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The Impact of
Alcohol Consumption on Your Blood
Many like to have a cold beer on a hot day because they think that
it quenches their thirst. However nothing can be further from the
truth about this. Alcohol actually robs the body of water. This is
just one of the ways alcohol consumption impacts the body and
there are more effects it has in your body’s bloodstream.
When alcohol is first transferred to the stomach after imbibing,
it must be diluted with water in order for it to be absorbed. It
is interesting to note that water will not pass through a membrane
of animal tissue until it has the appropriate level of water
dilution. In effect, this water dilution will give the alcohol the
right ionic charge so that it can pass through the membrane and be
absorbed by an organ like the stomach. However, alcohol needs a
lot of water and needs it fast so it steals the water from
surrounding tissues until they are dehydrated. And of course this
is why we feel thirsty after imbibing alcoholic beverages for a
length of time as this process is robbing your body of water.
Then there are the lungs. As the alcohol in the bloodstream
circulates through the lungs, some of it gets let out into the
air. In addition to the alcohol vapor being passed by the lungs,
it is also passed through the pores of the body. Of course the
more alcohol consumed, the stronger the odor and the more likely
that others will detect it by its smell. A small amount of alcohol
in the person’s body does not emit these odors because it is held
within the blood by the spirit / water bonding.
Passing through the lungs, the blood flows to the heart and is
pushed out through the arterial network of the body. This is where
the alcohol in the blood stream extends to every part of the
body—all the way down to the tiniest of blood vessels known and
the arterioles. At the arterioles, the journey begins back to the
heart by passing the blood back through what are known as veins.
The blood must return back to the heart in order to be oxygenated
again. The point to remember here is that alcohol finds its way to
each and every organ in the body. We are referring to every part:
the brain, bones, the entire blood vessel system, and all organs.
If the organ or part of the body does not excrete, the alcohol
remains in the body system much longer.
In parts of the body containing more water than others, the
alcohol will stay longer. And, there are organs like the liver and
kidneys that have a system of purging liquids from the body and so
the alcohol escapes much quicker there. The remaining alcohol
continues to pass around through the circulation system only to be
broken down at some point into a non-toxic substance.
Understanding of the path alcohol follows throughout the body is
crucial to understanding how the toxin affects its vital organs
and structures. It helps us understand how alcohol can make
physical changes to many different parts of the body due to
prolonged or even short periods of consumption. Alcohol has little
effect on the blood because the blood is full of water. But there
are instances where the amount of alcohol consumed can be
dangerous and even cause death. Remember alcohol for what it is—a
toxin. And when the blood becomes saturated with alcohol it can
pass a threshold where even the water in the bloodstream cannot
prevent the toxin from causing death.
There is a substance in the blood known as fibrin that is a
natural clotting agent. A clotting agent causes the blood to
coagulate so that you don’t bleed to death because of a minor cut.
It exists in a normal bloodstream at about two to three parts per
thousand. Other components of the blood include albumen (occurs 70
parts per thousand) and other salts (occurring 10 parts per
thousand). Another very important component of the blood is the
corpuscles or blood globules which are the tiny round bodies found
throughout the bloodstream. Alcohol becomes intermingled and comes
in contact with all of these blood components.
Taking a look at corpuscles a little more, we see that they are
cells but are shaped like smooth discs with a small area depressed
in the middle. They are red in color just like the blood they
exist in. Another type of cell in the blood is what we know as the
white cell. The white cells also exist and in the bloodstream and
flow throughout the network of body blood vessels. It is
interesting to note that within the bloodstream, the red blood
cells will flow in the center of the stream while the white blood
cells will move slower on the outer edges. There are fewer white
blood cells than red blood cells.
Our interest here is mostly with the red blood cells and their
importance in the respiration functions of the body. These are the
cells that take in the oxygen we breath and have the task of
getting that oxygen to all parts of the body—even to the most
extreme parts. However getting the oxygen to the tissues and parts
of the body is only part of the job of the blood. The other part
is absorbing the carbon dioxide gas produced by this process and
return it to the lungs so that the waste gas can be exhaled. And
the cycle starts over when oxygen enters the lungs and refreshes
the bloodstream again.
When alcohol becomes intermingled with the other components of the
blood like the fibrin, albumen, fatty substances, salts, and
water, it can have a very disturbing effect on them. It is simple
to take a small sample of blood tainted with alcohol, put it under
the microscope, and carefully examine the impact it is having on
all of the blood components. We are mostly referring to the
effects of alcohol on the blood when large amounts are consumed.
With small, insignificant amounts, no effects are detected.
The actual effects of alcohol can vary from one person to the
next. Effects seen in some subjects include causing the corpuscles
to cluster. This clustering of the corpuscles can alter their
otherwise smooth outline. The outline that was once smooth and
well-defined develops a star effect or irregular shape. The
corpuscle that is normally round changes into an oval shape. In
certain extreme cases, the shape that develops is truncated and
immensely different from the circular shape that is seen normally.
In fact, the change in the shape is so great that it is hard to
determine if the component being observed is actually a blood
cell.
These changes in the forms of the corpuscles are due to the fact
that the alcohol in the bloodstream tries to extract water from
these cells. Because the alcohol is extracting the water that the
cells need, their ability to transfer oxygen to and carbon dioxide
from the body is greatly impaired. Plus, when the cells form in
clusters because of the effects of alcohol, this prevents them
from freely passing through the small blood vessels of the lungs
which are crucial to respiration.
And alcohol, when consumed excessively, acts adversely against the
coagulant properties of the blood. More specifically, it affects
the fibrin and other colloidal substances so crucial to keeping
someone from bleeding to death if they get cut. Here again, the
alcohol absorbs the water and it is the water that retains the
fibrin in the bloodstream. While the effect might be a reduction
in the ability of the fibrin to produce coagulation, there may be
another adverse and serious effect in that coagulation within the
bloodstream is produced. This could cause dangerous internal blood
clotting.
Original Article
Source:
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