Inquisitive minds have already come up with many arguments in favor of the fact that you can and should drink alcohol, as well as a lot of recipes for the “right” feast. And if you still went over, folk wisdom will bring you ways to deal with a hangover. Where is the truth, and where are the conjectures and excuses?

We deal with the myths about alcohol together with the general practitioner, toxicologist Alexei Vodovozov.

The body produces alcohol on its own, so drinking alcohol is natural.

This is not true. Let's make a reservation right away that ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is a neurotoxic poison, a carcinogen and a drug. In the internal environment of the body, no biochemical reactions are described, as a result of which this substance is formed.
Another thing is that bacteria and fungi live in the body. They can produce vitamins, break down fiber, and so on. And part of our cohabitants in the external environment, which includes, for example, the intestinal lumen, is a miniature distillery: in the course of their life they are engaged in alcoholic fermentation and produce ethanol, about three grams per day. This is a small dose that enzyme systems can handle without problems; a person does not even notice such an amount of ethanol.
But there is such an unpleasant thing - auto-drunk syndrome.
It happens that the intestines are inhabited by saccharomyces fungi, which are very actively involved in fermentation and produce much more alcohol - about 30-50 grams per day. Because of this, a person walks a little drunk all the time.

As fun as it sounds, there is nothing good about it: the brain is constantly foggy, you can’t drive or play sports normally. People with this syndrome may be happy at first, but eventually grow weary of constant intoxication. To get rid of this “holiday that is always there”, they have to take antibiotics as prescribed by the doctor.

Alcohol is the best antidepressant

In fact, alcohol is a depressant, if we talk about the neuropharmacological side of the issue.
Yes, in small doses it can slightly improve mood, help to relax. But we are talking about a very small amount of alcohol, about 20 grams of ethanol is a shot of vodka or a glass of wine. It is rare that anyone stops at such a small dose, although it is on it that all the benefits of alcohol for mood end.
Further, the larger the dose you take, the more the nervous system is depressed. Alcohol acts in the brain on GABA receptors - this amino acid regulates inhibition processes. We can say that GABA is a sedative that the body produces itself. Alcohol acts on the brain in the same way as GABA. And if a small dose of alcohol helps to relieve tension and relax a little, then a larger amount of alcohol greatly inhibits a person - up to an alcoholic coma.
And with prolonged use of alcohol, the sensitivity of receptors to GABA decreases, and your own “sedative” system stops working. The person becomes nervous and irritable and cannot relax until he drinks.

There are no ugly women, there is little alcohol

But in this statement there is a rational grain. Beauty, of course, is a subjective concept, but there are certain characteristics of the face that we all like. In particular, symmetry - the more symmetrical the face, the more beautiful it seems to you.
So, alcohol dulls the ability to recognize asymmetry. Therefore, those faces that you soberly could determine as not very attractive, after a couple of stacks seem more beautiful.
Alexey Vodovozov, physician of the highest category, popularizer of science, medical journalist

Must have a snack

On the one hand, this is true - if you drink on an empty stomach, intoxication can come faster, therefore, the chances of "to sort out" and meet with a hangover increase significantly. On the other hand, you need to carefully monitor what you eat.
A large amount of alcohol disinhibits the hunger center in the brain. You do not just start to want to eat - you are ready to sweep away everything: fatty, sweet, spicy. It happens that vomiting after drinking occurs not even because you drank too much, but because you ate too much - and different, completely incompatible food.

Need a hangover in the morning

For an alcoholic, this becomes a vital necessity, but for everyone else - no.
The fact is that people call a hangover two different conditions. The first is the "alcoholic hangover", or alcohol withdrawal syndrome. In other words, ethanol withdrawal. After active libations in the morning, the concentration of ethanol in a person's blood falls, he becomes very unwell. In order to return to a more or less comfortable state, it is urgently necessary to restore the alcohol content in the blood - that is, to get drunk. Although, if you have enough health, it's better to "break" - especially in the early stages of addiction. This condition often requires the help of a medical specialist.
"A hangover of a healthy person" is a poisoning of the body by the decay products of ethanol, in particular, acetaldehyde. If the hangover problem in an alcoholic is that there is too little ethanol, then for a healthy person the trouble is that there was too much ethanol. In this case, it is completely unnecessary and even harmful to “finish off” the body, getting drunk and adding a new portion of alcohol. With this condition, most victims are able to cope on their own.

Can't drink alcohol

It is not true. Of course, you should not drink vodka with juice or cola - this way you will only add work to the liver and pancreas. But drinking plain water during a feast is a good idea.
Ethanol is a good diuretic, a whole molecule of ethanol blocks the release of antidiuretic hormone - vasopressin, which usually retains water in the body. As a result, water, electrolytes, and glucose are all actively excreted from the body.
To avoid dehydration, just drink alcohol with water. You will run to the toilet in the same way, but at least you will replenish the fluid reserves in the body - then in the morning you will not be met by the painful “dry land”.

Are there effective hangover cures?

Unfortunately no. In domestic conditions, it is impossible to come up with anything that would significantly speed up the process of “recovery”. A hangover is like a cold: you can drink and eat anything, thinking that it helps, but in fact it goes away on its own.
All you can do is make up for what you have lost and let the body do its job.
According to the first point, mineral water without gas or brine (from under pickles or sauerkraut) is suitable. But not a marinade: it contains acetic acid, and the body is already struggling with acetaldehyde from a hangover - you should not complicate its work. You can also prepare a special rehydrating solution: per liter of water - a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of soda, two teaspoons of sugar.
The second direction is not to interfere with the body's recovery. We need the most gentle mode, a minimum of physical and emotional stress. In other words, sleep. We woke up, drank, ate some broth, went to the toilet - and then went to sleep. This procedure can be repeated several times until you sober up completely. There is nothing more you can do for your body.
Any pills that supposedly help prevent a hangover or speed up its passage are a scam for money. The maximum that can be done is to drink an aspirin tablet in the morning: due to dehydration, the blood thickens, and aspirin thins it - it will be easier for the heart.
There is only one way to quickly recover from a large amount of alcohol - mechanically "expelling" all the products of alcohol processing from the body.
Alexey Vodovozov, physician of the highest category, popularizer of science, medical journalist
This is done with the help of droppers - either in a hospital or at home, by visiting "anti-hangover" services.

Alcohol is ☠ poison. But then why do so many people still drink alcohol? It's simple - we are to blame, in which we are forced to believe the producers of alkoyad and other structures interested in soldering the people.

Myths about alcohol are skillfully presented as truth, and people who drink get a convenient excuse: it's so convenient not to think, but to blindly repeat some postulates, thereby maintaining confidence in one's own rightness. Let's take a look at the most common myths about alcohol and find out the truth about this drug.

Myths and facts about alcohol

Friends, please share this information on social networks - people need to know the truth!

1. Russians have always drunk, drink and will drink . Russia has always been one of the most sober countries.

In fact, the eternally drunk Russia is the most blatant lie, which, nevertheless, the majority of drinking (and even non-drinking) people believe in.

In fact, Russia used to be considered one of the most sober countries. Is it hard to believe? This is a clear example of how destructive myths are being introduced into our consciousness.

And here are the real facts!

Russian people have always lived soberly. But we are told quite the opposite >_<

The Slavs had a custom strictly forbidding young people to drink alcohol during a wedding.

Even relatively recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, in Russia, 95% of young people under 18, 90% of women and 47% of men did not drink alcohol at all, that is, they led an absolutely sober lifestyle.

