People have different attitudes towards alcohol. Someone cannot last a night without a glass of beer, while others have never touched alcohol in their lives. Even an untitled person is clear that drinking alcohol every day is harmful to the body, but what if we talk about the optimal dose of alcohol? How much can you drink to minimize the health effects of alcohol? This question is relevant to many. Let's try to find out.
How much alcohol not to drink?
I'll tell you right away: there is no consensus on this issue. 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 since 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. 5 l. beer
- 0. 5 l. wine
Absolutely dangerous dose of alcohol: the average value of the amount of alcohol consumed, enough to cause death.
But don't think that if you drink less than these values, nothing will happen to your body. Even if you consume the equivalent of 30 ml of ethanol a day (90 g of vodka, 800 ml of beer or a large glass of wine), it 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 prevent blockage of blood vessels by cholesterol plaques. Why is cholesterol dangerous? It causes circulatory problems. Blood stops circulating normally through the vessels, as they are full of cholesterol, and the person may even die. Alcohol, on the other hand, "cleanses" the glasses 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 completely abstaining from alcohol for at least two days a week. Of course, the longer you don't drink, the better.
The optimal dose of alcohol, which is not very harmful to health, and can even bring certain benefits, is150 ml of dry red wine.
But this does not mean that you have to drink a small glass of wine every day, despite numerous stories circulating on the Web, how a grandfather drank a glass every day and lived to be 90 years old. Here everything is individual and it is necessary to take into account many factors, 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 eliminate it from the body and a disease such as alcoholism will start. It has 3 stages, and in this article we will cover them. But first, let's find out: how does alcohol affect a person in general?
How alcohol works
What is alcohol in the scientific sense? This is ethyl alcohol, which is made by fermenting sugar, yeast, and starch. And all this "nuclear" mixture has an amazing property: it goes through all the stages of digestion with incredible speed. That is, while digesting lunch soup (about 30 minutes) or chicken meat (up to 2 hours), alcohol quickly reaches its goal - the human circulatory system, sometimes even bypassing the liver, if you drink on a serious scale. . She simply cannot pass such a large amount of alcohol on herself.
Alcohol begins to do its bad business in the circulatory system: it damages red blood cells (tiny bodies that make up blood), so they stick together and form blood clots. Blood clots, in turn, block the flow of blood in the small arteries and this leads to blockage of the blood vessels in the brain. Hence the sensation of intoxication, which is similar to when the brain lacks oxygen.
Therefore, if you do not drink alcohol in moderation, the brain will be constantly in this state. This will lead to the degradation of many physical and mental functions, a condition comparable to drinking a lot of alcohol at the same time. A person cannot stand normally and does not account for his actions.
Scientists have already shown that alcohol damages DNA and increases the risk of cancer.
Stages of alcoholism
Drinking alcohol leads to alcoholism, which has three stages.
- In the first stage of alcohol addiction, a person gradually loses control over the amount of drinking, which leads to the appearance of a pathological craving for alcohol.
- In the second stage, a person even develops "immunity" to alcohol, or rather, it seems. In fact, if a person in this stage consumes more than 1 liter of alcohol, the body will apparently begin to perceive alcohol more easily. In fact, this hides the development of serious diseases: hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, esophageal cancer and stomach cancer.
- Third stage alcoholism is characterized by complete degradation of the personality on the physical and mental planes. 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 do not need to drink if you realize that you are losing control of yourself and an unpleasant state of the body arises.
Why does a hangover occur?
Many ask this question the next morning after a hectic party (usually with the words "well, I definitely won't drink any more"). In fact, the explanation is quite simple: alcohol enters the body's bloodstream terribly fast, but leaves it VERY slowly. And the human body cannot fully recover from a stormy night until the substance is completely destroyed and digested. This is how hangover occurs.
Surely a lot of people googled how to avoid a hangover before they started celebrating another alcoholic event. But the answer can be summed up in one sentence: don't drink in large quantities, then the alcohol will have time to leave the body before your head comes into contact with the pillow.
How to drink alcohol?
Researchers distinguish between the so-called "northern" drinking model and the "southern" model. The first includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltic countries, which drink a lot of alcohol, moreover, in shock doses, and not always often. The "southern" model is typical of Spain, Italy, Greece, where they can drink even more often than in other countries, but less and less strong alcohol: for example, a glass of dry wine at dinner. Nobody drinks 100g of vodka every day.
Scientists agree that the southern model is safer for health, although they still point out that daily consumption of alcohol is harmful to health. So don't overdo it.