The Perils of Excessive Alcohol Consumption and the Harrowing Tale of Cirrhosis

5 months ago (Edited)

Everyday we live to either be students, teachers, or evangelists, but yesterday I chose to be an evangelist who was going to tell a lady in my area the danger that surrounds taking alcohol every day in large quantity. This lady is known to take a bottle of gin every morning, and she calls it the eye opener. She would take it in the morning so she can feel agile to begin her daily activities, so she said, but then I decided to tell her about a medical case and this case had to do with a person who decided to drink 3 liters of Rum everyday. I just had to give a medical scenario of what could happen to her if she continued with her lifestyle.

This is the case of a man who drank alcohol since the age of 13 years old. The man took 3 liters of Rum till the age of 27 years, and he presented to the emergency unit with hematemesis (vomiting blood), fast heart beat, followed by falling into an unconscious state.

As a boy of thirteen, he lost his father and mother to a fatal accident and out of depression resorted to drinking alcohol. He drank this beverage that at a point in time he needed it by his side to be less moody. As he grew older, he began to gamble, and sing in concerts and to do so, he would take a liter of Rum before playing, and another after playing, and would retire home to have the rest.

As a child, although he became addicted to drinking after his parents passed away, he actually started drinking when his irresponsible father introduced him to alcoholic wine. He liked the numb feeling he got in his cheek, nose, and tongue after drinking the wine, as well as the darkness of the eyes which later becomes a floating feeling but didn't like the taste. Because of the feeling, he would drink the wine over and over and when his parents died, he became overwhelmed with alcohol. He would drink alcohol before eating, when eating, before he went out, in the bar, before he gambled and after performing. He drank a lot and he was looking like a mess.

Years later, at the age of 27, he began to experience certain physical changes such as thinner face, and neck but had swollen abdomen with his eyes and skin starting to turn brownish yellow but this didn't stop him from drinking. When he drank and was supposed to be sober, he would present with slurry words, and overall confusion. When he was drunk and fell, his bruises looked like they were going to stay forever as they were not healing up.

At the hospital, his blood pressure was very low and this meant that he needed to be attended to as soon as possible because he was in a hypovolemic shock which causes blood flow to drop as a result of low blood volume. His hyperventilation was as a result of not having enough blood to deliver oxygen to his body and his heart and lungs are trying to make up for that as a result of his brainstem demanding for quicker breath and high pump.

Since there is low blood flow, it means that his organs are getting less oxygen, and so is his brain. This was a good reason why he collapsed. if nothing is done fast, he can begin to experience multi organ failure as a result of his organs not receiving enough blood and oxygen. he was in a hypovolemic shock as a result of decompensated cirrhosis meaning damaged or scared liver making it nonfunctional.

You see, in the body, ethanol is broken down two times in the body with the first being in the liver where alcohol dehydrogenase breaks down the alcohol to acetaldehyde which is a preservative for dead bodies.Acetaldehyde is poisonous, but when in small amount, it is quickly converted to acetate (vinegar) but when in large amount, the acetaldehyde can damage the DNA in the liver cells as it signals the liver cells to produce fat allowing the immune system to attack the liver. When the liver heals after the attack, it is covered with collagen just like in scars found on skin wounds. The alcohol has led to liver damage known as Cirrhosis and it became decompensated because his body could not adapt to the damaged liver.

His eyes and skin were brownish yellow because bilirubin is no longer processed and combined with bile from the gallbladder. Since the liver is not functional, destroyed red blood cells are unable to be converted in the liver to bilirubin and this leads to the brownish yellow eyes and skin color. Since he still eats protein, and his liver isn't functional, there is an excessive amount of ammonia in his body which isn't dealt with by the liver and not being excreted. This leads to hepatic encephalopathy where the brain is affected as a result of the liver.

When the liver is damaged, blood flow to the heart and abdomen is blocked, and the hepatic vein can rupture over time. This rupturing would to the stomach being filled with blood. If he is not treated, he is going to continue bleeding internally until he dies. Stopping the bleed and transfusing blood would be the best option to treat. Also drugs such as Octreotide can be given to prevent blood flow to the abdominal region. To solve the entire medical emergency, a liver transplant needs to be done. It is important to know that everything we take into our body from the mouth usually find their way to the liver for detoxification. That is why when we take drugs orally, they are usually higher dose than when taken intravenously.

Image Reference

^{Image 1 || Needpix || Alcoholic Alcohol Alcoholism

Image 2 || Wikimedia Commons || Liver Cirrhosis

Image 3 || Wikimedia Commons || Depiction of a person suffering from liver disease}

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2 comments

@busted1 68

5 months ago

Alcohol and smoking can be lead to health issues but a lot of people still take these substances. It even gets worse when people drink rubbing alcohol

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@stemsocial 64

5 months ago

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