Well, let's not talk about old times. Take, for example, the 17th century: the Russian people were forcibly accustomed to alcohol, because reasonable people understood the absurdity of self-poisoning. There were even anti-alcohol riots and uprisings- taverns and other drinking establishments were smashed. The Russian people were categorically against the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Now Alcoid poisoning is planted on us under the guise of a national tradition. This is the most popular myth about alcohol and, at the same time, the most dangerous. After all, as they say, if a person is told 100 times that he is a pig, then at 101 he will grunt.

2. Alcohol is a food product. Alcohol is a drug.

According to GOST, alcohol has always been classified as a drug. But over time, as if by magic, alcohol became "a flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic odor." Guess who needed it?

See how easily and simply a drug becomes a non-drug. Miracles and more!

According to statistics, alcohol is one of the most harmful and dangerous drugs. In terms of the degree of harm to health and life, it is ahead of most illegal drugs. And, despite this, the blue is sold quite legally in stores, and even disguised as a food product.

3. Beer is not alcohol . Beer is as much a drug as any other alcohol.

Another harmful myth created in order to accustom as many people as possible to drunkenness. Yes, unlike vodka, the concentration of alcohol in beer is usually from 4 to 8 percent, however, beer is also drunk in liters. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what exactly a person got drunk on - the consequences are the same. But as a bonus, beer contains phytoestrogens, which negatively affect both male and female health. You can read more about the effects of beer on the human body at.

4. Alcohol relieves stress . Alcohol provokes stress.

Even if we assume that the short-term euphoria from alcohol poisoning is stress relief, then what about the hangover and depression the next morning? You have to pay for everything, and in the case of alcohol, this payment is like a loan from a bank: you always have to give back more than what was originally received.

As a result, a vicious circle is obtained: as a result, a person gets even more stress from relieving stress with alcohol. The worst thing is that a person who is used to flooding stress with alcohol most often does not even notice this and naively considers alcohol oblivion to be his salvation.

But how then to relieve stress? It is very simple to eliminate the factors that cause it from your life. That is, remove the cause of stress. Then you will no longer need to poison yourself to forget. And to the questions “Do you drink? How do you relax then? you can answer without prejudice "Yes, I do not strain ..."?

5. . Sober holidays are much cooler.

We were told that blue is an obligatory attribute of the holidays.

For example, take the same champagne for the new year. This "tradition" was imposed on us by TV, which since the 50s has been showing New Year's feasts, mainly with the simultaneous use of this bubble poison.

The main characters in films and TV shows, hosts of programs - all of them clink glasses of champagne with each other with simulated fun on New Year's Eve.

Thus, the connection is fixed in the minds of the viewer: a holiday - champagne. They even thought about our children - and released special children's champagne for them, so that a child from an early age gets used to the fact that a holiday is necessarily a drink. This child will grow up, and how will he celebrate the holidays? The answer is obvious.

In fact, alcohol is not needed at all for fun and good mood. If a person does not drink, then by default everything is fine with him, he knows how to rejoice and have fun without using alcohol poison. But it’s worth accustoming yourself to drinking for the holidays – and that’s it, without alcohol it’s already somehow different: it’s not fun, it’s not comfortable, it’s not interesting.

Worst of all, the drinking person will never understand that it is possible to celebrate soberly.

Remember your childhood and how fun the holidays were without drinking - all this will return only with a sober life. And to make your mood dependent on some kind of narcotic substances is the lot of weak people. And on the contrary, how nice it is to become free and realize yourself the master of your mood, and not a slave to the bottle!

6. You need to drink culturally and in moderation . You need to live soberly.

Cultural drinking is another harmful myth. Any fallen drunk once drank culturally. Nobody wanted to become an alcoholic. There are no guarantees that you will be able to drink culturally all your life.

“It’s bad to be an alcoholic, you need to drink culturally!”- this is a very effective technique for alcohol producers to plant an increasing number of people on an alcoholic needle.

In fact, people are put in front of a false choice: either drink civilly, in moderation, or be a smelly wino. About the right choice - a sober life - we will never hear from the producers of alkoyad. Nothing personal, just business.

7. Scientists have proven that alcohol is good for you . Alcohol is harmful, it does more harm than good.

Among the scientific discoveries of the so-called "British" and similar scientists, information about the benefits of alcohol often slips. Naturally, not a word is usually said about the dangers of alcohol, but “scientists” are flooded with nightingales about the amazing benefits.

What's the catch here?

• Firstly, even if there is at least some positive effect, it is only from very small doses, from which there is no change in consciousness (for poison can only be useful in therapeutic doses). We are used to drinking alcohol in tons, justifying ourselves with the fact that, they say, someone smart has proven some benefit. Pathetic excuse.
• Secondly, this small amount of alcohol is greatly exaggerated: if you listen to the "scientists", then, for example, it turns out that it is useful to drink a bottle of beer, a glass of wine or a glass of vodka every day. Every day, Carl! Another artificially created myth with a skewed science, and all this is funded by interested structures.

But the truth is that if a person feels even small changes in his condition from drinking alcohol, then this means only one thing: the body is poisoned, negative processes are running, harm is accumulating, and who knows what consequences this will lead to.?

8. Expensive alcohol is not so harmful. Any alcohol harms the human body.

Another one from the liquor dealers. Buy more - be healthier! ? Manufacturers and sellers are modestly silent about the fact that you can not drink at all and even then there will be clearly more health. ?

And it's also a very convenient excuse for wealthy drinkers. Say, we drink only expensive, elite, so everything is fine. Like, we don’t get poisoned, but we have a cultural rest.

The truth is that people get sick and die from expensive alcohol in the same way as from cheap alcohol.

Of course, we do not take into account the poison of the "Hawthorn" type, from which you can immediately throw your legs back. We are talking about what is sold, for example, in ordinary supermarkets.

In fact, friends, there is not much difference between an expensive and a cheap product. Yes, in a cheap or fake one there may be an additional “bouquet” of poisons. Bonus! ? But, in fact, alcohol is the same everywhere, and hence the harm to health too. And even if there are some minor differences in the degree of harm, consider whether a person in their right mind would choose between "very, very harmful" and just "very harmful?" Hardly.

9. Alcohol warms and helps to cope with the cold. Alcohol gives the illusion of warmth, but in fact the body freezes.

Warming up with alcohol is another myth that is causing so many deaths.

Bukhariki even have an expression: “One hundred grams for warming !!!” What is the danger of this delusion?

Under the influence of alcohol, paralysis of the skin vessels occurs, so more blood flows to the surface of the body (skin). Because of this, a drunk person begins to think that he is warming up. In addition, the brain does not send impulses to skeletal muscles to contract and tremble. But shivering increases heat generation by 200%.

Thus, due to increased heat transfer, the temperature of a drunken body decreases. Heated skin gives off much more heat, and very quickly. The danger is that a drunk person does not feel it. Heat is removed from the body, and a drunk person simply does not notice this.

That is why so many drunk people freeze on the streets in winter. And those who do not freeze get colds and frostbite. And even the favorite remedy for alcoholics against colds - vodka with pepper - in most cases does not help, since people who drink have serious problems with immunity.

10. Alcohol replenishes the state budget. The losses from alcohol are many times greater than the profits.

There is an opinion that the sale of alcohol is beneficial to the state. It is believed that, despite the harm to society, alcohol fills the country's budget with money. ?To the point that alcohol is called an integral part of our economy. But is it really so? Let's figure it out.

