Alcohol poisoning occurs when the body cannot metabolize excessive amounts of alcohol. It causes behavioral changes, lack of coordination, sedation, and respiratory depression, which can lead to death. Hangover symptoms are caused by an abundance of acetaldehyde and dehydration.
Acute ethanol toxicity — also known as alcohol poisoning, alcohol toxicity, or ethanol poisoning — is the result of consuming too much ethyl alcohol beyond the body’s ability to metabolize it. Alcohol begins to be absorbed as soon as it is ingested orally, starting in the mouth and continuing through the esophagus, stomach and small intestine to achieve near complete absorption and concentration in the bloodstream within 15 to 30 minutes. As is widely known to the general public, the metabolism of ethyl alcohol occurs mainly in the liver. When the rate of alcohol ingestion exceeds the liver’s ability to metabolize it, the blood alcohol concentration rises and an individual becomes drunk or intoxicated. Medically and physiologically, ethanol toxicity begins with intoxication.
When alcohol reaches the bloodstream, it easily passes the blood-brain barrier, hijacks the brain’s gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) system, and causes a pleasant feeling of relaxation and mild euphoria. With another drink or two, further increases in blood alcohol concentrations blunt the individual’s usual behavioral inhibitions and impair cognitive judgments about what does and does not constitute reasonable behavior. These behavioral changes occur secondary to increases in blood alcohol levels beyond the body’s ability to metabolize and are symptomatic of physiological alcohol poisoning. One of the usual behavioral inhibitions overcome at this point is whether or not to continue drinking.
An increasing lack of physical coordination, slurred speech and balance difficulties are further symptoms of alcohol poisoning. By this time, the sedative properties of ethyl alcohol will have progressed from a feeling of relaxation to intense drowsiness and finally loss of consciousness. Continuous sedation – from ingested drinks to physiological toxicity of ethanol and intoxication to loss of consciousness – causes depression of brain respiratory control and function. A drunk person’s breathing rate will slow down and become erratic. Unfortunately, respiratory depression sometimes progresses to complete cessation of breathing and subsequent death.
When an intoxicated person in the acute stage of alcohol poisoning stops drinking, the liver eventually makes up for its backlog in metabolizing ethyl alcohol. As the bloodstream is slowly cleared of the ethanol, the body is left with an abundance of acetaldehyde, a compound somewhere between the metabolism of ethyl alcohol into water and carbon dioxide. Acetaldehyde is considered a major culprit in another symptom of recent ethanol toxicity: a hangover. Another reason for hangover symptoms is dehydration that results from alcohol poisoning.
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