. They say about these guys: he did this drunk, he would never have done it sober. Knowing this, it is quite obvious that a person under the influence of alcohol becomes crazy. His brain cells that control behavior are killed by alcohol.
• For others, first of all memory is destroyed. Medicine knows thousands of cases when in the morning a drunkard cannot remember where he was, what he did, with whom he drank. In his brain, instead of the cells that were supposed to remember yesterday, there is a scar as thick as a finger.

Brain zones

Agree that loss of balance, inappropriate actions and loss of memory are all characteristics not of “being drunk”, but of stupor, that is, what is characteristic of fools and schizophrenics. What happens to the drinker's brain? What happens to these killed cells?

These cells are human tissue. The temperature under the skull is 36 o C. These dead cells begin to rot and decompose. But to prevent these rotting cells from completely poisoning the brain, the body is forced to pump a huge amount of fluid under the skull. This liquid crushes the head of the person who drank the day before with pincers in the morning. This is the cause of hangover headaches. To remove dead cells, increased pressure is created in the cerebral cortex due to increased fluid influx and, in fact, direct physiological “washing” of the brain. This is precisely what causes thirst in the morning - the need for additional fluid.

This is the reason why the body requires a lot of water to flush the remaining brain cells of dead brain cells. The liquid pumped under the skull dissolves brain cells and the next morning through the genitourinary system drains them into the city sewer. Hangover syndrome- nothing more than a process associated with the removal from the brain of neurons that died due to lack of blood supply. The body rejects dead cells, which is what causes morning headaches.

Therefore, there is an absolutely accurate scientific aphorism:

The one who drinks vodka, wine and beer,
the next morning he wets himself with his own brains.

If you drank a lot of beer, vodka and wine, you'll flush a lot of brains down the toilet. If you drink a little beer, vodka and wine, you won’t lose enough brains. But you will merge it anyway, because this is the essence of the effect of this narcotic poison - alcohol.

Hypoxia - alcoholic euphoria

How does intoxication occur? Hypoxia, mechanism, chemistry of alcohol intoxication. Intoxication - what is it? Why does the memory turn off?

How are hypoxia (oxygen starvation) and alcoholic euphoria related? The state of excitement - the euphoria that occurs when drinking alcohol - is attributed by many researchers to hypoxia. Hypoxia occurs when the blood vessels in the brain become blocked and the access of oxygen through the blood to the brain cells is stopped.

A certain stage of oxygen starvation is characterized by a state of excitation. Let us recall the tragic story of the Zenit balloon, which took place 130 years ago on April 15, 1875. The balloon crew consisted of three people. At an altitude of 7 kilometers, crew commander Tissanier consulted with his companions whether to continue the ascent. They agreed. Tissanier dropped several sandbags, and the balloon quickly slid upward. Everyone was feeling upbeat and happy. “I’ve never felt so good,” Tissanier later said, “I felt like I was falling into a sleep: light, pleasant, dreamless.” At the last moment, the unusual sensations nevertheless disturbed the experienced aeronaut and, already losing consciousness, he opened the valve of his oxygen device.

Tissanier woke up an hour later with a headache. He tried to move. His body did not obey him; he raised his hand with difficulty. With enormous efforts, he reached his companions, both were unconscious, a strange smile froze on their lifeless white faces. The oxygen devices were untouched. This frozen joy terrified even the brave astronaut Tissanier.

He still managed to land the balloon. The doctors' energetic measures saved his life. The remaining two participants in the flight died without regaining consciousness.

The tragic history of Zenit seemed mysterious to contemporaries of the flight. Now that high-altitude flights have become commonplace, this story is clear. The aeronauts were sure that they would feel the lack of oxygen and would have time to turn on the oxygen cushions. This was their mistake.

Now the change in the state of the human body and the subjective sensations of a person at different altitudes have been well studied. At an altitude of four kilometers, a person feels weak and dizzy. Even simple work gets tiresome quickly. Further, with increasing altitude, the unpleasant sensations disappear. The person feels good, he is cheerful, excited. However, a small effort, one sudden movement is enough - and a person loses consciousness. The reference books say briefly about an altitude of 8 kilometers: “death threatens.” As it was established, Tissanier and his comrades reached an altitude of 8600 meters. The rest is self-explanatory.

Interestingly, the person himself usually does not notice disturbances in the normal functioning of the body caused by altitude. Moreover, the weaker the consciousness becomes, the calmer and more confident he feels. If you tell him that he doesn’t think well, he will say the opposite.

We see that the state of oxygen starvation is very similar to alcohol intoxication. The same overestimation of one’s strength (“knee-deep sea”), the same joyful, excited state, the same inability to critically evaluate one’s actions. Everything is the same, only hypoxia of alcohol origin is caused not by a lack of oxygen in the air, but by the difficulty of its delivery to the cells of the brain, tissues, and organs as a result of circulatory disorders.