In fact, this issue was thoroughly studied by Soviet scientists. And in our time, enough evidence and materials have appeared. So, friends, it's time to draw conclusions and dispel another myth about alcohol.

In 2015, revenues to the Russian treasury from the production and sale of alcohol amounted to 300 billion rubles. It would seem like crazy money, take them away - and everyone will only get worse. In addition, this area of ​​activity employs a large number of people who provide for themselves and their families, and, no less important, pay taxes. And it looks like a positive picture: the industry is working, the budget is replenished.

But there are other statistics, according to which 1 ruble proceeds from the sale of alcohol brings society losses of up to 6 rubles.

1 ruble of profit, 6 rubles of losses!!!

This ratio was deduced by the doctor of economic sciences, professor Iskakov, back in Soviet times.

Where do such numbers come from?

First, labor productivity is declining. A person with a hangover cannot fully work, this is a fact. And there is no need to talk about normal work directly in a state of intoxication. Alcoholic libations lead to mistakes, marriage in work, dereliction of duty, absenteeism and accidents at work. All this causes enormous damage to the economy.

Secondly, just think about these numbers: up to 85% of serious crimes (such as murder, rape, robbery and robbery) are committed under the influence of alcohol. People who break the law are then kept in prison at the expense of taxpayers.

Thirdly, many road accidents are caused by drunk drivers. Broken cars are not the worst thing, what is much worse is that people who, perhaps, could change a lot in our country, die in such accidents.

Fourth, no other poison (well, if only heroin) does not poison people as often as alcohol. Every year, tens of thousands of our fellow citizens die from alcohol poisoning. Well, the total human losses, according to Rospotrebnadzor data for 2015, reach half a million people. 500 thousand people die because of alcohol!

Fifth, one cannot fail to mention abandoned children. In families that abuse alcohol, this happens all the time. Of course, there are orphanages that are financed from our taxes, but the scary thing is that a child from an orphanage is actually deprived of a normal childhood. Such a child does not know parental care and affection, it is much more difficult for him to adapt in our world.

Sixth, children are often not born at all in drinking families. Lack of money for the maintenance of the child is not the worst thing. The main trouble is the health problems of parents caused by alcohol consumption. Everyone knows that alcohol causes infertility. As well as the fact that the chance to give birth to a HEALTHY child is significantly reduced for drinking parents. In fact, they mutilate their children with alcohol.

All of the above, friends, is just the tip of the iceberg. The harm of alcohol is truly enormous and applies to all spheres of our lives. And only ignorant or sold people can claim that the alcohol trade contributes to the development of the state's economy.

11. You can drink during conception and pregnancy, if you are careful. Alcohol harms the baby at conception and during pregnancy.

Conceiving a child under the influence of alcohol is a very irresponsible act. The likelihood of having an unhealthy child or even a miscarriage increases. The reason is a damaged egg on the mother's side or a damaged sperm on the father's side). Alcohol is such a substance that can be introduced anywhere. After all, alcohol is a solvent that easily dissolves the protective membranes of our cells and deforms them.

Playing the lottery, whether a healthy or diseased cell will go to the birth of a child is a crime against a child.

In addition, the large number of requests in Yandex and Google about the permissibility of alcohol during pregnancy is surprising.

Alcohol and pregnancy are incompatible, there can be no half measures or compromises here. Just look at this chart.

The statistics speak for themselves. The level of alcohol consumption directly affects the birth of defective children.

Even if the child is lucky to start his life from a healthy egg and a healthy sperm, then his further development is completely in the hands of his mother. Even one drunk glass can cause serious fetal pathologies.

Yes, alcohol has different effects at different stages of fetal development, but it should be borne in mind that this effect of alcohol on the fetus is always extremely negative. It has been proven that alcohol has the same destructive effect on the unborn child as increased levels of radiation.

12. You can control yourself under alcohol. More than 82% of murders are committed under the influence of alcohol.

Do you want more statistics on the Russian Federation?

• 80% of robberies and robberies
• 75% of rapes
• 70% intentional grievous bodily harm

All this is done by drunk people!

Here, for example, is a schedule for the city of Surgut. It tracks 2 parameters: the number of points of sale of alcohol and the number of crimes committed.

Well, what can I say? The statistics speak for themselves!

I will also give information on my native Amur Region: from 2013 to 2016, we had restrictions on the sale of alcohol. It was possible to sell alcohol from 11 to 19 hours. The results are impressive.

Crime and alcohol are almost synonymous. They say correctly - if alcohol were invented today, then it would immediately be on the list of illegal drugs.

13. Alcohol increases potency. Alcohol leads to impotence. As you know, regular alcohol consumption leads to the destruction of the liver. As a result, less testosterone enters the body, which, in turn, reduces male power. Well, about the fact that beer turns men into women, it was said above ⬆️ (there is even an informative video lecture about beer).

14. I drink alcohol because... Alcohol is consumed for only 3 reasons.

• availability of alcohol
• persuading people to drink
• drug addiction

Accordingly, a person who has fallen into an alcohol trap is in one of three stages of alcohol addiction:

• I want to drink, I want not to drink
• I want to drink and drink
• I can't stop drinking anymore

Of course, the first stage is not so scary yet, but there is a chance of becoming an alcoholic. Well, the second and third stages are already quite deep pits, which will be difficult to get out of. It turns out that there is no personal choice: a person is given alcohol, instilled that poisoning himself is normal, and then the profit is calculated. Ideal business model!

15. I drink alcohol and don't bother anyone. A person lives in a society, and therefore influences this society.

Let's consider a simple example. Do you think a drunk person will have sober children? Most likely no. Raising children is, first of all, raising yourself. Parents are the main authorities for children, it is the behavior of parents that lays down what kind of lifestyle a child will choose in adulthood. What can children learn from drinking parents? Here's what:

Parents do, children repeat. Vicious circle!

But this influence extends not only to their children. It's one thing if the bukhariki would sit at home and not climb out of there. But no, it's all out there. And other people, including children, see it. And okay, if they see a drunken pissed body (after all, this is the best anti-advertising for alcohol).

But often they see seemingly quite decent and civilized people, the so-called "culturally drinking" individuals. And then the child thinks: “It turns out that you can drink and not be cattle!” Probably, it makes no sense to explain what consequences this may lead to in the future. ☹️

Well, the fact that the use of alcohol and other drugs is presented as something cool and taken for granted in films, books and music is out of the question. ?

Who creates this so-called "creativity"? As a rule, these are the same people who believe that it is their personal choice to poison themselves. But after all, they spread this infection around themselves: they infect other people, forming their principles and attitudes.

Well, about crimes under the influence of alcohol, it was said above. A drunk person turns off the brain, he simply does not control himself. Murder, robbery, rape, traffic accidents - all this often happens due to drunk people. But most often ordinary people suffer, who have absolutely nothing to do with it!

Thus, it cannot be said that alcohol is a personal matter for everyone.

16. Drinking champagne for the new year is a tradition. Champagne for the new year was imposed on people in the 60s of the last century.

Where did this pseudo-tradition come from? It can be assumed that from the film "Carnival Night", which was released in 1956.

Well, since 1964 they launched the New Year's program "Blue Light", where the hosts and guests drank and drank champagne in front of millions of viewers.

This is how the Soviet and then the Russian people were taught to drink champagne for the New Year. Actually, this is how pseudo-traditions are formed!

