Drowning Alcohol Abuse
In This Chapter
▶ Recognizing alcohol as a toxin and understanding its dangers
▶ Using detox methods to help your body beat alcohol’s effects
Alcohol is the most common toxic chemical ingested today. About two-thirds of adults in the United States drink alcohol, and its effects on our bodies are wide ranging and can be very serious. Drinking alcohol is so common that you can easily forget it’s an extremely potent toxin.
My goal in this chapter is to give you a full sense of what this toxin can do to your body. It’s not a pretty picture, as you may guess. I then clue you in on some detoxification methods that can both reduce the harmful effects of alcohol and also help you to avoid drinking too much booze.
One quick note before I dive in. You may have read or heard that certain amounts of alcohol can be good for you, and for the most part that seems to be true. Medical research has shown that 2 to 3 ounces of alcohol per day can offer beneficial effects for your cardiovascular system. Also, several types of antioxidants, including flavonoids and resveratrol, are present in
certain kinds of alcohol like red wine and dark beer. That’s all well and good, and if you consume alcohol on that very limited level, it may boost your health in some ways. But the line between just enough and too much alcohol appears to be very thin; studies have also shown that more than 2 to 3 ounces of alcohol per day have a negative impact on your body.
Throughout this chapter, I use a very general gauge of quantity when it comes to alcohol. Because alcohol content differs from drink to drink, the line between safe, healthy drinking and unhealthy drinking can be a moving target. Very broadly speaking, you’re in the safe zone if you have two drinks per day, and a drink can be loosely defined as a can or bottle of beer, a glass of wine, or a 1.5-ounce serving of 80 proof liquor.
Understanding the Toxic Effects of Alcohol
Make no mistake: Alcohol is a toxin. When you drink an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol is absorbed from your intestines into your bloodstream and taken to your liver. Your liver recognizes it as a toxin and does its best to break down the alcohol in an effort to detoxify it. (About 95 percent of the alcohol you drink is broken down by your liver, and only about 5 percent is removed via your kidneys, sweat, and breathing.)
Your liver is an amazing organ and typically gives alcohol detoxification the ol’ college try, but it isn’t able to detoxify all the alcohol. If your liver is healthy, it breaks down alcohol at the rate of 2 to 3 ounces per hour. As a result, some alcohol ends up spreading through your body, where it gets widely distributed and produces its toxic effects.
Short-term effects of overconsumption
As you know if you’ve consumed multiple alcoholic drinks in a short span of time, the level of toxicity is related directly to the amount of alcohol you ingest. The toxic effects of alcohol begin in the brain, and they include the following:
✓ Aggressiveness
✓ Alteration in sexual inhibition
✓ Anesthesia
✓ Drowsiness
✓ Euphoria
✓ Impaired judgment
✓ Mood changes
✓ Release of inhibitions
✓ Sedation
Alcohol’s effects on the brain are compounded by the changes it causes in the rest of your body’s tissues, from your muscles to your eyes and everything in between. Here are a few of the other common effects of alcohol toxicity:
✓ Altered depth perception
✓ Decreased muscle function
✓ Decreased vision at night
✓ Decreased visual focus
✓ Impaired motor skills
If you’ve ever consumed too much alcohol, you’ve likely experienced one or several of these toxic effects. But alcohol toxicity doesn’t stop there — not by a long shot. The potent toxic impact of alcohol can continue to cause much more serious effects on your body, including death. Alcohol can effectively paralyze your diaphragm — the muscle that is responsible for expanding and contracting your lungs — causing you to stop breathing and die from a lack of oxygen. Your heart can also be damaged, and booze can cause fatal irregularities in your heart’s rhythm.
Long-term effects of overconsumption
The types of toxic effects I list in the previous section can result from a single episode involving a large amount of alcohol consumption. But what happens when you consume a lot of alcohol over a long period of time? (I’m talking about years here.) The resultant health problems are even more varied, and they include some very troubling mental conditions.
Long-term exposure to alcohol causes changes in personality that surface as anger, rage, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and lack of self-esteem, as well as self-loathing, intense guilt, and remorse.
Depression is one of the most dangerous mental effects of abusing alcohol over a long period of time. Alcohol abuse can lead to depression, and many people who suffer alcohol-related depression turn to booze as a way to get temporary relief from their depression. That quickly turns into a cycle that can ruin a person’s life, and it’s very hard break.
The physical impact of long-term exposure to alcohol is centered primarily on the nerves, brain, and liver, and I give each one of these areas attention here. I also give you a glimpse into the serious problems that booze can cause for your sleep patterns. These problems are little known but extremely serious, especially given that most people don’t get enough healthy sleep as it is.
