Action
on the stomach.
----------------------
The
action of alcohol on the stomach is extremely dangerous that it becomes unable
to produce the natural digestive fluid in sufficient quantity and also fails to
absorb the food which it may imperfectly digest. A condition marked by the
sense of nausea emptiness, prostration and distention will always be faced by
an alcoholic. This results in a loathing
for food and is teased with a craving for more drink. Thus there is engendered
a permanent disorder which is called dyspepsia. The disastrous forms of
confirmed indigestion originate by this practice.
How
the liver gets affected.
----------------------------
The
organic deteriorations caused by the continued use of alcohol are often of a
fatal character. The organ which most frequently undergoes structural changes
from alcohol, is the liver. Normally, the liver has the capacity to hold active
substances in its cellular parts. In instances of poisoning by various
poisonous compounds, we analyse liver as if it were the central depot of the
foreign matter. It is practically the same in respect to alcohol. The liver of
an alcoholic is never free from the influence of alcohol and it is too often
saturated with it. The minute membranous or capsular structure of the liver
gets affected, preventing proper dialysis and free secretion. The liver becomes
large due to the dilatation of its vessels, the surcharge of fluid matter and
the thickening of tissue. This follows contraction of membrane and shrinking of
the whole organ in its cellular parts.
Then the lower parts of the alcoholic becomes dropsical owing to the
obstruction offered to the returning blood by the veins. The structure of the
liver may be charged with fatty cells and undergo what is technically
designated 'fatty liver'.
How
the Kidneys deteriorate.
----------------------------
The
Kidneys also suffer due to the excessive consumption of alcohol. The vessels of
Kidneys lose elasticity and power of contraction.
The minute structures in them go through fatty modification. Albumin from the
blood easily passes through their membranes. This results in the body losing
its power as if it were being run out of blood gradually.
Congestion
of the lungs.
------------------------
Alcohol
relaxes the vessels of the lungs easily as they are most exposed to the
fluctuations of heat and cold. When subjected to the effects of a rapid
variation in atmospheric temperature, they get readily congested. During severe
winter seasons, the suddenly fatal congestions of lungs easily affects an
alcoholic.
Alcohol
weakens the heart.
--------------------------
Consumption
of alcohol greatly affects the heart. The quality of the membraneous structures
which cover and line the heart changes and are thickened, become cartilaginous
or calcareous. Then the valves lose their suppleness and what is termed
valvular disorder becomes permanent. The
structure of the the coats of the great blood-vessel leading from the heart
share in the same changes of structure so that the vessel loses its elasticity and its power to feed the heart by
the recoil from its distention, after
the heart, by its stroke, has filled it with blood.
Again,
the muscular structure of the heart fails owing to degenerative changes in its
tissue. The elements of the muscular fibre are replaced by fatty cells or, if
not so replaced, are themselves transferred into a modified muscular texture in
which the power of contraction is greatly reduced.
Those
who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the central and governing organ
of the circulation of the blood learn the fact so insidiously, it hardly breaks
upon them until the mischief is far advanced. They are conscious of a central
failure of power from slight causes such as overexertion, trouble, broken rest
or too long abstinence from food. They feel what they call a 'sinking' but they
know that wine or some other stimulant will at once relieve the sensation. Thus
they seek to relieve it until at last they discover that the remedy fails. The
jaded, overworked, faithful heart will bear no more. it has run its course and
the governor of the blood-streams broken. The current either overflows into the
tissues gradually damming up the courses or under some slight shock or excess
of motion ceases wholly at the centre.
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