17. Other countries drink alcohol and prosper. Drinking countries are dying because of alcohol.

It turns out that not only Russia has problems with alcohol, but also in many European countries. It is the drinking white population that is dying out.

And who is on the rise? Arab, Indian, Chinese population. That is, those countries where most people lead a sober lifestyle. Drinking white people on the globe left 8% (and only 100 years ago they were 26%).

18. How can you not drink? 2/3 of the world's population live soberly.

It is the sober countries that are on the rise. And drinking countries are degrading.

Now guess which countries' populations are increasing and which are decreasing? Right. As a rule, most drinking countries have problems with demographics. On the contrary, the population of sober countries is rapidly increasing.

19. You can start drinking alcohol in small doses before reaching the age of majority. Schoolchildren get dumb from alcohol.

In the days of the USSR, when the scale of soldering Russian people had not yet reached such horrendous proportions, the intelligence of Russian schoolchildren was the highest in the world!

What do we have now?

Alcohol slows down the mental, physical and spiritual development of a person

Now our schoolchildren are somewhere in the hundredth place in terms of intelligence. Of course, you can blame the degraded education system for everything, but teenagers sucking beer during breaks are a clear example that something is wrong in our country.

And in order to hook our children on an alcoholic hook from an early age, children's champagne was invented.

20. "Dry law" is not effective. The prohibition of alcohol is effective with an integrated approach.

The main argument of the opponents of Prohibition is that people will still drink, but they will poison themselves much more and die more often, as they will switch to self-made products, they will make moonshine to harm the state.

In fact, the reality is this: the more people drink in general, the more surrogate poisoning occurs (and the more moonshine is produced).

As the saying goes, if there is demand, there will be supply. It is enough to drive to the nearest village and find out what the local men drink. In most cases, this is by no means vodka for 300 rubles, but a local poison.

In this way, a prohibition law is introduced - the production of surrogates is reduced, fewer people are poisoned. But as soon as the alcohol trade becomes legal, the production of illegal poison immediately flourishes. Remember the situation with mass hawthorn poisoning - people pour all sorts of rubbish into themselves by no means because there is no officially certified alcoid in stores. It's just that they start with legal alcohol, become an inveterate drunkard, and then switch to any self-propelled gun.

But the total number of deaths and poisonings with the prohibition of alcohol is significantly reduced! Here, for example, look at the period from 1985 to 1990 - then the "dry law" was in force in the USSR.

Pay attention to the period from 1985 to 1990: then the “dry law” was in force in the USSR

Prohibition opponents argue that prohibitive measures against alcohol are not effective. So, this is either nonsense or a lie. See for yourself, in 1985 the Soviet Union once again adopted a “dry law”. During the first year and a half of Prohibition, alcohol sales fell by 51%. Per capita alcohol consumption fell from 11 to 14 liters per person per year, and the death rate fell below 11 per 1,000 people. Further, anti-alcohol measures ceased to operate, as many mistakes were made in their implementation. In 1990, Prohibition was abolished. What followed is called the "Russian Cross". The birth and death curves crossed, and the Russian people began to die out.

Russian cross: the intersection of birth and death curves

The good news is that today in Russia (for 2017) not everything is so sad. Yes, there is no “dry law” yet. However, alcohol consumption is slowly but surely decreasing (already about 10 liters of pure alcohol per person per year). The number and birth rate are approximately at the same level, the extinction of the population has stopped (but it is too early to talk about any positive trends).

As an example, I would like to cite the situation with the Amur Region, where I was born. We had a flood in 2013. The governor of the region introduced a restriction on the sale of alcohol. Alcohol became possible to sell only from 11 to 19 hours. And even when the local authorities more or less sorted out the consequences of the flood, temporary restrictions on the sale of alcohol remained and were in effect until 2016.

You may be shocked by the results of the time limits.

The head of the Amur Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Nikolai Aksyonov, said that limiting the time frame for the sale of alcohol contributed to a decrease in the crime rate by 30%. The cases of serious crimes decreased by 33%, the number of offenses committed on domestic grounds decreased by 4 times, and the number of crimes committed by persons under the influence of alcohol decreased by 7 times. The number of thefts and robberies decreased by 47% and 56%, respectively.

Just think about these numbers! And it's not even a "dry law"!

But, of course, the main thing is an integrated approach. Bans alone are unlikely to change anything. But at the same time with the promotion of a healthy lifestyle - a completely different matter!

21. Alcohol is good for the gastrointestinal tract. Alcohol causes gastritis and stomach ulcers.

Even from small doses of alcohol, the gastric glands that produce gastric juice stop working properly. If there is no food in the stomach, then, in fact, the stomach begins to digest itself. And this, in turn, leads to gastritis, stomach ulcers and even cancer.

Even from single intakes of alcohol there is harm to the gastrointestinal tract: a chemical burn of the walls of the stomach can occur (after all, alcohol is a solvent).

22. Wine strengthens the heart. Alcohol provokes cardiovascular diseases.

France is often cited as an example, the population of which consumes wine in large quantities and does not have heart problems. This phenomenon is called the "French paradox".

In fact, there is no paradox here. Yes, the French used to drink a lot of wine and live long. But after the 1980s, a sharp reduction in wine drinking began. And life expectancy is increasing. That is, wine is by no means the cause of longevity and the absence of heart problems. The main reason for the excellent health of the French is good living conditions. They live long not because of wine, but in spite of it.

Back in 1980, more than half of the adult population of France drank wine almost daily. And in 2010, this figure dropped to 17%. Here's more data: in 1965, the annual per capita consumption of wine was 160 liters per year, and in 2010 it dropped to 57 liters (and continues to decline further).

And what about the life expectancy of the French? She continues to grow. And, I repeat, the reason for this is good living conditions. Otherwise, life expectancy would begin to fall along with a decrease in the amount of wine consumed.

Thus, the myth about the benefits of wine for the cardiovascular system on the example of France is smashed to smithereens.

But what actually happens to the heart with regular alcohol intake (including wine).

23. Alcohol helps you sleep. Alcohol causes loss of consciousness (coma).

As you know, alcohol is a drug. A drug is everything that causes anesthesia and loss of consciousness.

Under the influence of alcohol, the brain experiences a lack of blood supply and, as a result, oxygen starvation. This results in the death of neurons in the brain. Dead neurons, of course, need to be removed from the brain, the body spends a lot of energy (and water) on this. Thus, one wants to sleep because of the banal poisoning and the elimination of the consequences of this poisoning. ? Moreover, the stronger the alcohol poisoning, the faster and stronger it “cuts down”.

CONCLUSION

Alcohol is a drug that has acquired a monstrous amount of myths. And there are even more half-truths. SIHL conducted for you, dear readers, a comprehensive analysis of the most popular myths about alcohol.

A lot of work has been done, but we still have more to do. It is necessary that as many people as possible learn the truth about alcohol. And each of us can help spread the truth. To do this, you just need to share this information on social networks, as well as with your family, friends, and acquaintances.

Friends, only together we can make this world a better place. So let's do it!

We all know from childhood that you can drink alcohol on holidays, know the measure and everything will be in order. Alcohol is our national treasure, our tradition and we have been drinking it for thousands of years. This is how films, history books, television programs teach us from childhood. But is it? Do you know what you are really drinking? Lies and truth will help you understand and protect yourself and your children and grandchildren.

FALSE:alcohol is a food product.

