The Spring Festival is bustling with excitement, and the traditional Chinese "wine culture" is inevitable! After the human body ingests a large amount of alcohol, it can cause acute alcoholism, which has great damage to the nervous system and liver, and can be life-threatening in severe patients. Long-term alcoholics can cause high blood pressure, mental disorders, stroke, arrhythmias, liver and stomach damage and other diseases, causing great damage to our body.
Not only that, but drinking alcohol will also have an impact on many test indicators.
Effects on peripheral blood picture
Ethanol has fat-soluble properties, which are prone to adverse effects on the function of various systems of the body, and the changes in peripheral blood picture in the blood system are the most sensitive.
Since red blood cells account for 40% of the blood, changes in the number of red blood cells, specific capacity and other parameters have a greater impact on the physiological function of the blood.
Long-term heavy alcohol abuse can lead to a decrease in the ability of red blood cells to deform, an increase in average red blood cell volume (MCV), an increase in average red blood cell hemoglobin content (MCH), a decrease in average red blood cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), leukopenia, abnormal platelet count and function.
The obvious increase in RED BLOOD MCV and MCH after drinking alcohol is due to the fact that the high concentration of ethanol in the blood may affect the lipid structure of the erythrocyte membrane and the protein structure on the membrane, which directly affects the deformation capacity of red blood cells, and ethanol will also cause folic acid absorption disorders, and the rate of red blood cell division and proliferation will slow down, so MCHC will be reduced.
Ethanol ingestion causes a decrease in the number of white blood cells, which may be directly associated with ethanol inhibiting colony-stimulating factor production, resulting in decreased granulocyte production and increased lymphocyte relative values.
Relevant studies have shown that the white blood cell count and platelet count in the alcohol intake group are lower than those in the control group, and the lymphocyte ratio, MCV and MCH values are significantly higher than the control group, and the difference between the two groups is statistically significant, which confirms that ethanol has a greater impact on peripheral blood picture.
Table 1 Comparison of peripheral blood picture tests between the two groups
Effect on the permeation of brittleness of red blood cells
The hemolytic properties of erythrocytes in hypotonic salt solutions are called erythrocyte osmotic fragility.
The osmotic fragility of erythrocytes reflects the tensile strength of erythrocyte membranes in hypotonic solutions, which is one of the important physiological characteristics of red blood cells. Reduced permeability of erythrocytes leads to a decrease in the fluidity and deformity of the erythrocyte membrane, that is, the ability of red blood cells to pass through tiny blood vessels is reduced, resulting in insufficient tissue perfusion.
There are studies to carry out erythrocyte osmotic fragility test to explore the effect of ethanol on it, by preparing different concentrations of NaCl solution, observe the hemolysis of red blood cells in the test tube, with the hemolysis rate % as the vertical coordinate, NaCI concentration as the abscissa, after drawing the curve to find out the 50% hemolysis corresponding to the hemolysis rate, that is, the number of MCF values in the permeation.
It was found that as the ethanol content increased, the osmotic fragility of erythrocytes gradually increased. At the same time, the osmotic fragility of red blood cells in the ethanol group gradually increased with the prolongation of incubation time. It can be seen that excessive intake of ethanol can lead to an increase in the osmotic fragility of red blood cells in the body, a change in fluidity, and a change in oxygen carrying capacity, which affects the transport capacity.
Figure 1 Effect of different ethanol content on erythrocyte permeation fragility
Fig. 2 Effect of ethanol on erythrocyte permeation fragility at different times
Effects on liver enzymes
Long-term intake of alcohol will mainly cause great harm to the human liver, and the corresponding liver enzymes will also change, such as ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase), GGT (γ-glutamyltransferase) and so on.
Relevant studies have shown that the ALT level of the daily ethanol intake 60g group will reach 30.23±4.21U/L. That is to say, when the daily alcohol essence reaches 40 to 60g, it will reach the peak of the ALT rise, and when it exceeds 60g, the ALT level will show a downward trend.
This is mainly due to the fact that excessive consumption of alcohol inhibits the alcohol metabolite acetaldehyde channel protein in pyridoxine phosphate. Lack of pyridoxine as a coenzyme for the manifestation of ALT activity can lead to a decrease in ALT levels, especially after high-dose alcohol consumption.
GGT in normal human serum comes mainly from the liver, and elevated GGT is mainly caused by liver damage. GGT is involved in the metabolism of glutathione, protecting cells from oxidative attacks by free radicals and peroxidase. When the body is threatened by oxidation reactions, GGT is produced in large quantities to increase glutathione production. Therefore, long-term alcohol intake can lead to elevated levels of GGT, which can be one of the clues to the diagnosis of chronic alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease.
Table 2 Serum enzyme measurement results in 89 patients over three years
Effects on blood potassium
Potassium is one of the minerals necessary for life-sustaining activities, and potassium is the material basis for maintaining the resting potential of cell membranes. A decrease in serum potassium ions can lead to elevated blood pressure and arrhythmias, increasing mortality from cardiovascular disease.
When admitted to the hospital after acute alcoholism, varying degrees of hypokalemia are common. Moreover, the incidence of hypokalemia in patients with severe alcohol dependence with large alcohol consumption and long time is significantly higher than that of normal people, and even cases of death due to untimely treatment of hypokalemia after acute alcohol poisoning.
According to studies, ethanol has a diuretic effect, resulting in increased excretion of potassium from the kidneys, and this diuretic effect may be related to the temporary inhibition of the release of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) from the upper pituitary system.
In addition, cortisol continues to rise during alcohol abuse, which can also inhibit the secretion of ADH, increase the glomerular filtration rate, and directly act on the renal tubules to promote kidney excretion of water. Therefore, increased urine output after drinking alcohol, as well as vomiting, sweating, vasodilation, etc., lead to loss of water and sodium, blood volume deficiency, can cause secondary increase in aldosterone secretion, so that the kidneys increase potassium excretion, resulting in potassium loss.
Excessive ethanol intake not only causes changes in the activity of biological enzymes in the body, resulting in changes in the function of the body's basic metabolic processes, but also has a great impact on the role of the central nervous system.
In addition, the intake of acute and chronic ethanol can also cause cytotoxic reactions, which can lead to disorders in the metabolism of phospholipids and fatty acids, and can cause peripheral blood picture abnormalities, liver function damage, abnormal electrical activity and arrhythmias.
【Reference】
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Edited by: Yeah Reviewer: Xiao Ran