How harmful is alcohol to our health? | Be Well

How can alcohol harm your body?

Alcoholic drinks rank higher among the most drinks that are highly consumed all over the world. However, it ranks also among the drinks that negatively impact the health of a large number of people worldwide. Even if those alcoholic drinks play some important social roles in different cultures like the celebration parties, gatherings, and other kinds of social practices, most of the time, it is so destructive when it is heavily consumed or when is misused by an individual.

How much do you know (want to know) about the effects of alcohol on our health? Would you like to know more about its negative impacts and deeply understand what changes will happen once it gets in your body? Keep reading the whole content and discover more about alcohol.

Table of content:

• Getting to know what is alcohol?

• How does alcohol pass through the body?

• Parts of the brain affected by alcohol

• Effects of the excess alcohol on our health

Getting to know "what is alcohol"?

Alcohol is the ingredient used when producing beers, wine, and other alcoholic drinks that leads to drunkness. Organically, alcohol is formed when yeast ferments in absence of the oxygen, but it should also be prepared in the laboratory for different purposes.

How does alcohol travel through our bodies?

when alcohol is consumed, it enters the stomach where it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. However, if no food is present, most of the alcohol moves down into the small intestine where there is a much larger surface area for absorption compared to the stomach. 

The cells that line the stomach and small intestine (part of the gastrointestinal or GI tract) are called epithelial cells. These cells are perfect for absorption because they have finger-like projections protruding into the GI lumen, which tremendously increases the surface area for absorption of nutrients and other molecules through the membranes. 

For body has the mechanisms responsible for the transportation of the molecules needed by the body. For a substance to reach the cell, it passes the barrier of the cell membrane, and depending on its nature either hydrophilic or hydrophobic it can pass. The outer layer of the membrane is hydrophilic (water-loving property) things that can be dissolved in water pass easily, but the center of the membrane is hydrophobic (water-hating) only lipid-soluble substances will pass easily through the membrane but other water-soluble substances will hardly pass the membrane into the cells except for the presence of transport mechanisms is used.

From the stomach, alcohol (ethanol) is absorbed into the blood by passing epithelial cells into blood capillaries and is transported this way through the blood.

Note: alcohol can pass the cell membrane as a result of its chemical properties (they're small with low molecular weight, and also they're slightly lipophilic or lipid-loving) and lipid bilayer properties (presence of poles formed by the membrane proteins) 

Alcohol moves down the concentration gradient

Alcohol in bloodstream

There is a large number of the blood capillaries that innervate our body organs, it is in this way the alcohol with its small size it enters the bloodstream through the walls of the capillaries. When alcohol has entered the capillaries it is distributed into the whole body, it penetrates the tissues except for the fats and bones and reaches the blood-brain barrier in the brain. 

The blood-brain barrier is a highly selective semi-permeable border of endothelial cells that prevents solutes in the circulating blood from non-selectively crossing into the extracellular fluid of the central nervous system where neurons reside. 

It is that easy for ethanol to pass through the blood-brain barrier due to its properties. Even if it is polar it is also lipophilic and this allows it to reach the brain and disrupt its functionalities. When alcohol reaches the brain it interrupts neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that allow the impulse transmission to and from different body parts.

• Alcohols interact with glutamate receptors (glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain that in normal conditions is responsible for memory and learning) so alcohol is believed to mimic GABA where it binds its receptors and inhibit neuronal signaling 

• Alcohol enhances the release of  dopamine which increase motivation and happiness

The parts of the body affected by alcohol

Frontal lobe: frontal lobes are responsible for cognition, memory, thoughts, and judgment, so alcohol leads to their improper functions

Hippocampus: hippocampus has the function to store memory and this is disturbed by alcohol leading to the memory loss

Cerebellum: this is the part of the brain responsible for equilibrium and balance and that's why drunk people will have low stability

The effects of alcohol on our health

With prolonged overuse of alcohol, there can result in curable and noncurable damages to the brain and other parts of the body. Different studies revealed that " brain scans of the heavy drinkers indicates that alcohol negatively affects neurotransmission, brain cell metabolism, and blood flow within the frontal lobes and cerebellum". some of the diseases that might result from alcohol overuse are the following;

• Impaired learning, memory, movements, and coordination

• depression, anxiety, and insomnia

• Dementia

• high blood pressure

• Heart diseases

• Stroke and liver diseases

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