TRUTH:"Alcohol is a drug that undermines the health of the population", this is an extract from the decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1975. This provision is in full accordance with the scientific definition of alcohol, which is given in the works of prominent Russian and world scientists.

The All-Russian Congress on the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism in 1910 (at which there were 150 doctors and medical scientists among the delegates) made a special decision on this issue: “Only a substance that is absolutely harmless to the body can be a food product. narcotic poison, in any dose, causes great harm to a person, poisoning and destroying the body, it shortens a person's life by an average of 20 years.

State Standard of the USSR No. 1053 GOST 5964-82 decides: "Alcohol - ethyl alcohol, refers to potent drugs."

Great Soviet Encyclopedia v.2 p.116: "Alcohol is a powerful drug."

Every third person dies from alcohol-related causes, and every fifth of those who die from tobacco-related causes. This means that about one and a half million people die every year from these drugs in our country.

The 11th Pirogov Congress of Russian Doctors adopted a resolution back in 1915: "Alcohol cannot be classified as a nutrient, which must be made known to the population."

In 1990, 1,700 doctors of our country applied to the Government with a proposal to officially recognize alcohol and tobacco as drugs and to extend the law on the protection of the population from drug addiction to them (the appeal remained unanswered).

Darwin and other world scientists wrote as early as the 19th century that the consumption of alcohol harms humanity more than war, famine and plague combined.

This is the food product that the government officially sells in grocery stores, knowing full well that it poisons the people. Not only that, it gives permission to any speculators to sell it at any hour of the day or night!

In fact, there is not a single scientific work in which it would not be proven that alcohol is a drug. Meanwhile, there are still so-called "scientists" who stubbornly prove to everyone that alcohol is a food product.
Instead of raising the question of the exclusion of alcohol from the "food products" column, since this provision disorients people, accustoming them to take narcotic poison lightly, these scientists stubbornly and without evidence insist on their erroneous and harmful attitude (E. Babayan).
As we can see, the lie begins with the definition of what alcohol is. Science tells us the truth: alcohol is a narcotic poison that destroys human health. There are people who stubbornly preach the opposite. Similar contradictions between truth and falsehood are noted on all other issues related to wine.

FALSE:Moderate doses of alcohol are harmless.

TRUTH:For alcohol, as a drug, there are no harmless doses, as well as for morphine, heroin and other drugs prescribed only by doctors in very small doses and for a short time, i.e. for 1-2 days. Otherwise, as with alcohol, drug addiction arises, a person will become a drug addict and cannot live without it, dooming himself to death.

Danish scientists have found that with "moderate" alcohol consumption, after 4 years, drinkers have a wrinkled brain in 85% of cases. ("Science and Life", N 10, 1985)

There is no such organ in the human body that would not be destroyed by any dose of alcohol. But the brain suffers the most.

Here is how the pathologist describes the brain of a "merry fellow" and "joker", who, according to friends, drank "moderately" and "culturally": "Changes in the frontal lobes of the brain are visible even without a microscope, the convolutions are smoothed, atrophied, many small hemorrhages. Under the microscope, voids are visible filled with serous fluid. The cerebral cortex resembles the earth, after bombs dropped on it - all in funnels. Here, every drink left its mark (Ryazantsev V.V., Kyiv 1987) Talk about "moderate" doses and "cultural “Wine drinking is a trap for simpletons. All drinkers and alcoholics started with “moderate” doses and “culturally” drank, and ended up in psychiatric hospitals or in a cemetery 20 years ahead of schedule.

Whatever question we take regarding the effect of alcohol, everywhere there is a blatant lie aimed at deceiving in favor of alcohol.

FALSE:vodka is the best remedy for the flu. A good portion of wine - and the flu is gone.

TRUTH;The French Academy of Sciences specifically tested this popular belief and proved that alcohol has no effect on influenza viruses, like other viruses, and cannot serve as a remedy. On the contrary, by weakening the body, alcohol contributes to frequent illnesses and the severe course of any infectious diseases.

I.A.Sikorsky wrote about this at the end of the 19th century. He found that during the typhus epidemic in Kiev, drinking workers fell ill 4 times more often than teetotalers.

FALSE:"In medical practice, alcoholic products are used in the following cases: with a decline in nutrition and oppression of the digestive function ..., with elementary dystrophy and hypo-, beriberi; during the recovery period, after suffering infectious diseases; with shock, fainting and acute vascular weakness; with injuries accompanied by sharp pain sensations; with prolonged forced stay in the cold; with a general serious condition ...

TRUTHis that back in 1915, the Pirogov Congress of Russian Doctors issued a special decision that there was not a single disease in which modern medicines did not work better, faster, more efficiently and safely than alcohol. Therefore, alcohol should be completely excluded from medical practice!

Every illiterate peasant has known from time immemorial that in the cold, alcohol consumption leads to very rapid cooling and freezing of a person. And modern scientific data say that if the average annual temperature in the region is 5 degrees lower, the mortality from alcohol is 10 times higher.

Due to the fact that there are still many false judgments about alcohol as a remedy, we will try to shed light on the issue in more detail.

It is difficult to find a greater evil than alcohol, which so stubbornly and ruthlessly upset the health of millions of people, so drastically destroyed all tissues and organs, eventually leading to early death. The serious consequences of alcohol consumption do not occur immediately. The disease increases gradually, and even when the patient dies, the cause is explained by something else.

Therefore, very few, and perhaps even none of the patients who fell ill due to alcohol, do not understand what is the cause of their serious illness. This is best known to surgeons and pathologists.

Like any poison, alcohol, taken in a certain dose, leads to death. Through numerous experiments, the smallest amount of poison per kilogram of body weight, which is necessary for the poisoning and death of the animal, has been established. This is the so-called toxic equivalent.

From observations of the poisoning of people with ethyl alcohol, a toxic equivalent for humans was derived. It is equal to 7-8 g. For a person of 64 kg, the lethal dose will be equal to 500 g of pure alcohol. The speed of administration has a significant impact on the course of poisoning. Slow introduction reduces the danger. When a lethal dose enters the body, body temperature drops by 3-4 degrees. Death occurs in 12-40 hours. If we make a calculation for 40 ° vodka, it turns out that the lethal dose is 1200 g.

The toxicity of alcoholic products, poorly cleaned, is more pronounced, but the main poisoning force is still alcohol, and not impurities, which account for 6% of toxicity, that is, both acute and chronic poisoning occurs mainly due to ethyl alcohol itself, due to a rare exception (alcohol "Royal").

Experiments and observations on people who drink have established that the toxicity of alcohol is the stronger, the higher its concentration. This explains the adverse effect of strong alcoholic beverages on the development of alcoholism.

Acute alcohol poisoning, or the so-called "drunk" death, is not taken into account in modern statistics, so we can judge their frequency from pre-revolutionary statistics. Death from opiate depends on the per capita consumption of alcohol and the strength of the drinks. An analysis of sudden and accidental deaths shows that alcohol is one of the leading causes of accidents.

It has been established that death from opium in Russia happened 3-5 times more often than in other European countries. Based on these data, scientists make a completely fair conclusion that in our country there are special conditions that cause unprecedented alcohol mortality compared to other countries, even with a lower average per capita alcohol consumption.

Since Russia owned and still occupies one of the first places in the predominant use of strong drinks, namely vodka, the influence of alcoholism in our country is manifested more often and more acutely than in other countries, even if the per capita consumption of alcohol is lower.