Nasty for your nerves
The medical community has been debating for years the damage that alcohol does to your peripheral nerves, which are all the nerves that aren’t part of your brain or spinal cord. One camp insists that alcohol damages these nerves directly, while the other says that the vitamin and mineral deficiencies that result from drinking alcohol are to blame. Which group is right? Well, for the purposes of detoxification, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that everyone agrees alcohol has a nasty toxic impact on your peripheral
nerves, and the damage is severe and often long lasting. Here’s a short list of the symptoms that you can experience as a result of that damage:
✓ Heat intolerance
✓ Impotence in men
✓ Muscle weakness due to nerve dysfunction
✓ Numbness in the feet, which spreads up the legs
✓ Numbness in the fingers, which spreads up the hands
✓ Pain in the arms and legs
✓ “Pins and needles” sensations in the feet and legs
✓ “Pins and needles” sensations in the hands and arms
✓ Problems with urination, including incontinence, difficulty starting urination, and incomplete emptying of the bladder Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? Well, the problems don’t stop there. As if the damage to the peripheral nerves isn’t enough, alcohol also causes debilitating effects on the autonomic nerves, which are the nerves that control your body’s automatic functions. Long-term alcohol abuse can really foul up the functioning of those nerves, and the results are painful (both for the drinker and for his family and friends to watch). Here’s a quick rundown of what can happen:
✓ Constipation
✓ Decrease in stomach activity
✓ Diarrhea
✓ Difficulty swallowing
✓ Loss of control of heart rate
✓ Radical drop in blood pressure when standing up
✓ Speech problems
✓ Vomiting
Your nerves are extremely complex tissues, and you can do them a huge amount of harm by drinking too much toxic alcohol. Is that extra glass of wine or mixed drink really worth it? If for some reason you aren’t convinced, take a look at what alcohol abuse can do to your brain.
Bad for your brain
Long-term alcohol use damages your brain in all kinds of ways. At the top of the list is the killing off of brain cells. The fact that alcohol can destroy your brain’s cells should give you a pretty good indication of how bad it is for what many people consider to be the most awe-inspiring and complex structure in the natural world.
In addition to the direct damage that alcohol does to your brain, it also creates vitamin and mineral deficiencies that rob your brain of the materials it needs to take care of even basic functions.
Finally, the damage that alcohol does to your liver (I tackle that topic in the next section) means that it isn’t able to detoxify your body efficiently, and many other toxins that would’ve been broken down in the liver are therefore allowed to roam free in your bloodstream. It doesn’t take long for these other toxins to reach your brain and begin affecting it in a very dangerous way.
This triple threat of alcohol’s harmful effects on your brain — direct effects, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and increased general toxicity — often ends in catastrophic damage to brain function. Let me fill you in on just a few of the possibilities:
✓ Abnormal emotional function.
✓ Dramatic decrease in problem-solving abilities.
✓ Loss of function of intelligent behavior.
✓ Loss of long-term and short-term memory; amnesia.
✓ Loss of the ability to use senses such as sight and smell.
✓ Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which is triggered by a severe lack of vitamin B1 (also called thiamine). Symptoms include confusion, hallucinations, coma, and death if left untreated.
That’s just a sampling; the list really could go on for pages.
Lousy for your liver
The burden of detoxifying alcohol in your body falls almost exclusively on your liver, so it’s no surprise that alcoholic liver disease affects a large
number of heavy drinkers. Three kinds of liver damage result from alcohol toxicity:
✓ Alcoholic hepatitis: This inflammation of the liver tissue is caused by alcohol and acetaldehyde, a very toxic substance that the liver produces when it’s trying to break down alcohol. Symptoms include jaundice, fever, abdominal tenderness and pain, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. This condition can be caused by a single drinking binge and can last for years. Thirty-five percent of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis.
✓ Alcoholic cirrhosis: When alcohol cause normal liver tissue to be replaced by scar tissue, alcoholic cirrhosis is the result. Liver function is severely hindered by cirrhosis, and the condition is irreversible. Twenty percent of heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, and it kills tens of thou- sands of people every year in the United States alone.
✓ Fatty liver: When alcohol causes fatty liver, the liver’s normal cells are replaced with fat cells. The liver becomes enlarged, but its function is greatly reduced.
In addition to these three specific debilitating conditions, alcohol ruins your liver in several other general ways, which create indirect problems with many other parts of your body. When your liver detoxifies alcohol, it creates byproducts that are damaging not only to the liver but also to your body’s other tissues. These chemicals are responsible for large scale inflammation. If you check out Chapter 13, which is all about the toxins that harm your cir- culatory system and how you can limit their effects, you’ll realize that most heart disease is caused by inflammation. The harmful chemicals can be countered by antioxidants, but when you add in the taxing effects of all the other toxins we take in on a daily basis, it’s really hard to get enough antioxidants to win the war.
