People have different attitudes towards alcohol. Someone cannot go even a night without a glass of beer, while others have never touched alcohol in their lives. Even a person without a degree is sure that drinking alcohol every day is harmful to the body, but what if we talk about the ideal dose of alcohol? How much can you drink to minimize the health effects of alcohol? This issue is relevant to many. Let's try to find out.
How much alcohol you shouldn't drink
I will say immediately - there is no consensus on this. Some scientists say that even in small amounts, alcohol has a devastating effect on the body. Others believe that, in small doses, alcohol is even beneficial. And there are recommendations from the WHO (World Health Organization), according to which a dangerous dose of alcohol is 60 ml of ethanol for men and 50 ml for women. But as very few people consume ethanol in its pure form (well, I hope), this is what an absolutely dangerous dose of alcohol looks like in terms of drinks familiar to most:
- 180 g of vodka for men and 150 g of vodka for women <1. 5xli>1. 5 l. beer
- 0. 5 l. wine
Absolutely dangerous dose of alcohol- the average amount of alcohol consumed, sufficient to cause death.
But don't think that if you drink less than these values, nothing will happen to the body. Even if you consume the equivalent of 30 ml of ethanol per day (90 g of vodka, 800 ml of beer or a large glass of wine), you can seriously harm your health.
What happens if you drink alcohol every day?
Scientists have been researching this problem for a long time. Recent evidence suggests that alcohol reduces the risk of atherosclerosis. In part, it helps to prevent blood vessel blockage by cholesterol plaques. Why is cholesterol dangerous? It causes circulatory problems. Blood stops flowing normally through the vessels, as they are full of cholesterol, and the person may even die. Alcohol, on the other hand, "frees" the vessels and does not allow cholesterol to stagnate.
Does this mean that you can drink alcohol every day? No. In this case, we are talking about extremely low doses of alcohol. Based on the same WHO recommendations, experts advise total abstinence from alcohol at least two days a week. Of course, the more you don't drink, the better.
The ideal dose of alcohol, which is not very harmful to health and can even bring some benefits, is150 ml of dry red wine.
But that does not mean that you need to drink a small glass of wine every day, even though there are countless stories circulating on the web, like a grandfather drank a glass every day and lived to be 90 years old. Everything here is individual and many factors need to be taken into account - from chronic diseases to hereditary predispositions. Not to mention the fact that alcohol is categorically contraindicated for minors and pregnant women.
If you drink alcohol every day, the body will not be able to remove it from the body and a disease like alcoholism will begin. It has 3 steps, and in this article we will cover them. But first, let's find out - how does alcohol usually affect a person?
How alcohol works
What is alcohol in the scientific sense? It is ethyl alcohol, made by fermenting sugar, yeast and starch. And this whole "nuclear" mixture has an incredible property: it passes through all stages of digestion with incredible speed. That is, while you are digesting soup for lunch (about 30 minutes) or chicken meat (up to 2 hours), alcohol quickly reaches its goal - the human circulatory system, sometimes even avoiding the liver, if you drink from aserious scale. It simply cannot pass such a large amount of alcohol on its own.
Alcohol begins to have unpleasant effects on the circulatory system: it damages red blood cells (small bodies that make up the blood), which is why they come together, forming blood clots. Blood clots, in turn, block blood flow in small arteries and this leads to the blocking of blood vessels in the brain. Thus, the sensation of intoxication arises, which is similar to when the brain is without oxygen.
So if you don't drink alcohol in moderation, your brain will be constantly in this state. This will lead to the degradation of many mental and physical functions - a condition comparable to drinking too much alcohol at once. A person is not able to stand normally and cannot cope with his actions.
Scientists have already shown that alcohol damages DNA and increases the risk of cancer.
Stages of alcoholism
Alcohol consumption leads to alcoholism, which has three stages.
- In the first stage of alcohol dependence, the person gradually loses control over the amount of drink, which leads to the appearance of a pathological desire for alcohol.
- In the second stage, the person develops "immunity" to alcohol, or rather, it seems so. In fact, if a person at this stage consumes more than 1 liter of alcohol, the body will apparently begin to perceive alcohol more easily. This actually hides the development of serious illnesses - hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, esophageal cancer and stomach cancer.
- Third-stage alcoholism is characterized by complete degradation of the personality on the physical and mental levels. A person can no longer drink alcohol and, in most cases, dies.
Scientists believe that alcoholism is influenced by a hereditary predisposition caused by insufficient production of enzymes that metabolize alcohol. But in fact, the amount of alcohol consumed affects this. You simply don't need to drink if you find yourself losing control of yourself and an unpleasant bodily state.
Why does a hangover occur?
This question is asked by many the next morning, after a hectic party (usually with the words "well, I'm definitely not going to drink anymore"). In fact, the explanation is quite simple: alcohol enters the body's bloodstream terribly fast, but it comes out very slowly. And the human body cannot fully recover from a stormy night until the substance is completely destroyed and digested. That's how a hangover occurs.
Certainly many people searched on Google how to avoid a hangover before starting to celebrate another alcoholic event. But the answer can be summed up in one sentence: don't drink in large quantities, and then alcohol will have time to get out of your body before your head comes into contact with the pillow.
How to drink alcohol?
Researchers distinguish between the so-called "northern" and "southern" beverage models. The first includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltic countries, which drink a lot of alcohol, indeed, in shocking doses, and not always often. The "south" model is typical of Spain, Italy, Greece, where they can drink even more often than in other countries, but with less and less strong alcohol: for example, a glass of dry wine for dinner. Nobody drinks 100 g of vodka every day.
Scientists agree that the southern model is safer for health, although they still note that daily alcohol consumption is harmful to health. So don't abuse yourself.