It has been scientifically proven that the lower the average annual temperature of a region, the more severe the effect of alcohol consumption on the human body. The influence of climate is so significant that scientists equate it with the accepted additional dose of alcoholic products, that is, in a cold climate, the dose of alcohol affects the same way as in a warmer climate - a double dose.

No matter how severe the consequences of alcoholism, it is not the whole tragedy of this problem. The tragedy is in the consumption of alcohol.

Alcohol products disfigure the life of a person and the whole society. Statistics inexorably show that alcohol consumption increases the number of injuries, accidents, crimes, illnesses and deaths by several times.

Drinking alcohol, even in a small dose, deprives a person of the correct orientation, he develops excessive self-confidence, not provided with skill and experience, and he gets into trouble much more often than a sober one. How can even small doses of alcohol be considered harmless, if in all cases without exception they are potentially harmful and dangerous and, if they did not lead to a fatal catastrophe, then they brought suffering to many.

Whatever branch of medicine we take, whatever diseases, injuries or injuries we begin to study, we will immediately see that alcohol in a number of cases plays a major role in the development of a particular pathological process. At the same time, here, as in all cases, a lie is spreading, which provokes and increases serious consequences.

FALSE:small doses of alcohol, if its concentration in the blood does not exceed a certain level, are not harmful and are acceptable both in production and in transport.

TRUTH:studies by Czechoslovak scientists have shown that a mug of beer drunk by a driver before leaving increases the number of accidents by 7 times. When taking 50 g of vodka - 30 times, and taking 200 g of vodka - 130 times compared with sober drivers. These data suggest that there is no "allowable" concentration of alcohol in the blood, which supposedly does not have a significant impact on the frequency of accidents in transport, does not exist.

The fault of car accidents is not alcoholism, not drunkenness, as most authors of articles and brochures claim. This is due to the use of alcohol. Many attribute all the troubles to the abuse of alcohol and. under the guise of this, they cultivate consumption. But no one has calculated what brings more trouble to humanity: use or abuse?

According to WHO, over 50% of road traffic injuries are alcohol-related. And what alcohol brings to humanity only in this matter can be judged by the WHO report: every year 250 thousand people die on the world's roads and, in addition, 10 million are injured, from which many remain disabled.

According to WHO, the average hospital stay for victims is 180 days. Multiply that by 10 million and you get astronomical numbers. And how many of these people will not return to work, or even to life in general?!

Among automobile injuries, there are many such injuries, after which many, although they recovered, died a few years later from various diseases that were the result of an accident.

Here we briefly mentioned only the consequences of car accidents due to "moderate" doses of alcohol. And how many accidents at work and at home as a result of intoxication of people? This also includes fights and beatings.

If on any day, and especially on Monday, we come to the clinic and see who is in it, then in many hospital beds we will see people with blue lines around their eyes. These are bruises. There is a fall, an attack, a fight, and in almost all cases alcohol is the basis! And how many broken bones and skulls!?

Myth #1

Alcohol is a food product

From birth, we are all accustomed to the fact that the counters of all grocery stores are littered with this “product”. Moreover, any speculator can sell it with impunity at any hour of the day or night.
Back in 1910, the All-Russian Congress on the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, at which 150 doctors and medical scientists were among the delegates, made a special decision on this issue:

“A food product can only be a substance that is absolutely harmless to the body. Alcohol, like a narcotic poison, in any dose causes great harm to a person; poisoning and destroying the body, it shortens a person's life by an average of 20 years.
In 1915, the XI Pirogov Congress of Russian Doctors adopted a resolution: "Alcohol cannot be classified as a nutrient, which must be made known to the population."

"Alcohol is a drug that undermines the health of the population" - this is the decision of the World Health Organization in 1975. This provision is in full accordance with the scientific definition of alcohol, which is given in the works of prominent world scientists.

In fact, there is not a single scientific work in which it would be proved that alcohol is not a drug. Meanwhile, there are still so-called "scientists" who stubbornly prove to everyone that alcohol is a food product. Instead of raising the question of the exclusion of alcohol from the “food products” column (and also about the return of beer to the ranks of alcoholic products!), since this provision disorientates people, accustoming them to take narcotic poison lightly, these “scientists” stubbornly and without evidence insist on its erroneous and harmful attitude.

As we can see, the lie begins with the definition of what alcohol is. But science tells us the truth: alcohol is a narcotic poison that destroys human health. Similar contradictions between truth and falsehood are full of all other issues related to alcohol.

MYTH #2

Small doses are harmless

For alcohol there are no harmless doses, as well as for any other drug - morphine, heroin - prescribed by doctors only in exceptional cases and for a short period, i.e. for 1-2 days. Otherwise, as with alcohol, drug addiction will arise, a person will become a drug addict and will not be able to live without drugs, dooming himself to death.
Talk about "moderate" doses and "cultural" wine drinking is a trap for simpletons. All drinkers and all alcoholics started with “moderate” doses and “culturally” drank, and ended up in psychiatric hospitals or in a cemetery 20 years ahead of schedule. In addition, after taking even small doses of alcohol, an imaginary feeling of contentment arises, the so-called euphoria, which very often has adverse consequences both for the drunk person and for those around him.

In the experiments of academician I.P. Pavlov, it was established that after taking small doses of alcohol, reflexes disappear and are restored only on days 8-12. In addition, scientists have found that with the most “moderate” alcohol consumption, after 4 years, drinkers have a wrinkled brain in 85% of cases.

When the brain performs more complex and more difficult tasks, the influence of “small” doses of alcoholic “drinks” is stronger than when performing light ones. At the same time, they not only reduce working capacity, but also reduce the desire to work, that is, the impulse to work disappears, and drinkers become incapable of systematic work.

The creators of the theory of "small doses" are research institutions that work mainly on the money of alcohol producers. This theory considers alcohol to be a legal psychotropic substance that has a positive effect on the body when consumed in small doses (up to 30 g of pure alcohol per day), but with side effects both for the individual and for society as a whole.

The following effects are proven:

1. Negative effect on the liver.

2. Toxic effect on all organs and systems, especially on brain and sex cells. If germ cells are damaged, especially in women, the likelihood of an unhealthy, mentally retarded offspring is significantly increased.
3. The emergence of alcohol dependence with all its negative consequences is possible.
4. Increasing the likelihood of diabetes and cancer of many locations.
5. Increasing the likelihood of arterial hypertension.
Drinking alcohol, even in a small dose, deprives a person of the ability to correctly orient himself, he develops excessive self-confidence, not provided with skill and experience, and he gets into trouble much more often than a sober person. How can even small doses of alcohol be considered harmless, if in all cases without exception they are potentially harmful and dangerous and, even if they did not lead to a fatal catastrophe, they brought suffering to many?

MYTH #3

DRINK ON THE HOLIDAY - A CENTURY-OLD TRADITION

Many people like to repeat that our people have always been drinking, drinking and will continue to drink. And very rarely someone comes up with the idea to check this “truth”.

In fact, the age of this "tradition" is no more than one or two centuries. Turning to the history of the Slavic peoples, until the 16th century we will not find traces of mass consumption of alcoholic products at all.

“The history of the manufacture of alcoholic “drinks” goes back thousands of years,” various printed publications and even history books vying with each other. Yes, no one argues with this. However, it would be interesting to know how many people were engaged in the manufacture, and most importantly, the use of alcohol in those distant times. It turns out that there were no more of them than now, for example, masters of harvesting deer antlers, or, say, students who are fluent in tensor calculus!

