How does alcoholism technically (chemically) kill you?
Moreover, chronic excessive alcohol use is the single most important cause of illness and death from liver disease (alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis) in the United States (1).
Furthermore:
The three alcohol-induced liver conditions are fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis.
While I can find information about what is exactly a fatty liver or cirrhosis (liver scars), I can't find any information, what and how exactly things react inside of your body and what kind of damage alcohol does to your body.
From high school I still know, that alcohol is ethanol with the formula
C2H6O, so my question is, simply put - what kinds of molecules from your own body react in which way with C2H6O?
I mean if I drink 1 litre water daily I certainly won't die any time soon, but if I do drink 1 litre alcohol daily I will die pretty soon. So what's the different reaction between H2O and C2H6O inside of your body?
(1)1 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
On the chemical level, the toxicity of ethanol is mainly mediated by its breakdown product acetaldehyde. Alcohol is metabolized like this:
ethanol → acetaldehyde → acetate → acetylCoA → CO2 + water
When alcohol is drunk in small amounts, acetaldehyde is quickly metabolized to CO2 and water, but when drunk in large amounts, the greater amounts of acetaldehyde can damage the cells, mainly in the liver, pancreas, brain and heart.
Alcohol breakdown also results in the creation of reactive oxygen species, such as hydrogen peroxide, which together with acetaldehyde attack certain parts of the cells. The damaged cells attract neutrophils, which, in the attempt to clean the mess, can cause further damage (more details in the Journal of Hepatology and in this nice video).
Alcohol breakdown also results in an increase of NADH and depletion of NAD, which stimulates fatty acid synthesis.
On the tissue level, the stages of alcoholic liver damage are fat accumulation (steatosis), inflammation (hepatitis), cell death (necrosis) and conversion to fibrous tissue (fibrosis and cirrhosis). Chronic alcohol consumption also increases the risk for cancer of the mouth, throat, esophageus, colon, liver and breast (CDC. gov).
On the functional level, alcohol can kill you due to:
Brain impairment:
Bleeding in the brain
Depression of the cardiorespiratory centers in the brainstem
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome due to alcohol-related vitamin B1 deficiency
Hepatic encephalopathy caused by excessive amount of ammonia in the blood in advanced liver cirrhosis
Heart failure:
Cardiomyopathy
Irregular heart rhythm
Liver failure
Acute pancreatitis
How exactly alcohol is damaging? (See Table 1 in this article)
Ethanol:
triggers triglyceride accumulation in the liver cells, which can result in cirrhosis
causes DNA damage of the stem cells, which can result in cancer
Acetaldehyde:
triggers inflammation, which can contribute to liver fibrosis
damages DNA
promotes oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which increases the risk of atherosclerosis
inactivates clotting factors, which increases the risk of bleeding
In conclusion, alcohol does not kill you by causing a chemical reaction with a certain molecule in the body (for example, like cyanide intoxication) but by promoting or inhibiting certain processes that can result in tissue damage.
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2025 All Rights reserved.