ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON
INTERNAL ORGANS.
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.
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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.
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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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