Alcohol beverage marketers like to show people enjoying things like a cold beer on a hot day to quench thirst. While alcohol might be a liquid, it certainly is not one that hydrates the body. And this is apparent in the way alcohol affects the components of the bloodstream.
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.
source:- MedicalNeeds
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