Your liver is also an important storage facility. It stores glycogen (a storable form of glucose), as well as vitamins B12, A, and D. And your liver’s crucial functions don’t stop there: Your liver converts fats and glucose to energy, produces cholesterol your body uses to create hormones, and synthesizes critical amino acids. If your liver has to spend all its time detoxifying alcohol, it has limited resources for performing these other vital functions, and your health can completely fall apart as a result.
When taken with alcohol, certain drugs (both prescription and over-the- counter) can cause extreme and irreversible damage to your liver, and even death. At the top of the list are drugs containing acetaminophen, pain killers, anti-anxiety medications, and drugs prescribed to reduce cholesterol.
Stealing healthy sleep
The effect of alcohol on your sleeping patterns merits special attention because the problem is serious and often misunderstood.
Alcohol causes sleepiness. However, when you go to sleep with alcohol in your system, you don’t get normal, healthy sleep. Alcohol prevents your body from going into a particular state of sleep when your muscles are completely relaxed and 95 percent of dreaming occurs. You don’t need to consume much alcohol for this problem to happen; only about 6 ounces will harm your sleep patterns in a serious way.
After your liver manages to detoxify all the alcohol in your system — remember, that’s about 2 to 3 ounces per hour — then your brain rebounds and tries to make up for the lost sleep stages. But it isn’t able to do so, and your sleep isn’t as restful and rejuvenating as it is when no alcohol is in your system. When you wake up the next day, you’ll likely feel tired and unrested. Larger amounts of alcohol cause a proportionately larger effect, and your physical and mental functions can be severely decreased.
Some people use alcohol as a way to help them fall asleep, but that’s a very unhealthy and unsafe practice. Alcohol hurts your sleep patterns and pre- vents you from getting healthy, normal sleep, so drinking it before bedtime is a surefire way to wake up feeling tired and worn down the next day.
If you continue to go to sleep with alcohol in your system over a long period of time, your body eventually develops a tolerance for alcohol that is the definition of addiction. You won’t be able to go to sleep without alcohol, and every time you drink to fall asleep you’re adding to your body’s toxicity. It’s an extremely harmful, unhealthy cycle of addiction.
Using Detoxification Techniques against Alcohol
Like many other health issues, alcohol toxicity can be decreased and its effects reduced if you use some basic detoxification techniques. Changing your drinking behavior to mesh with your overall detoxification goals will help you cut out unhealthy alcohol use. And supplementing with a range of vitamins, minerals, and herbs can help you undo some of the damage done by booze. I cover both topics in this section.
Adjusting your drinking behavior
If you realize and understand that alcohol is a toxin, and you’re convinced that detoxification should be a top priority in your life (and I hope you are!), you should be prepared to make some changes to your drinking behavior. You want to make choices about alcohol that jibe with your other detoxification efforts. Here are a few tips that fall in line with that way of thinking:
✓ Limit your alcohol intake to 2 to 3 ounces per day.
✓ Eat something when you’re drinking.
✓ Don’t drink and take any sort of drug at the same time.
✓ Eat a diet that contains foods with high vitamin B content.
✓ Don’t drink by yourself.
✓ Seek help from a doctor or other professional if you consistently drink
more than 4 ounces per day.
Supplementing to help your body beat alcohol’s effects
Alcohol use can easily cause deficiencies of several important vitamins and minerals in your body. If you want to thwart the damaging effects of alcohol, the first step is taking supplements that help to make sure your body isn’t being robbed of what it needs to perform. Look for supplements that include the following key vitamins and minerals:
✓ Magnesium
✓ Potassium
✓ Vitamin A
✓ Vitamin B complex (includes B1, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12)
To help your body recoup the vitamin B that it can lose as a result of alcohol use, be sure to eat plenty of vitamin B–rich foods like bananas, lentils, beans, turkey, peppers, and potatoes.
You can also seek out supplements that will help your liver to cope with the damages associated with alcohol toxicity. Here are the ones I recommend:
✓ Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA): This compound is very potent in supporting basic liver function and has been successful in treating liver toxicity that was considered lethal otherwise. Capsules and tablets are the most common supplement forms of ALA.
✓ Catechin: A powerful antioxidant compound, catechin can help limit the damage done to your liver by alcohol and other toxins. It also fights intestinal toxins and improves the health of your body’s cell membranes. One of the most common supplement forms is green tea extract, so if you’re interested look for that supplement in tablet form.
✓ Milk thistle: Derived from a plant that is common to many areas of the world, this herbal supplement offers a potent antioxidant power and inhibits an enzyme in the liver that leads to inflammation. You can take it as a capsule or in liquid form.
✓ N-Acetylcysteine: In addition to combating liver toxicity caused by alcohol and other toxins, this compound provides antioxidant effects and boosts your immune system, to boot.
✓ Resveratrol: Studies have shown this antioxidant to be very beneficial in reducing liver damage. You can find it in tablet or capsule form.
