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Since time passed people faith and curiosity towards alcohol use/misuse have been increasing. In fact alcohol is becoming a need rather than just a drink. Despite knowing its consequences on health and social norms, people are using it as an excuse for stress relieve or as a part of celebrations of new achievements.
image source
A short history of Alcohol origin
Alcohol(ethyl alcohol or ethanol) has its own history of victory over human emotions, temptations, jealousy, and self control.Fermented grain, fruit juice and honey have been used to make alcohol for thousands of years and now. The earliest evidence of wine was found in China, where jars from Jiahu (the site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow river) which date to about 7000 BC were discovered. Alcoholic beverages were widely used in all segments of Chinese society, widely used as a source of inspiration, were important for hospitality, were considered an antidote for fatigue, and were sometimes misused too.
Fermented beverages existed in early Egyptian civilization. The ancient Egyptians made at least 17 types of beer and at least 24 varieties of wine. The most common type of beer was known as hqt. Beer was the drink of common laborers, were used for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration and funerary purposes. They used to store the beverages in tombs of the deceased for their use in the after-life. The Babylonians worshiped a wine goddess as early as 2700 B.C. In Greece, one of the first alcoholic beverages to gain popularity was mead, a fermented drink made from honey and water.
In India, an alcoholic beverage called sura, distilled from rice meal, wheat, sugar cane, grapes, and other fruits, was popular among the Kshatriya warriors, and was in use between 3000 and 2000 B.C.The two great Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, even mention the use of alcohol.
Several Native American civilizations developed alcoholic beverages in pre-Columbian American times. A variety of fermented beverages from the Andes region of South America were created from corn, grapes or apples, called “chicha.” In the sixteenth century, alcohol (called spirit) was used largely for medicinal purposes. It has been said that the distilled alcohol that "the sixteenth century created it, the seventeenth century consolidated it, the eighteenth popularized it."
At the beginning of the 18th century, the British Parliament passed legislation designed to encourage the use of grain for distilling spirits. As a result very cheap spirits flooded the market at a time when there was little stigma attached to drunkenness. While drunkenness was still an accepted part of life in the 18th century, the 19th century brought a change in attitudes as a result of increasing industrialization and the need for a reliable and punctual work force.
Alcohol effects
Well, alcohol rarely spare any part of human body. Almost every cell, tissue, organ, and system is effected by its mis/use. Innumerable diseases have been associated with alcohol mis/use. Different forms of drinks are available and each drink varies on their alcohol concentration.
- Beer is a beverage fermented from grain mash, contains 3-15% of alcohol by volume (ABV)
- Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic drink made from any fruit juice, apple juice (traditional and most common), peaches, pears or other fruit. Cider alcohol content varies from 1.2% ABV to 8.5%.
- Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV to more than 20%.
- Wine is a fermented beverage produced from grapes and sometimes other fruits. Wine involves a longer fermentation process than beer and a long aging process (months or years), resulting in an alcohol content of 9%–16% ABV.
- Distilled drinks like Vodka, gin, baijiu, tequila, whiskey, brandy, and soju where alcohol concentration varies from 20% ABV to 60% ABV and more .
Every form of drink has significant effect over human health.The effects can be categorized as short term and long term.
Short-term effects
Blood alcohol concentration(BAC)
- 0 to 50 mg % :- No significant effect or mild euphoria.
- 50 to 100 mg % :- Decreased inhibitions, increased self-confidence, decreased attention span, slurring of speech, mild incoordination, alteration of judgement, nystagmus.
- 100 to 150 mg % :- Some mental confusion, emotional instability, loss of critical judgement, ataxia, impaired memory, sleepiness, slowed reaction time.
- 150 to 300 mg % :- Loss of muscular coordination, staggering of gait, marked mental confusion, drowsiness, exaggeration of emotions, decreased pain response, disorientation, thickened speech.
- 300 to 400 mg % :- Stupor, marked incoordination, marked decrease in response to stimuli, possibly coma.
- 400 mg % and above :- Anesthesia, depression of responses, respiratory failure, deep coma and Death.
Long-term effects
- Brain :- change in mood and behavior, difficult in thinking clearly and move with coordination.
- Heart :- Cardiomyopathy – Stretching and drooping of heart muscle
Arrhythmias – Irregular heart beat
Stroke
High blood pressure - Liver :- Steatosis, or fatty liver
Alcoholic hepatitis
Hepatic Fibrosis
Cirrhosis - Stomach and Duodenum :- Peptic ulcer disease, Upper gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcer perforation
- Pancreatitis
- Cancer :- Head and Neck cancer, Esophageal cancer, Liver cancer, Breast cancer, Colorectal cancer, Urinary bladder cancer, Renal cancer.
- Impaired immunity and decrease immune response.
Alcohol reaction inside human body
Well, alcohol is absorbed directly from stomach and partly from intestine. They are taken into the circulation through blood and lymphatics in the gastrointestinal tract to Liver for metabolism. A series of chemical reaction occurs inside the body to detoxify its byproducts which has been illustrated in the figure below:-
[image source](Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews of Biochemistry 4th edition)
As shown in the figure above, alcohol is metabolized by liver and some in Brain, Pancreas, into Acetaldehyde in presence of alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme. Acetaldehyde is further metabolized into acetate in presence of aldehyde dehydrogenase. During this catabolism NADH (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen) is released as a byproduct. This NADH result in decreased glucose available for cells to be used, by diverting the intermediates of Gluconeogenesis (a metabolic pathway that results in the generation of glucose from certain non-carbohydrate carbon substrates) to alternative reaction pathways.
Ethanol causes hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia depending on whether glycogen stores are adequate, inhibits protein synthesis, and results in fatty liver and in elevations in serum triglyceride levels. Increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL) is one of the protective effect of alcohol. This HDL is predominantly found in Red wine, which is believed to be protective for coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. Ethanol decreases thiamine absorption and decreases the enterohepatic circulation of folate. Acetaldehyde increases the degradation of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate by displacing it from its binding protein and making it susceptible to hydrolysis by membrane-bound alkaline phosphatase. Ethanol decreases hepatic vitamin A concentration and its conversion to active retinal, and modifies renal metabolism of vitamin D.
So what do you people think, Boon or Burden?
Hope we will get answer from our fellow Steemian
References
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcoholic_drinks
2.https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/a-short-history.html
3.https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-body
4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_drink
5.Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews of Biochemistry 4th edition
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