Effect of Alcohol on Liver

The liver is the body’s primary site of alcohol metabolism and is supplied directly with blood from the intestines via the portal vein, which in heavy drinkers will contain large amounts of alcohol. The liver tissue is subject to two main types of damage resulting from this overexposure: inflammation (hepatitis) and scarring (cirrhosis). Women are more adversely affected than men, probably because of a harmful interaction of female sex hormones and the enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism. Genetic differences in enzyme metabolism may account for other individual differences in the severity of liver disease, but overall the risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver is ten times higher among alcoholics than the normal population.

Effects of Alcohol

                       Alcohol has direct toxic as well as sedative effects on the body, and failure to take care of nutritional and other physical needs during prolonged periods of excessive drinking may further complicate matters. Alcoholics frequently suffer from protein deficiency and lack of B vitamins. Advanced cases often require hospitalization for alcohol-related disabilities, and specialist psychiatric units may be necessary to deal with the withdrawal symptoms associated with the most severe aspects of alcohol dependence syndrome.

                  Excessive alcohol consumption compromises virtually all the major organ systems of the body and the effects are cumulative. Among the primary causes of excess mortality resulting from alcohol abuse are liver disease, severe respiratory infections, cancer (most commonly of the digestive system and upper respiratory system), cardiovascular disease, suicide, and the effects of violence and accidents.

Alcoholism

             Alcoholism, chronic and usually progressive illness involving ingesting inappropriately high levels of ethyl alcohol, whether in the form of familiar alcoholic beverages or as a constituent of other substances. Alcoholics will drink to such an extent that that they exhibit an emotional and often physical dependence on alcohol classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1977 as “alcohol dependence syndrome”. This term continues to be included in the International Classification of Diseases (10th revision). The transition between continued excessive alcohol consumption and alcoholism is an individual behaviour and the condition of degrees rather than absolutes: low risk or sensible; increasing risk or hazardous; high risk or harmful. It is thought to arise from a combination of a wide range of physiological, psychological, social, and genetic factors. Alcoholism frequently leads to brain damage or early death.

                  More men than women are directly affected by alcoholism. The heaviest drinkers have traditionally been men in their late teens or early twenties, but drinking among the young generally and among women is increasing. Peer pressure is likely to play an important role in encouraging the young to start drinking. In the developed world, male and female drinking patterns are converging. “Binge drinking” (heavy episodic drinking) among young women is a particular cause for concern. For various physiological reasons, besides smaller body-size, women are less able to tolerate alcohol. Consumption of alcohol is apparently on the rise in the United Kingdom and the United States, as is the total alcohol consumption and prevalence of alcohol-related problems in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (where alcohol is often produced at home). It is estimated that alcohol-use disorders reached 10 per cent of the adult male population in North America and Eastern Europe in 2000. This increase is paralleled in other countries, including developing nations, where home production is also common and therefore consumption is much more difficult to control through legislation.

                     The WHO calculates that alcohol-related problems account for about 4 per cent of the global disease and injury burden. For comparison, tobacco use accounts for 4.1 per cent and high blood pressure 4.4 per cent. In the developed world, 9.2 per cent of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost are due to alcohol. In the developing world, the figure is 6.2 per cent, but as a contribution to disease, injury, disability, and premature death, it is the single greatest risk factor.

An excessive alcohol intake is frequently associated with other high-risk behaviours, for example, unsafe sex and the use of other psychoactive drugs. This pattern leads to co-morbidity with the ill health caused by other forms of drug dependence, sexually transmitted diseases, and, for women, unplanned pregnancy.

In addition to the self-inflicted harm caused by alcoholism, an alcoholic presents a danger to those living in close contact. Rates of domestic violence are higher where there is an alcoholic in the family, and the general standard of living is frequently compromised. The social costs of heavy drinking also include death and injury caused by drink driving and the added burden on healthcare providers of dealing with accidents and intentional harm.

                   The WHO estimated that in 2000, 1.8 million deaths (3.2 per cent) were due to the use of alcohol. In studies in the United Kingdom, United States, and Sweden it is estimated that the mortality rate among excessive drinkers is twice that otherwise expected. Among women aged between 15 and 39 years it may be as high as 17 times greater.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a worldwide fellowship of people who meet together to attain and maintain sobriety. It originated in 1935 when Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., a surgeon, met in Akron, Ohio, and started to help each other to stay sober. From that modest beginning, AA has grown, as of 2006, to an estimated 106,202 groups in 139 countries, with a total membership of nearly 2 million.

All men and women who feel they have a drinking problem are welcome to attend any AA meeting. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Members are anonymous at the public level, and no dues or fees are required; contributions are entirely voluntary. The AA programme is one of total abstinence, in which members are encouraged to stay away from “one drink, one day at a time”. Their sobriety is maintained by sharing their experience, strength, and hope at group meetings, and following the suggested 12 Steps to recovery. Even isolated alcoholics, who are housebound or living in remote regions, without access to AA groups, can seek help from the Loners' programme. This is rather like a penfriend service and is operated by the General Service Office in New York. Intergroup offices in most urban areas provide information on times and places of nearby meetings.

A board of trustees, consisting of both non-alcoholics and AA members, administers the organization's activities in each country in which it operates. Regional delegates vote on matters of general significance at annual conferences; an international convention is held every five years. Alcoholics Anonymous (1939; 3rd edition, 1976), by Bill W. and others, explains how the AA programme works and contains the 12 Steps recovery programme.

Alcohol

Alcohol, term applied to members of a group of chemical compounds that contain the OH group. Also commonly used to refer to the specific compound ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. The word is derived from the Arabic al-kuhl, or kohl, a fine powder of antimony used as an eye makeup. The word alcohol originally denoted any fine powder, but the alchemists of medieval Europe later applied it to essences obtained by distillation, and this led to the current usage.

Alcohol molecules can possess one, two, or three hydroxyl (OH-) groups. Molecules containing one hydroxyl group are monohydric ("mono-" meaning "one"), those with two hydroxyl groups are dihydric ("di-" indicating "two"), and those with three are trihydric ("tri-" meaning "three"). The number of hydroxyl groups affects the properties of the compound. Methanol is a light, volatile liquid while ethylene glycol (recommended name ethane-1,2-diol) is viscous, and glycerol (or glycerine, or the recommended scientific name propane-1,2,3-triol) is the most viscous of the three.