Be Very Afraid - Cancer

[Munted]

Just listened to an 'expert' on the radio. More than two glasses of wine per day and you're in cancer country. Meanwhile, I'm fifty years old and have just consumed 500 ml of 80% proof bourbon. Should I feel vulnerable & afraid? That's a rhetorical question. IMHO, it's diet not drink that kills. Too much carb, too much sugar. A drinker's diet should be no bread, cakes etc and plenty of meat. Bacon & eggs for breakfast. Go this way and you'll live to 90 and enjoy every minute of it. Booze, but don't pig out on carbs & sugar and no harm will come your way. (A public service message)

[londonthai]

alcohol, fries (bacon, egg) will damage your liver - but is true, that fatty food will linr the digestive ystem and prevent alcohol from getting into the bloodstreem

[taxexile]

prevent alcohol from getting into the bloodstreem

if this was indeed true , then why bother to drink alcohol? if it does not enter the bloodstream , then it will not give drinkers the effects they crave.

foods and especially fatty food just slows down the absorption process , and slows down the rate at which alcohol irritates and eventually destroys the stomach lining , leading to an inability to digest food properly.

What tips can you give for "lining the stomach" as my parents used to call it, before going to a Christmas event? My father used to swear by a glass of milk as a good preparation for the stomach. What is your view? Peter David, Harrogate.

A1: Your parents gave you very sound advice. Alcohol is absorbed more quickly from the small intestine than it is from the stomach. To slow the absorption of alcohol, and therefore its impact on your senses, it is necessary to slow the stomach's action so that the wine stays in it for as long as possible. Fats cause the stomach to release a hormone that delays stomach emptying. Milk is a good source of fats and as it spreads evenly over the whole of the inner surface of the stomach it is especially effective. If you have time for a bite to eat before you go out, as well as a glass of full cream milk, so much the better. I would suggest a piece of cheese or pate on toast or bread would be ideal. Once you start drinking try and spend as much time as possible sitting down eating canapes. People sitting drink less than when standing - this is one reason why bars have so few seats. The effect of alcohol when accompanied by food is always less than when it is drunk on an empty stomach, try and aim to have more of your drink intake with a meal rather than as aperitifs before eating. Once you return home drink plenty of water, at least two tumblers-full.

How Alcohol Affects Nutrition, Digestion and Energy

Alcohol and Nutrition

Nutrition is a process that serves two purposes: to provide energy and to maintain body structure and function. Food supplies energy and provides the building blocks needed to replace worn or damaged cells and the nutritional components needed for body function. Alcoholics often eat poorly, limiting their supply of essential nutrients and affecting both energy supply and structure maintenance. Furthermore, alcohol interferes with the nutritional process by affecting digestion, storage, utilization, and excretion of nutrients.

Impairment of Nutrient Digestion and Utilization

Once ingested, food must be digested (broken down into small components) so it is available for energy and maintenance of body structure and function. Digestion begins in the mouth and continues in the stomach and intestines, with help from the pancreas. The nutrients from digested food are absorbed from the intestines into the blood and carried to the liver. The liver prepares nutrients either for immediate use or for storage and future use.

Alcohol inhibits the breakdown of nutrients into usable molecules by decreasing secretion of digestive enzymes from the pancreas. Alcohol impairs nutrient absorption by damaging the cells lining the stomach and intestines and disabling transport of some nutrients into the blood. In addition, nutritional deficiencies themselves may lead to further absorption problems. For example, folate deficiency alters the cells lining the small intestine, which in turn impairs absorption of water and nutrients including glucose, sodium, and additional folate.

Even if nutrients are digested and absorbed, alcohol can prevent them from being fully utilized by altering their transport, storage, and excretion. Decreased liver stores of vitamins such as vitamin A, and increased excretion of nutrients such as fat, indicate impaired utilization of nutrients by alcoholics.