✓ Vitamin C: This jack-of-all-trades supplement is a requirement for anyone looking to heal any part of the body (including the liver). Don’t think twice about taking as much as 4,000 mg per day.
✓ Vitamin D: This old standby is necessary for any detoxification effort.
I’ve been working with patients on alcohol addiction for decades, and I’ve seen the terrific effects of these kinds of supplements on many occasions. Some of my patients have had extreme liver toxicity caused by alcohol, and supplements like milk thistle and ALA have helped their livers heal to the point where they were seeing normal liver function within one week of start- ing supplementation.
Recipes for Helping You Detox from Alcohol
If you’re worried that alcohol toxicity is harming your body, you should start detoxifying for alcohol immediately. Your efforts should include changes in your diet that focus on including antioxidant-rich foods and foods that contain plenty of B vitamins.
Here are several tasty recipes that you can make to help steer your diet toward helping you reduce the ravages of alcohol toxicity.
Fruity Peppermint Granita
Fresh herbs like peppermint, chamomile, and lavender may help alcoholics recover and ease withdrawal symptoms. Just the aroma of peppermint helps soothe an upset stom- ach. Peppermint is combined with fruit juices and frozen to make a refreshing and healthy granita you can eat as a snack or dessert.
1 Combine all ingredients in a blender; blend until finely minced. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, pressing on mint leaves to extract as much flavor as possible.
2 Pour mixture into 9”x13” pan; the liquid should be about 1/4- to 1/3-inch thick. Freeze for 5 hours, scraping the mixture every hour with tines of a fork to make crystals.
3 When ready to serve, scrape the frozen mixture to fluff up; spoon into glasses, and serve immediately.
Spicy Eggs with Broccoli Sprout Salad
For recovering alcoholics, L-glutamine is an important nutrient because it has been shown to decrease cravings for alcohol and also make the withdrawal process more bearable. It’s found in foods like eggs, wheat germ, dairy products, and oats. But for it to work most effectively, it should be combined with foods rich in niacin. These include celery (especially deep green celery), mushrooms, asparagus, and broccoli.
This dish, commonly known as “Eggs in Purgatory,” is delicious for a breakfast or a late supper. The fresh and crisp salad is a nice contrast to the warm and rich eggs.
1 In small saucepan, combine ginseng and water; simmer 5 minutes, then cool. Strain liquid into medium bowl; add olive oil, orange juice, and thyme leaves; whisk to com- bine. Add sprouts, cherry tomatoes, celery, and mushrooms; toss gently and set aside.
2 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and jalapeno pepper; sauté 5 – 6 minutes until crisp-tender. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, orange juice, and pepper; simmer 5 minutes.
3 Carefully crack eggs onto the simmering sauce, keeping them separated from one another. Bake 15–20 minutes until eggs are just set. Serve egg mixture with sprout salad.
Beef and Cabbage Lentil Salad
Uncooked cabbage is another good source of L-glutamine. Cabbage is also rich in glucosinolates, which help improve immune function so your body can recover and regain health. Raw vegetables, of course, are central to any detox diet. This combination is fresh and delicious, with lots of crunch and beautiful color.
Lentils are loaded with plenty of folic acid and fiber that are essential for an alcohol detox. Zinc, which helps protect the liver against alcohol, and iron, a nutrient alcoholics may be deficient in, are found in beef. It’s important to look for 100 percent organic, grass-fed beef when you’re on a detox diet.
This delicious salad will satisfy anyone’s appetite. It can be eaten hot or cold; in fact, leftovers are delicious served the next day.
1 Place steaks in shallow pan; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and rub into both sides. Refrigerate while preparing lentils and the salad.
2 Sort lentils and rinse. Drain and combine them with water in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, 23–28 minutes. Drain if necessary and set aside.
3 In serving bowl, combine cabbage, bell peppers, and lentils. In small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons lemon juice, vinegar, honey, olive oil, mustard, oregano, pepper, and pars- ley. Mix well and pour over cabbage mixture; toss gently to coat. Set aside.
4 Remove the meat from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Place beef on broiler pan; broil, turning once, 8–12 minutes until desired doneness. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 5 minutes. Slice beef thinly and arrange over salad; serve immediately.
Green Tea Chamomile Smoothie
Green tea and chamomile will help you calm down and regain your composure. Tea is also a wonderful healing food that brings balance to your body. It relieves muscle spasms, boosts the immune system, and fights infection. Along with vitamin C–rich foods like man- goes and oranges, this smoothie is the perfect pick-me-up any time of the day.
1 Place tea leaves and chamomile flowers in a small bowl; pour heated water over. Let steep 5 minutes, then strain, reserving liquid. Chill liquid until cold.
2 Combine all remaining ingredients, including the chilled tea, in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth and thick. Serve immediately.
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