 -alcohol damaged liver on left
- healthy liver on right (fotosearch.com)
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RISKS ON BODY
(yjblog.stupidchicken)
Looking at the picture at how alcohol travels in the body, lets reveal some facts about alcohol in relation to the brain and liver. Remember women have a higher incidence of damage to these areas than men.
THE BRAIN
brain shrinkage, a common indicator of brain damage.
learning and memory problems (One study found alcoholic women reported that they had been drinking excessively for only about half as long as the alcoholic men in studies)(NIAA,(2005).
Female alcoholics perform worse on tests of recall and psychomotor speed than male alcoholics with similar drinking histories
(NIAAA,(2003).
One of the most rapid affects of alcohol is on the central nervous system (CNS), which controls a range of vital body functions including speech, muscles, sense organs and sweat glands.
Usually the CNS receives information from organs such as the eyes and ears, analyses it and then responds, perhaps by contracting a muscle. However, alcohol impairs our CNS functioning which, in turn, causes the usual symptoms of being drunk. These include disturbed balance, slurred speech, blurred vision, excess sweating and the dulling of our sensation of pain.
Alcohol also affects the outer layer of the brain (the frontal cortex) that is concerned with conscious thought. This is why people under the influence of alcohol often lose their inhibitions and dance on the tables.
Lets not forget the risk of car accidents as drinking can alter your judgement. Always have a designated driver!(Thesite.org)
THE LIVER
Males drinking in excess of 80 g and females in excess of 40 g of alcohol per day for 10 years are at a high risk of developing cirrhosis.
women are more susceptible to liver damage than men. They are likely to develop cirrhosis at an earlier age, present at a later stage and have more severe liver disease with more complications (Gastroresource.com)
The liver is the main organ that gets rid of alcohol by breaking it down. It metabolises about 90% of the alcohol in our body while only about 10% is excreted through either our urine or breath. The liver metabolises alcohol at the rate of one to two units per hour, sometimes less than that in women.
The liver needs water to get rid of toxins from the body but, as alcohol acts as a diuretic, there will not be sufficient amounts in the body, so the liver is forced to divert water from other organs including the brain, which causes the throbbing headaches.
The liver also produces more toxins in the body as a by-product during the breakdown of alcohol. When the liver is metabolising alcohol it produces acetaldehyde, a substance which has toxic effects on our liver, brain and stomach lining, resulting in severe headache, nausea, vomiting and heartburn (aka hangover).
(Thesite.org, 2004)
Bryanna Furlong
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