Alcohol Poisoning

Disturbance that can be observed in mental and behavioral function due to alcohol consumption is known as alcohol poisoning. We all are well aware of it that consumption of alcohol is injurious to health but it is not necessary.

Because even a cough syrup contains alcohol in very minute quantity but is not injurious to health so it mainly depends on its quantity. If you are taking alcohol in excess amount in a short period of time then you may face alcohol poisoning.

It is not about alcohol only; if you take anything in excess then you have to face several health issues. Nowadays, alcohol poisoning has become a serious health issue. And you may easily find a suspect of alcohol poisoning around you.

According to my views, alcohol consumption is a slow poison that ruins your health and takes your life slowly slowly, so if you love yourself and your family, leave it now.

What Is Alcohol Poisoning

Taking excess amount of alcohol in a short period of time is alcohol poisoning. Or we can say the condition in which a person takes toxic amount of alcohol rapidly that result in metabolic disturbance in his body is called as alcohol poisoning.

It may even life threatening if emergency treatment is not given to the person concern.

As we know, Food take sometime to digest but alcohol is rapidly absorbed by the body and gets metabolized by the liver so its consequences are also rapid. You can find many products in the market that contain alcohol in different amount.

Some of the products are alcoholic beverages, syrup, mouthwash, some medications, some household products etc.

But wait, you need not to take excess amount of these products. Here I am informing you about the positive aspects of the alcohol but it may transform into negative if taken in excess amount then you may have to face serious health issues and if the percentage of alcohol is more then get ready for the alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol Poisoning Definition

Alcohol poisoning is a condition in which toxic amount of alcohol is taken especially in a short period of time which may be dangerous and sometimes deadly so it needs emergency medical treatment. Alcohol directly affects central nervous system due to which normal functioning of brain get disturbed therefore due to alcohol poisoning,
a person has to face many complications like irregular heart beat, confusion, hypnotic trance, improper coordination, low blood pressure etc.

These complications are the consequences of higher rate of BAC (blood alcohol concentration) in the bloodstream that mainly happens in alcohol poisoning. It is not necessary that higher rate of BAC always leads to alcohol poisoning as it may also cause hangover. Alcohol poisoning is depending on various factors. Some of the factors are:

Age of the person
Overall health
Alcohol taken with other drugs
Tolerance level
Alcohol percentage
Weight and size etc.

Sign Of Alcohol Poisoning

When adults and children take too much amount of alcohol rapidly then they have to face alcohol poisoning. As I told you before, alcohol gets absorbed rapidly by the body but it takes sometime time to get flush out from the body. Because alcohol continuously comes out from intestine and stomach into blood, where it increases its concentration results in higher BAC.

Some of the signs of alcohol poisoning are enumerated below:

Strong alcoholic smell
Confusion
Unconsciousness
Deep breathing
Deep sleep
Slurred speech
Vomiting and nausea
Skin become cold and moist
Reddened face
High perspiration rate
Weak pulse

How Do You Get Alcohol Poisoning

You should know how do you get alcohol poisoning? If you know the causes then you can protect yourself from alcohol poisoning. Adults take heavy doses of alcohol intentionally or accidentally have to face alcohol
poisoning.

Not only adults, sometimes children want to taste it and take it in excess amount also suffered from alcohol poisoning. Consumption of products that mainly contain ethyl alcohol and binge drinking are the reasons mainly responsible for alcohol poisoning.

Binge Drinking: It is the major cause of alcohol poisoning. It can also be called as heavy drinking.

If a male consumes 5 or more drinks rapidly within an hour and a female consumes 4 drinks within two hours then this can be called as binge drinking. Person with alcohol poisoning needs a doctor immediately. And you should know the fact that alcohol poisoning kills 6 people per day in US.

Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms

Following are the symptoms that can be seen in case of alcohol poisoning:

Choking- Vomiting due to irritation in stomach and it disturbs the functioning of gag reflex due to which person may swallow its own vomit into trachea that results in choking.
Due to vomit, person has to face the condition of acute dehydration. Body gets fully dehydrated which may directly affect his brain functioning or may result in brain damage.
Condition of asphyxia may occur due to accidentally inhalation of vomit.
Blood sugar level decreases so much as it can cause seizures easily.
Body becomes cool due to decline in body temperature. It lowers down enough to cause heart attack.
Heartbeats become irregular or may be stop.
Confusion due to loss of reflexes.
Body becomes pale and bluish due to insufficient supply of oxygen.
Unconsciousness.
Slow breathing
It may also lead to coma and even death.

Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms Next Day

Elimination of alcohol from body takes sometime so it symptoms can also be observed next day. Some of the symptoms are:

Skin become cold, clammy and blue
No or slow pulse is observed
Stomach disturbance can cause diarrhea
Body become dehydrated
Blackout-a period in which you might forgot everything or remember a bit
Alcohol directly affects CNS so brain’s normal functioning gets disturbed.
Breathing is an involuntary action that performs automatically but alcohol slows down this functioning, so person forgets to breath.
Trembling, shaking
Headaches
Lethargy
Change in ph
Electrolytic imbalance in body etc.

How Long Does Alcohol Poisoning Last

Alcohol remains in bloodstream until it does not flush out from your body. How long does alcohol poisoning last, depends on a bunch of factors. Some of the factors are responsible for long-lasting effects are given below:

Gender-Alcohol remains much longer in women as compared to men. Because women’s body have more fat and less water as compared to men.
An age-Alcohol flushes out quickly from the younger’s body. This is usually true and can be observed in between the age of 20-23yrs. So more the age of person .more will be the risk of alcohol poisoning.
Time of last drink-As the time passes away, effect of alcohol poisoning lowers down.
What have you eaten- you should know that fats and carbohydrates delay the time period of alcohol to get easily metabolized. So the person who has taken fat and carbohydrates before drinking have long-lasting effect of alcohol.
And also if you have empty stomach so it will take more to flushes out from your body.
Alcohol type-How long an alcohol persists in your body, all depend on its type.
Medication type-Paracetamol, aspirin, pyrazzol lower down the metabolism of alcohol
Other factors- Because of different health situation, effect of alcohol is different in different people.

Alcohol Poisoning Level

If a person taking two units within an hour then there will be an extra unit floating in his bloodstream. As the unit increases, there will be more units of alcohol float in the bloodstream. BAC increases as a person drink faster and it will be dangerously high when taken in excess amount in a short period of time.

As the BAC increases, the effect of alcohol poisoning also increases. It can be easily understand by the table given below:

Level of BAC	Impairments appears
0.0-0.05%	Loss of coordination and balance Slow speech Become sleepy Heart rate increases Body becomes warm
0.06-0.15%	Can harm self and others Slurred speech Become aggressive Start loosing memory Driving skills become worst
0.16-0.30%	No action and reaction Hypnotic trance begins Nausea and vomiting Loss of decision making ability Blackout hangover
0.31-0.45%	Unconsciousness Coma Brain damage Choking Death

Effect of Alcohol Poisoning

As we already knew that effect of alcohol poisoning is long lasting, therefore its effect may short term, long term or both. Effect of alcohol poisoning is different in different peoples. Drinking too much alcohol may leads to alcohol poisoning.

This increases unnecessary amount of alcohol in bloodstream. Heart block, brain damage etc. All are the consequences of alcohol poisoning.

Some of the effects are as follows:

Effects that persist for few hours
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Distorted vision
- Anemia
- Sweating
- Blackouts
- Loss of reflexes
- Memory impairments
Effects that persist for long time
- Road accidents due to intoxication
- Liver damage
- Domestic violence
- Impotency
- Nerve damage
- Gastritis
- Malnutrition
- Coma
- Permanent brain damage
- Ulcers
- Mouth cancer
- Throat cancer
- Death- last but not least

Alcohol Poisoning Death

Alcohol poisoning may leads to death. Death rates of different countries are listed below:

Country name	Death rate
Estonia	22.03
Russia	12.25
Ukraine	10.57
Denmark	10.54
Kazakhstan	4.53
Germany	4.59
France	4.45
Switzerland	2.49
Thailand	1.98
UK	1.70
Ireland	1.55
Fiji	1.20
Sri lanka	1.01
Venezuela	0.97
Philippines	0.91
Uganda	0.77
India	0.77
Myanmar	0.33
China	0.30
Kenya	0.28
Turkey	0.24
Colombia	0.17
Kuwait	0.17
Pakistan	0.16
Iran	0.06
Syria	0.06
Iraq	0.03
Libya	0.00
Maldives	0.00

Alcohol Poisoning Treatment

Alcohol poisoning needs early treatment. A person who’s facing alcohol poisoning should meet a doctor immediately or if you found a suspect of alcohol poisoning, call an ambulance. Different treatments are given by the doctors. Some of the treatment involves:

Oxygen therapy
Use of glucose and vitamins for preventing serious health issues.
Use of IVF (Intravenous fluids) for maintaining blood sugar level, water level etc.
May test urine and blood to know the toxicity and amount of alcohol in the body.
Hypoglycemia is treated with 50mlof 50%dextrose solution.
Thiamine vitamin is used to prevent Wernicke-korsakoff syndrome may be responsible for seizure.
If BAC is dangerously increased then haemodialysis is applied by the doctor.
A tube is inserted into mouth to open the blockages that caused due to choking.
Make use of catheter (thin tube) for draining out urine.

Acute Alcohol Poisoning

When the level of alcohol in blood is dangerously high then this condition is known as acute alcohol poisoning. This is enough to induce the condition of coma or even death. Therefore the person needs immediate treatment. Generally this term is used by the doctors or healthcares.

Toxicologist may refer it as alcohol intoxications to distinguish between toxins and alcohol. Stupor, seizure, confusion, respiratory complications, vomiting, unconsciousness, pale skin. These are some of the common symptoms of acute alcohol poisoning.

Breathanalysers are used by the law enforcement officers to indicate the condition of acute alcohol poisoning. Field sobriety test are rapid and good alternative for blood test. Different alcohol poisoning treatments are given to the patient.

Recovering From Alcohol Poisoning

Don’t expect early recovery from alcohol poisoning as it is very serious, sometimes may leads to death also. You should know how much time it takes to recover. Let’s take an idea about its recovery.

Generally alcohol poisoning takes 24hours to recover. In this condition you may recover by staying in hospital for a night. And no serious harm caused in this condition. How lucky you are!
Complex cases of alcohol poisoning take 48hours to recover. You may get hospitalized for two days and may also face some permanent damages. In this condition you have to tolerate headache, hangover, confusion. Alcohol can irritate your stomach and can cause diarrhea. Vomiting and nausea are common in this situation.
Dangerous cases of alcohol poisoning may take three to one week to recover. You may get hospitalized for three to one week followed by extra treatment. In this case permanent damage can be seen, the worse part of it. You may face difficulty in coordination and

Also face memory complications.

Alcohol Poisoning Treatment At Home

Not only medical treatment, home treatment can also be helpful in alcohol poisoning. You should know about the home treatments so that you will be able to help an individual in case where emergency treatment is not available. Unconscious person is always in danger of death. So if you know about some home treatments, you can save a life.

Due to lack of proper knowledge of home treatments some people enhanced the complications of an individual. So its proper knowledge is must. For giving home treatment to an individual, keep in mind these things:

What to do-

Keep them awake
Give them water if they can drink it to overcome dehydration.
Tyr to keep them in a correct sitting position
Keep them warm.
Closely check his/her breathing in case of unconsciousness.

What not to do-

Do not allow them to walk.
Do not try to give them coffee.
Do not allow them to sleep as it increases alcohol content in bloodstream continuously.
Don’t give them shower to make them calm because body temperature already lowers down.

These above points help you in saving an individual’s life from alcohol poisoning.

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Renu Prajapati

Editor at Health Love

Renu is an enthusiastic and cheerful young writer, who has a 'never give up' attitude. She likes to explore and widen the horizons of her explorations.