Alcohol and Energy Supply

The three basic nutritional components found in food--carbohydrates, proteins, and fats--are used as energy after being converted to simpler products. Some alcoholics ingest as much as 50 percent of their total daily calories from alcohol, often neglecting important foods.

Even when food intake is adequate, alcohol can impair the mechanisms by which the body controls blood glucose levels, resulting in either increased or decreased blood glucose (glucose is the body's principal sugar). In nondiabetic alcoholics, increased blood sugar, or hyperglycemia--caused by impaired insulin secretion--is usually temporary and without consequence. Decreased blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, can cause serious injury even if this condition is short lived. Hypoglycemia can occur when a fasting or malnourished person consumes alcohol. When there is no food to supply energy, stored sugar is depleted, and the products of alcohol metabolism inhibit the formation of glucose from other compounds such as amino acids. As a result, alcohol causes the brain and other body tissue to be deprived of glucose needed for energy and function.

Although alcohol is an energy source, how the body processes and uses the energy from alcohol is more complex than can be explained by a simple calorie conversion value. For example, alcohol provides an average of 20 percent of the calories in the diet of the upper third of drinking Americans, and we might expect many drinkers who consume such amounts to be obese. Instead, national data indicate that, despite higher caloric intake, drinkers are no more obese than nondrinkers. Also, wh en alcohol is substituted for carbohydrates, calorie for calorie, subjects tend to lose weight, indicating that they derive less energy from alcohol than from food.

The mechanisms accounting for the apparent inefficiency in converting alcohol to energy are complex and incompletely understood, but several mechanisms have been proposed. For example, chronic drinking triggers an inefficient system of alcohol metabolism, the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system (MEOS). Much of the energy from MEOS-driven alcohol metabolism is lost as heat rather than used to supply the body with energy.

terrible stuff , alcohol.

[Naam]

terrible stuff , alcohol.

i agree! i destroy whenever i find it. later i pee it out.

[PeaceBlondie]

I remember Dr. Lewis telling me that drunk wards smelled of aldehyde - the drunk patients were literally exhaling aldehyde (similar to formaldehyde). They were detoxifying - eliminating the toxins that had poisoned their entire body. That is why alcohol is a toxin - a deadly poison.

What cancers are caused by excessive alcohol intake? Is it true that alcohol poisons every cell of the body?

[huggybear]

Just listened to an 'expert' on the radio. More than two glasses of wine per day and you're in cancer country. Meanwhile, I'm fifty years old and have just consumed 500 ml of 80% proof bourbon. Should I feel vulnerable & afraid? That's a rhetorical question. IMHO, it's diet not drink that kills. Too much carb, too much sugar. A drinker's diet should be no bread, cakes etc and plenty of meat. Bacon & eggs for breakfast. Go this way and you'll live to 90 and enjoy every minute of it. Booze, but don't pig out on carbs & sugar and no harm will come your way. (A public service message)

Sorry folks, but life is terminal.

If it is not cancer, it'll be a car accident or some other misfortune......

Be thankful you are here today, make the most of it, and don't forget to tell the people in your life that matter, that you appreciate them.

I'll drink to that !!

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

What cancers are caused by excessive alcohol intake? Is it true that alcohol poisons every cell of the body?

Lots of things we put in our bodies and to which we are exposed can increase the risk of cancer. In the last year, I lost two close friends to liver cancer. At some point in each of their lives, these friends were alcoholics. Chronic alcohol ingestion weakens the liver and makes the liver susceptible to cancer. The survival rate from liver cancer is very poor, unless it is caught early, so that the lesions can be removed.

[taxexile]

What cancers are caused by excessive alcohol intake?

chronic inflammation causes a high turnover of cells in the inflamed tissue , a high turnover of cells is thought to lead to mutation to the dna in the cells , the mutated cells resulting from this can result in tumours.

alcohol , especially strong spirits , causes inflammation to the throat , oesophagus , stomach and the tissues lining the mouth and tongue.

a high intake over a long period of time is a predisposing factor to cancers in those areas.