The destructive property of subjugating the will of a person in the most imperceptible way fell only on the heads of those unfortunate people who were directly involved in obtaining the devil's potion. For the most part, the people were sober, which is confirmed by all historical studies (suffice it to recall that some 200-300 years ago alcohol was available only for a lot of money, so only the “chosen ones” were poisoned with ethyl alcohol solutions).

When you start to convince that alcohol consumption brings nothing but harm, then many, even agreeing with the main provisions, still put forward such an argument: how can you not drink, for example, at a wedding?

As for the wedding, in fact, in Russia there was an opposite, glorious tradition that forbade the bride and groom to drink wine. This custom showed the wisdom of the people, who guarded themselves from degeneration. And for the sake of our future generations, this tradition should still be strictly observed!

It is at the wedding that alcohol consumption is especially harmful and even criminal. On the day when a family is formed and the life of its future member is born, poisoning with alcoholic "drinks" is simply blasphemy and a serious crime! If the young people cannot resist and drink “to health” together with everyone, then just no health is obtained. If the conception of a new person occurs after this (within 90 days for men, a woman has poison in her eggs forever!), When the young have drunk “to health”, they have every chance to destroy the health of their unborn child, poison him and their own lives.

MYTH #4

ALCOHOL FUN, RELIEVES STRESS

It is believed that people drink supposedly for fun. Drinking small doses of alcohol can indeed reduce restraint, loosen the tongue and create some conditions for fun in people with inhibited reactions. This is explained by the fact that alcohol, being quickly absorbed from the alimentary canal into the bloodstream, acts primarily on the cells of the higher centers of the nervous system (in the cerebral cortex), causing their paralysis. Therefore, in a state of intoxication, control over one's behavior is lost, and hence - excessive talkativeness, frivolous actions, self-praise and a sense of complacency.

However, natural fun, the laughter of a sober person brings him incomparably more joy and benefit than the fun and laughter of a person who drinks alcohol. The fun of the latter is the excitement caused by anesthesia under the influence of the drug, therefore, in terms of its value in terms of affecting the nervous system, it is in many ways inferior to the fun of sober people.

There is a widespread opinion about the exciting, reinforcing and revitalizing effect of alcohol. It is based on the observation that drunk people notice loud speech, talkativeness, gesticulation, acceleration of the pulse, a blush, a feeling of warmth in the skin. An intoxicated person becomes cheeky, inclined to joke, make friends with anyone. Later, he becomes uncritical, tactless, begins to shout loudly, sing, make noise, ignoring those around him. His actions are impulsive, thoughtless. These phenomena are explained by paralysis of known parts of the brain. Paralytic phenomena in the mental sphere also include the loss of subtle attentiveness, sound judgment and thinking.

The psychological picture of a person in this state resembles manic excitement. Alcoholic euphoria arises as a result of disinhibition, weakening of criticism. One of the reasons for this euphoria is the excitation of the subcortex - the oldest part of the brain in phylogenetic terms, while the younger and more sensitive parts of the brain are severely impaired or paralyzed.

On the other hand, the intake of alcoholic "drinks" is often motivated by the need to relieve stress. Such a judgment is the result of primitive ignorance. Careful study of this issue has shown that in the entire nervous and endocrine system, alcohol leads to the same gross changes that occur during stress. As a result, it does not reduce, but deepens these changes, as it were, doubles the pathological condition caused by stress, and often makes it irreversible.

In addition, the sociopsychological reasons for such behavior should not be excluded from consideration: a person who drinks a small amount of any alcoholic “drink” already in advance subconsciously prepares to behave as usual in a “culturally drinking” company, without waiting for the drug to penetrate into certain centers of the brain and its “cheerful” or “calming” action will begin. Thus, the effect of alcohol also depends on what the person who is poisoned by it, as well as his environment, expects from this “drink”. By the way, due to ingrained alcoholic prejudices and a drinking atmosphere, offenses and atrocities committed while intoxicated are condemned by our legislation and public opinion less than when sober.

The main feature of narcotic drugs, which include alcohol, is that they are able to dull unpleasant sensations and, in particular, the feeling of fatigue, however, having created illusions and self-deception for a short time, alcohol not only does not eliminate either one or the other, but, on the contrary, enhances them, which complicates and burdens a person's life. The next day, “drunken fun” leaves only the unpleasant sensations of a hangover, headache, etc. And there is no desire to work ...

With repeated alcohol intake, these complications are aggravated, and the person is no longer able to cope with them. He imperceptibly for himself morally descends, unwillingness to do anything intensifies. Among drinkers, absenteeism is sharply increasing and the intensity and quality of work is falling.

MYTH #5

ALCOHOL REMOVES RADIATION

Many people drink alcohol, naively believing that it removes radionuclides from the body.

In fact, alcohol can be neither a prophylactic nor a therapeutic anti-radiation agent. Deep studies using labeled atoms have shown that since alcohol is a solvent, it only redistributes radionuclides more evenly throughout the body, and in no way removes them.

The memo for the population on radiation safety says the same: “Please note that many studies have established that alcohol consumption does not have a preventive effect when the human body is exposed to radiation, but rather exacerbates the development of radiation sickness.”

MYTH #6

MYTH ABOUT THE QUALITY OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

Many Russians are sure that the only harm to health is the intake of illegal or surrogate alcohol, low-quality, "scorched" vodka. Toxicological and toxicobiological studies of alcoholic surrogates consumed in Russia, moonshine, “singed” vodka, including technical ethyl alcohol, have shown that this is a delusion.

The main toxic substance in all these liquids is ordinary ethyl alcohol, and other toxic impurities in Russian illegal and surrogate alcoholic beverages are present in small doses. The thesis promoted by the alcohol lobby about the division of alcohol into “bad”, low-quality, which must be fought, and “good”, high-quality, which should be given to the population, does not stand up to criticism.

Our experts:

Alexey Valentinovich Nadezhdin,
psychiatrist-narcologist, candidate of medical sciences, head of the department of the National Scientific Center for Narcology of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia

Alexander Olegovich Kibitov,
Candidate of Medical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of the National Scientific Center for Narcology of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia

Elena Yurievna Tetenova,
psychiatrist-narcologist, candidate of medical sciences, leading researcher of the National Scientific Center for Narcology of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia

At the words “alcohol-addicted person”, a barefoot marginal type in an olympic shirt usually passes in front of the mind’s eye with an unsteady tread. But it is time to consider this image archaism: the portrait of a citizen closely associated with alcohol has seriously changed in the last 10-20 years - more and more often they are quite young and successful people of both sexes. Yes, they do not indulge in cologne and strong beer at dawn, but nevertheless they drink every or almost every day. And it is foolish to rejoice at the replacement of severe, brutal forms of alcoholism with milder forms: addiction remains an addiction, even if you order exclusively collection wines exclusively in star restaurants.

Alcohol versus beauty

Many women think like this: yes, I drink regularly, but only quality drinks. I am not late for work, there are no unhealthy signs on my face - which means that you should not worry for now. One can object to this: modern cosmetology is really capable of masking the traces of libations for some time, but only for the time being. Alcohol intoxication is stronger than the most effective cream: an unhealthy lifestyle will inevitably, although not instantly, lead to puffiness of the face, rosacea and other cosmetic defects. Plus, when drinking alcohol, it is difficult to control eating behavior, so you will also have to forget about the harmony of the figure. Well, either solve the problems that have arisen with the help of surgery, the possibilities of which are far from limitless.