So, the fun associated with drinking alcohol is based on hypoxia. And hypoxia, in this case, as we see, is caused by the gluing of red blood cells and the formation of blood clots in small vessels. This means that in order to feel pleasure from drinking, it is necessary to cause vascular thrombosis. And vascular thrombosis is always the death of some cells or tissues. We thus come to the important conclusion that THERE ARE NO HARMFUL DOSES OF ALCOHOL IN PRINCIPLE.

The mechanism of cell destruction by alcohol

What other mechanisms are there for alcohol to destroy the body?

There is a direct mechanism of cell destruction. As we have already noted, ethyl alcohol is a universal solvent. Especially good alcohol dissolves fats. But the shells of human cells consist entirely of fat molecules. What happens when a person swallows an alcohol-containing liquid (beer, wine, vodka - there is no difference)?

An alcohol molecule approaches a fat molecule, interacts with it and knocks out the cell membrane. The cell is damaged. It is as a result of this alcohol damage to the cell that anything can get inside it: “bad ecology,” chemistry, toxins. Other molecules can be “drawn” into the damaged cell through the wound caused by the alcohol molecule. And inside the cell there is a nucleus and chromosomes. Ultimately, alcohol can kill this cell completely.

Scheme of the effect of alcohol on a human cell

Many people think that “there is no point in sparing cells, we have billions of them.” Anyone who doesn't feel sorry for themselves can think so. However, there are cells that are restored (which requires additional stress on the body), and there are cells that are not even partially restored.

The cells of the central nervous system (CNS) are most sensitive to ethyl alcohol (alcohol), especially the cells of the cerebral cortex, on which ethyl alcohol causes characteristic alcoholic excitation associated with a weakening of inhibition processes. Then there is also a weakening of excitation processes in the cortex, depression of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata with suppression of the activity of the respiratory center. Drinking alcohol in large doses orally leads to disruption of basic vital functions of the body.

We have touched only on some aspects of the deeply internal life of the organism. We saw how smooth his work was. But too many dangers coming from outside threaten the integrity of a very complex and fragile living system. Very often a person destroys his health of his own free will.

Ethyl alcohol invades the normal, deep inner life of the body at the cellular level as a destroyer. The small size of the elementally structured molecule of wine alcohol eliminates the need to crush it in the digestive tract - the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach and intestines. The presence of diphilic properties - the ability to dissolve in water and dissolve fats - provides preferential conditions for the absorption of ethanol. Already in the stomach, where about 20% of alcohol is absorbed, and in the duodenum, from which the rest of it enters the blood, the physical and chemical properties of alcohol cause damage to the mucous membrane.

Alcohol interferes with the established functioning of the digestive tract, causing changes in the condition of the mucous membrane throughout its entire length and thereby introducing dissonance into the processes of digestion and transportation of food. The subtle processes of parietal digestion are disrupted, and the constancy of the structure of the plasma membranes of the cells of the intestinal wall changes.

Ethanol is absorbed by diffusion 13 . It should be noted that he carries out this operation with lightning speed. Ethyl alcohol easily overcomes the lipid-protein composition of membranes, preferentially diluting the hydrophobic (able to not be wetted by water, as if “water-repellent”) lipid layer, and is found in the blood within a few minutes after its ingestion.

Already with a single intake of ethanol, structural changes are observed in cell membranes. Fatty acids of phospholipid 14 components are shortened. Double bonds are formed in them, and defective packing of molecular material in membranes occurs. They become, as it were, “leaky”; substances for which the membrane usually serves as a barrier can penetrate into the cracks.

The vessels of the brain have a unique feature: due to the additional dense layer of surrounding glial cells, their wall is impenetrable to many connections. This is how nature protected the brain both from random compounds and from ordinary natural intermediate and final metabolic products. Many amino acids, cholesterol, and medications are not able to pass passively from the general bloodstream into the brain tissue. The molecules must either be very small (such as oxygen molecules) or easily dissolved in the lipid components of the membranes of glial cells. Ethanol fully meets these requirements.

The ethanol molecule is characterized by its small size and has pronounced diphilic properties (the ability to dissolve in water and dissolve fats). The blood-brain barrier (a physiological mechanism that regulates the metabolism between the blood, cerebrospinal fluid and the brain; protects the central nervous system from the penetration of foreign substances introduced into the blood or products of impaired metabolism) is not a barrier for the ethanol molecule. Although the bulk of alcohol consumed (about 80%) is oxidized in the liver, 85 seconds after alcohol appears in the blood, it is found in the cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue.

If the blood alcohol concentration is taken as one, then in the liver it will be 1.45, in the cerebrospinal fluid - 1.50, and in the brain - 1.75. Many brain cells are thus doomed. The effect of ethanol on the still intact neuron membranes, as well as the interference of ethanol in the normal functioning of mediator substances, distorts the signals arriving to the brain, which is a disruption of the functioning of all neuropsychic activity of a person.