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Chapter 5 - Hey, What’s in This Stuff, Anyway
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Chapter 5 - Hey, What’s in This Stuff, Anyway. From the book Cravings for Ecstasy.
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Kafli 5. Hey, What’s in This Stuff, Anyway“Alcohol and not the dog is man’s best friend”
- W.C. Fields “To alcohol: the cause of and solution to all of life’s problem
- Homer Simson
Moderate alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on health. These include decreased
risk for heart disease and mortality due to heart disease, decreased risk of ischemic smoke (in
which the arteries to the brain become narrowed or blocked, resulting in reduced blood flow),
and decreased risk of diabetes. In most western countries where chronic diseases such as
coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are the primary causes of death, resulting
from large epidemiological studies consistently show that alcohol reduces mortality, especially
among middle-aged and older men and women – an association which is likely due to protective
effects of moderate alcohol consumption on CHD, diabetes and ischemic stroke.
Most people drink to feel better, to be more sociable and less sedate!
Inheriting alcoholism
according to the national Council on alcoholism,
• Intentional fermentation (alcohol) has been
Alcoholics Anonymous and the American Medical around for thousands of years (rice wine was
Association described alcoholism as: consumed in China for at least 9000 years).
• Throughout time alcohol has been attributed
to positive and negative factors
Alcoholism is regarded as a chronic and • In the past alcohol abuse was viewed as
moral depravity and weakness
potentially fatal disease that pays little respect to
• Today alcohol abuse is viewed as a chronic
strengths or weaknesse of character. and potentially fatal disease
The disease concept holds that addicts have inherited maladaptive biochemical responsesto
certain chemicals. Falty genes can lead to the production of faulty enzymes that disturb the
normal metabolism of substances; other faulty genes can change expressions of neurotransmitter
receptors which will alter a person’s sensativity to drugs. Both types of genetic differences can
result in a pathological response to the drug, making a person vulnerable to addiction once they
start using the substance.
1
, identical twins who share the same genes are about twice as likely as fraternal twins who
share an average 50% of their genes, to resemble each other in terms of the presentence of
alcoholism.
• 50-60% of the risk of To understand the theory of inherited alcoholism, consider the
alcoholism is genetically pathway in the liver. (See textbox). It is primarily acetaldehyde
determined for both men and
that is responsible for the negative effects associated with too
women -
– metabolic enzymes much alcohol: nausea, vomiting dizziness and flushing of the skin.
– neurotransmitter Disulfiram (Antabuse’) is sometimes prescribed to treat
receptors
– Genetics plays a part alcoholism. It works by inhibiting ALDH, delaying the body’s
in risk and protective metabolism of acetaldehyde into acetic acid. As a result,
factors
acetaldehyde will build up in the person system if they drink well
on disulfiram. The result is a physical illness, intended to discourage the person from consuming
alcohol again in the future.
Metabolism of alcohol.
In the first step,
alcohol (ethanol) is converted to
acetaldehyde using the enzyme alcohol
dehydrogenase (ADH) and co-enzyme,
nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
(NAD+).
In the second step,
acetaldehyde is changed to acetate and
finally to carbon dioxide and water.
The conversion of acetaldehyde to acetate
requires aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH),
as well as (NAD+).
Since enzymes (in this case ADH and
ALDH) are involved in the
metabolism of alcohol, alterations in
their level would change the rate at
which alcohol is processed. Inappropriate drinking behavior
2
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