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Alcohol
by BHHEC Staff
Alcohol poisons every tissue of the body --- the brain and nervous system, the heart, the liver, the gastrointestinal tract, and the immune system. Alcohol causes red blood cells to clump together slowing the circulation of the red blood cells throughout the body. The frontal lobes of the brain are the most sensitive to alcohol's effects. The Holy Spirit communicates to man through the frontal lobes --- the conscience. Consequently, alcohol weakens the body's center of communication with the Holy Spirit.
Alcohol plays a major role in suicides, homicides, and vehicle accidents. "Every year millions upon millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are consumed. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in buying wretchedness, poverty, disease, degradation, lust, crime, and death." (E.G. White, Ministry of Healing, p. 338)
Although a person's capacity for alcohol may vary with age, sex, weight and drinking history, most healthy bodies process alcohol in the same way.
With the first sip, alcohol briefly irritates tissues of the mouth and esophagus. In the stomach some alcohol is absorbed, but most moves on to the small intestine, where it passes rapidly into the blood stream. (The presence of food can delay absorption.)
Distributed throughout the body by the blood, alcohol ,when heavily drunk, can eventually damage muscle tissue in the heart. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver where enzymes begin the conversion of ethanol into carbon dioxide and water. The liver metabolizes pure alcohol at a rate of one-third ounce every hour.
What happens when you drink?
The effects of alcohol begin soon after it hits the bloodstream. Within minutes, alcohol enters the brain, numbing nerve cells and slowing their messages to the body. In the heart, cardiac muscles strain to cope with alcohol's depressive action, and the pulse quickens. If drinking continues, alcohol builds in the bloodstream, and the nerve center in the brain governing speech, vision, balance, and judgment go haywire. As even more alcohol is ingested, the drinker may lose consciousness. With extremely high levels of alcohol in the blood, the inebriate is in danger of dying from respiratory failure.
Alcohol increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, and liver failure. When alcohol is present in the liver, it preempts the breakdown of fats, which accumulate within liver cells. As fatty cells enlarge, they can rupture, or grow into cysts that replace normal cells. After years of heavy drinking, cirrhosis impedes the normal flow of arterial and venous blood through the organ.
Originally Posted: Nov 14, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Last Updated: Nov 14, 2008 at 10:08 AM
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