Alcohol is a psychotropic that first improves mood and then depresses the central nervous system. According to recent studies, alcohol may be less harmful to older people over the age of 50.
What harm does alcohol have for patients under 50?
Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to muscular dystrophy, neurological disorders and liver diseases. Sometimes there are problems with vision and aggressive behavior.
High levels of alcohol can lead to loss of consciousness, reflexes, amnesia, poor breathing, and low body temperature.
Rarely, drinking alcohol leads to paralysis, coma, unintentional urination, and respiratory arrest to death.
Excessive alcohol consumption can, among other things, cause serious brain damage and mental loss. Exposure to alcohol is also associated with malnutrition, which often affects people with severe alcohol dependence.
After taking alcohol, its absorption in the blood begins. The faster ethyl alcohol enters the bloodstream, the faster it acts. Hot and carbonated, as well as alcoholic drinks with a high sugar content accelerate absorption in the blood. Even with an empty stomach, alcohol is absorbed faster.
Ethanol is neither classified as toxic nor harmful to health, but pathologists consider it toxin to the liver. With regular use of alcohol, all body cells are damaged.
Patients suffer from the nervous system and brain, as well as the liver. Vitamin B metabolism is disturbed as a result of prolonged alcohol consumption. Epilepsy, psychosis, social isolation and early death are other consequences. Wernicke encephalopathy occurs in 15% of deceased alcoholics.
Damage to the central nervous system occurs when alcohol is consumed in excessively high doses. This nervous manifestation occurs when alcohol is removed from the body. More than 100,000 people die every year in Russia as a result of alcoholism.
Risk is underestimated
According to the director of research, drinkers aged 55 "survived" the adverse effects of alcohol. At first, they could have had a “stronger" health than other people. In fact, according to the study, about half of all cases of alcohol mortality are observed before the age of 50 years.
Modern clinical trials underestimate the effect of alcohol on patients in different age groups. To analyze the effects of alcohol, the researchers used a special software and a database of patients from the United States.
The results of the study are based on an analysis of data on the causes of death and the health benefits of alcohol over a four-year period.
Conclusion: age is a major factor in alcohol-related mortality. Especially patients under 50 die from alcohol addiction.
More than 30% of all deaths from alcohol occurred among people under the age of 50. However, only 5% of prevented deaths occur in this age group. At the age of 63-67 years, approximately half of the deaths were caused by alcohol. This age group accounted for nearly 90% of deaths from alcohol consumption.
Age is an important factor
Researchers have found a similar pattern for years of life lost as a result of alcohol. 68% were in the age group up to 50 years. In people older than 70 years, 20% of lost years of life were associated with alcohol consumption.
In general, young people die more often from drinking alcohol than from abstinence. Older people are likely to benefit from moderate consumption.
Scientists believe that the effects of alcohol on young and elderly patients are slightly different, which is associated with different toxicity to organs.
Elderly people live longer if they drink moderately
According to scientific work, 70% of people over the age of 50 who take moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages live longer. Doctors analyzed both drinkers and non-drinkers.
Conclusion: older people who drink moderately live 4-8 years longer than non-drinkers in general.
