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This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Alcohol and health
piglix posted in Food & drink by Galactic Guru
   
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Health effects of alcohol


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Alcohol abuse


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Alcohol-related deaths


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Alcohol and health


Short-term effects of alcohol consumption include intoxication and dehydration. Long-term effects of alcohol consumption include changes in the metabolism of the liver and brain and alcoholism. Alcohol intoxication affects the brain, causing slurred speech, clumsiness, and delayed reflexes. Alcohol stimulates insulin production, which speeds up glucose metabolism and can result in low blood sugar, causing irritability and possibly death for diabetics. A 2014 World Health Organization report found that harmful alcohol consumption caused about 3.3 million deaths annually worldwide.

However, some effects of alcohol consumption are beneficial. Although even moderate alcohol consumption increased the risk of death in younger people, it has been shown to decrease the risk of death for individuals ages 55+ (due to decreased risk of ischemic heart disease).

The median lethal dose of alcohol in test animals is a blood alcohol content of 0.45%. This is about six times the level of ordinary intoxication (0.08%), but vomiting or unconsciousness may occur much sooner in people who have a low tolerance for alcohol. The high tolerance of chronic heavy drinkers may allow some of them to remain conscious at levels above 0.40%, although serious health hazards are incurred at this level.

Alcohol also limits the production of vasopressin (ADH) from the hypothalamus and the secretion of this hormone from the posterior pituitary gland. This is what causes severe dehydration when alcohol is consumed in large amounts. It also causes a high concentration of water in the urine and vomit and the intense thirst that goes along with a hangover.



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  • Alcohol dehydrogenase

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imageAlcohol dehydrogenase

Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) (EC 1.1.1.1) are a group of dehydrogenase enzymes that occur in many organisms and facilitate the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes or ketones with the reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+ to NADH). In humans and many other animals, they serve to break down alcohols that otherwise are toxic, and they also participate in generation of useful aldehyde, ketone, or alcohol groups during biosynthesis of various metabolites. In yeast, plants, and many bacteria, some alcohol dehydrogenases catalyze the opposite reaction as part of fermentation to ensure a constant supply of NAD+.

Genetic evidence from comparisons of multiple organisms showed that a glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase, identical to a class III alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH-3/ADH5), is presumed to be the ancestral enzyme for the entire ADH family. Early on in evolution, an effective method for eliminating both endogenous and exogenous formaldehyde was important and this capacity has conserved the ancestral ADH-3 through time. Gene duplication of ADH-3, followed by series of mutations, the other ADHs evolved.

The ability to produce ethanol from sugar (which is the basis of how alcoholic beverages are made) is believed to have initially evolved in yeast. Though this feature is not adaptive from an energy point of view, by making alcohol in such high concentrations so that they would be toxic to other organisms, yeast cells could effectively eliminate their competition. Since rotting fruit can contain more than 4% of ethanol, animals eating the fruit needed a system to metabolize exogenous ethanol. This was thought to explain the conservation of ethanol active ADH in other species than yeast, though ADH-3 is now known to also have a major role in nitric oxide signaling.

 


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Alcohol Health Alliance UK


The Alcohol Health Alliance is a coalition of forty one organisations who share an interest in reducing the damage caused to health by alcohol misuse in the UK. Members include medical bodies, charities and alcohol health campaigners such as the Royal College of Physicians, The British Liver Trust and Alcohol Concern.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, a professor of hepatology at the University of Liverpool and the Royal College of Physician's Special Advisor on Alcohol has chaired the Alliance since it was established in November 2007.

The Alcohol Health Alliance supports 'Health First' as an evidence based alcohol strategy for the UK, and is calling on the Government to commit to the following 10 actions:

The following organisations are members of the Alcohol Health Alliance:



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Alcohol intolerance


Alcohol intolerance is due to a genetic deficiency of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that metabolises ingested alcohol. It can also be an effect or side effect associated with certain drugs such as disulfiram, metronidazole, or nilutamide. It is characterized as intolerance of and unpleasant symptoms upon the ingestion of drinking alcohol, causing Hangover symptoms similar the "disulfiram-like reaction" by aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency or the Chronic fatigue syndrome.

If people are intolerant, some nearly Non-alcoholic beverages maybe a problem, similar to alcohol containing medicaments, Vinegar, inhalation of alcohol or the vapour of alcohol containing Cleaning agents.

Drinking alcohol first or afterwards together with Calcium cyanamide, an inorganic compound used as a fertilizer, can cause permanent or long lasting intolerance (nitrolime disease), contributing together with other substances the accumulation of the harmful Acetaldehyde by inhibiting the enzyme Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.




