Alcohol Poisoning: Symptoms, Causes, Complications, and Treatment

If you drink too often, misuse alcohol like binge drink, or drink to the point of blacking out, it can cause many physical and mental health issues in the long term. It can also lead to alcohol use disorder, a form of addiction. An occasional alcoholic drink every now and then can be fine. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, alcohol-related deaths total around 3 million each year globally.

• Although young people are most likely to engage in binge drinking, deaths from alcohol poisoning usually involve men between the ages of 35 and 64, according to the CDC.
• Once someone reaches end-stage alcoholism, the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver have already experienced significant damage.
• School surveys indicate that, in many countries, alcohol use starts before the age of 15 with very small differences between boys and girls.
• BAC can continue to rise even when a person stops drinking or is unconscious.
• Organs known to be damaged by long-term alcohol misuse include the brain and nervous system, heart, liver and pancreas.
• Drinking such large quantities of alcohol can overwhelm the body’s ability to break down and clear alcohol from the bloodstream.
• Alcohol poisoning is a life-threatening condition that can be caused by drinking large amounts of alcohol in a relatively short period of time.

Understanding alcohol and substance misuse

Alcohol can also irritate the stomach, making the alcoholism treatment suppression of the gag reflex especially problematic. “This actually translates into one death every 10 seconds,” Shekhar Saxena, head of the WHO’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse department, told reporters in Geneva, Global Post reports. The sudden removal of alcohol can cause fatal arrhythmias, where the heartbeat becomes so irregular the heart fails. This complicated biological process is due to the fact that alcohol interferes with the balance of GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter) and glutamate (an excitatory neurotransmitter).

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Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. Steatotic liver disease used to go by the name fatty liver disease. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver.

Understanding the Dangers of Alcohol Overdose

• Driving under the influence of alcohol is dangerous because it affects your ability to reason, think clearly, judge, or follow traffic laws.
• Alcohol has a suppressing effect on the brain and central nervous system.
• Drinking too much too quickly can affect breathing, heart rate, body temperature and gag reflex.
• As with any disease, the best way to diminish the number of people impacted by alcohol use disorder is through education and prevention.
• But alcohol poisoning is so serious, that not calling 911 could result in death.

And middle-aged people are more likely than younger ones to take prescription drugs, which can increase the severity of alcohol poisoning. For many, drinking alcohol is just part of having a good time, but it can also be very dangerous. Certain types of alcohol can kill you, by consuming too much of it in a short amount of time, or by continued long term how does alcohol kill people alcohol abuse.

This can cause other organs in your body to shut down and increase your risk for death. Cirrhosis usually takes decades to develop, and sometimes people are not aware of it until it’s too late. Teenagers and young adults who drink may be at particular risk for alcohol overdose. Research shows that teens and college-age young adults often engage in binge drinking and high-intensity drinking. Drinking such large quantities of alcohol can overwhelm the body’s ability to break down and clear alcohol from the bloodstream. This leads to rapid increases in BAC and significantly impairs brain and other bodily functions.