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Dipsomania


Dipsomania is a historical term describing a medical condition involving an uncontrollable craving for alcohol. In the 19th century, dipsomania was a variety of alcohol-related problems, most of which are known today as alcoholism. Dipsomania is occasionally still used to describe a particular condition of periodic, compulsive bouts of alcohol intake. The idea of dipsomania is important for its historical role in promoting a disease theory of chronic drunkenness. The word comes from Greek dipso ("δίψα"= thirst) and mania.

It is still mentioned in the WHO ICD-10 classification as an alternative description for Alcohol Dependence Syndrome, episodic use F10.26

The term was coined by the German physician C. W. Hufeland in 1819, when, in a preface to an influential book by German-Russian doctor C. von Brühl-Cramer, he translated Brühl-Cramer's term "trunksucht" as "dipsomania". Brühl-Cramer classified dipsomania in terms of continuous, remittent, intermittent, periodic and mixed forms, and in his book he discussed its cause, pathogenesis, sequelae, and treatment options, all influenced by prevailing ideas about the laws of chemistry and concepts of excitability.

Due to the influence of Brühl-Cramer's pioneering work, dipsomania became popular in medical circles throughout the 19th century. Political scientist Mariana Valverde describes dipsomania as "the most medical" of the many terms used to describe habitual drunkenness in the 19th century. Along with terms such as "inebriety", the idea of dipsomania was used as part of an effort of medical professionals and reformers to change attitudes about habitual drunkenness from being a criminally punishable vice to being a medically treatable disease. As historian Roy MacLeod wrote about this dipsomania reform movement, it "illuminates certain features of the gradual transformation taking place in national attitudes towards the prevention and cure of social illnesses during the last quarter of the 19th century."

Although dipsomania was used in a variety of somewhat contradictory ways by different individuals, by the late 19th century the term was usually used to describe a periodic or acute condition, in contrast to chronic drunkenness. In his 1893 book Clinical Lessons on Mental Diseases: The Mental State of Dipsomania, Magnan characterized dipsomania as a crisis lasting from one day to two weeks, and consisting of a rapid and huge ingestion of alcohol or whatever other strong, excitatory liquid was available. Magnan further described dipsomania as solitary alcohol abuse, with loss of all other interests, and these crises recurred at indeterminate intervals, separated by periods when the subject was generally sober.



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Dry January


Dry January is a public health campaign urging people to abstain from alcohol for the month of January, particularly practised in the United Kingdom.

The campaign, as a formal entity, appears to be relatively recent, being described as having "sprung up in recent years" even in 2014. Although the Finnish government launched a campaign called "Sober January" already in 1942 as part of its war effort. The term "Dry January" was registered as a trademark by the charity Alcohol Concern in mid-2014; the first ever Dry January campaign by Alcohol Concern occurred in January 2013. In the leadup to the January 2015 campaign, for the first time Alcohol Concern partnered with Public Health England.

In January 2014 according to Alcohol Concern, which initiated the campaign, over 17,000 Britons stopped drinking for that month. While there is controversy as to the efficacy and benefits of the practice, a 2014 survey by the University of Sussex found that six months following January 2014, out of 900 surveyed participants in the custom, 72% had "kept harmful drinking episodes down" and 4% were still not drinking.



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Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder


imageFetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. Problems may include an abnormal appearance, short height, low body weight, small head size, poor coordination, low intelligence, behavior problems, and problems with hearing or seeing. Those affected are more likely to have trouble in school, legal problems, participate in high-risk behaviors, and have trouble with alcohol or other drugs. The most severe form of the condition is known as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Other types include partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS), alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) and alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD).

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Surveys from the United States have found about 10% of pregnant women have drunk alcohol in the last month, and 20% to 30% drank at some point during the pregnancy. About 4.7% of North American women who are pregnant have alcoholism. The risk of problems depends on the amount consumed and the frequency of consumption as well as when during pregnancy the alcohol is consumed. Other risk factors include an older mother, smoking, and poor diet. There is no known safe amount or safe time to drink during pregnancy. While drinking small amounts of alcohol does not cause abnormalities in the face, it may cause behavioral issues. Alcohol crosses the blood brain barrier and both directly and indirectly affects a developing baby. Diagnosis is based on signs and symptoms in the person.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are preventable by avoiding alcohol. For this reason, medical authorities recommend no alcohol during pregnancy or while trying to become pregnant. While the condition is permanent, treatment can improve outcomes. Interventions may include parent-child interaction therapy, efforts to modify child behavior, and possibly medications.

FASD is estimated to affect between 2% and 5% of people in the United States and Western Europe. FAS is believed to occur in between 0.2 and 9 per 1000 live births in the United States. In South Africa, some populations have rates as high as 9%. The negative effects of alcohol during pregnancy have been described since ancient times. The lifetime cost per child with FAS was $2,000,000 in 2002. The term fetal alcohol syndrome was first used in 1973.



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