Will drinking relieve stress?

Regular drinkers love the theory that in the modern metropolis the stress level is so high that without doping you simply can’t relax and fall asleep. However, from the point of view of physiology and the skills developed in the course of evolution, life in the modern world is quite comfortable and safe. In most cases, we are not threatened by an attack by a predatory beast or a hostile tribe, and we do not have to get our food by hard physical labor. Of course, in life there are psychological traumas, accidents, death of loved ones, abrupt changes in social or economic status, but in general, the world around us has become much calmer and friendlier to humans. So the need for an alcoholic antidepressant is more a reflection of a desire for a higher level of mental and physical comfort that can be achieved through healthier means.

Is at least one of the statements on the list true for you? Then your relationship with alcohol can hardly be called healthy.

• I drink alcohol at least four times a week.
• Three or four bottles of beer, or a bottle of wine, or half a bottle of vodka at a time is a normal dose. I can do more.
• It's been a long time since I've been sober on a Friday night.
• At least once a week I allow myself 150 grams of vodka, or half a bottle of wine, or three bottles of beer.
• In order not to suffer in the morning, I sometimes get drunk.
• It happens that, having promised myself to limit myself to one glass of wine, I somehow imperceptibly drink all five.
• Sometimes, drunk on the eve makes me abandon some plans.
• Sometimes I can't remember the details of the party I was drinking at.
• After a good party, I usually feel guilty and remorseful.
• Falling, hitting, breaking a plate and pulling out a tuft of wool from my best friend - yes, this happens to me after a couple of glasses.
• Friends or relatives from time to time advise me out loud: “You need to drink less!”

Would be a reason to drink

People who, by the will of fate, find themselves in an “alcohol environment” are more likely to start systematically drinking alcohol and eventually face addiction. By analogy with other dependencies, this process is called "alco-environment pressure". Modern research has clearly established that the earlier a teenager has consumed alcohol, the more likely it is that he will eventually go down a wrong path. On the contrary, those who first tried strong drinks after 20 years of age are significantly less likely to fall asleep. Psychological trauma can also be the cause of immoderate craving for alcohol - but only serious ones. A broken heel or a stalled car is, of course, an unpleasant, but by no means a traumatic situation.

Such a different alcoholism

The rate of breakdown of ethyl alcohol and its main metabolite, acetaldehyde, differs significantly from person to person. It is determined by the action of two enzymes (get ready!) - alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. The stability or, conversely, the susceptibility of a particular person to the development of alcoholism depends on the ratio of the activity of these substances.

Alcohol dependence in men and women is the same disease, just with some features that are associated with the physiology of the sexes. A number of researchers believe that the cells of the gastric epithelium of women contain fewer enzymes that decompose alcohol, which is why alcohol is instantly and easily absorbed into the blood. It is also believed that the water content in the female body is 10% less than in the male body, therefore, with equal doses of drunk alcohol, the concentration of alcohol in the blood of a lady will be higher. But the popular opinion that a higher percentage of fat to muscle mass in a woman's body is to blame for severe forms of intoxication is doubtful. If we assume that the fat contained in the human body really retains alcohol in itself, like a camel's hump - water, then, other things being equal, obese people should feel all the delights of intoxication longer, but this is not so.

The female body and alcohol

Professor VB Altshuler, one of the most prominent domestic experts in this field, most authoritatively spoke about the notorious “incurability” of female alcoholism. He believes that the difficulties in treatment are caused not so much by a different course of the disease, but by the fact that women are more embarrassed by such diagnoses and, as a rule, seek medical help later. And advanced cases of any disease are much more difficult to treat.

Attention: bad heredity!

According to modern scientific data, the development of dependence on alcohol is 60–70% due to genetics, 20% to personality traits, and 15% to social and environmental factors. Of course, it is not alcoholism itself that is inherited, but a predisposition to it - specific features of the biochemical systems of the brain, due to which, with the abuse of intoxicants, addiction develops rapidly, the disease proceeds malignantly, progresses rapidly and requires active medical intervention at the earliest stages. And the presence of relatives in the family of alcoholics is a reason to stay away from the bottle. By the way, modern methods allow using DNA diagnostics to identify specific changes in the genes responsible for the development of alcoholism, and to determine the individual level of hereditary risk. But even a high genetic risk of developing alcoholism is not yet a verdict. This does not mean that the disease is inevitable and cannot be prevented.

End up drinking

Have you made the decision to reduce your dose of alcohol or completely give it up? To stay on track, follow the rules.

1. Do not starve, so as not to provoke cravings for alcohol.
2. Carry water with you at all times and use as directed, especially at parties.
3. At the first thought of a glass, try to switch your attention to something healthier - physical activity usually helps to distract.
4. Try to clearly plan your day, do not leave time for idleness.
5. Do not go into detailed explanations why you do not drink with everyone: in order to indicate your sober position, a concise phrase is enough.
6. With the money saved from buying alcohol, reward yourself with some kind of gift.

Talents and Alcoholics

Psychologists speak confidently about the problem of many representatives of creative professions who supposedly cannot work without a glass in their hand: alcohol doping is not a guarantee of creative success. Rather, it is a manifestation of the desire to justify one's own behavior, typical of any drinking person. A creative comrade first manifests his talent, and only then starts drinking, but does not become a genius as a result of devout drinking. And by the way, nothing kills creativity and destroys the brain like ethyl alcohol.

Alcohol treatment: side effects

Alcohol can be treated. Wiping the skin with vodka, for example, can help quickly bring down the highest temperature. The disinfectant properties of vodka and alcohol are also hard to dispute. But the use of alcohol inside for treatment is a complex and controversial issue. Ethyl alcohol in relation to the human body has only toxic activity, and strong drinks will not help with colds, beriberi, cardiovascular diseases or radiation sickness. Some subjective improvement in the state of drinking alcohol in patients with ARVI is explained by banal intoxication, which masks the symptoms of a cold for a short time. But the fact that alcohol abuse has become one of the main causes of death from heart attacks and strokes is an irrefutable fact.

A drop of alcohol benefits

According to doctors, the least dangerous for human health is the use of dry wine, preferably red. Strong alcoholic drinks contain practically no useful substances, but have a pronounced toxic effect. And red wine at least splashes with beneficial flavonoids, quercetin and resveratrol. It is the presence of dry wine in the diet that some researchers explain the so-called French paradox - the low level of cardiovascular and oncological diseases among the inhabitants of this country.

Even the World Health Organization could not name the minimum amount of alcohol that can be consumed without harm to health. Therefore, it is quite difficult to decide whether a person who drinks a little every evening is an alcoholic - and people are different, and they are not the same “little by little”.

More fun together?

People from the close circle of a patient with alcoholism often develop changes in behavior and character - codependency. So, the wife of a drunkard, who is forced to solve all problems alone, including her husband, naturally does not have enough strength and time for herself. From constant stressful waiting on the threshold of a drunk person, various neurotic disorders arise - sleep disturbances, fatigue, anxiety. Children living in such families also have mood and behavioral disturbances.

Alcohol: just the facts

• According to the National Scientific Center for Narcology of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia, there are now 418,000 officially registered women in the country with a diagnosis of alcoholism and 74,000 "drinkers with harmful consequences for health." According to experts, the real figures are three to five times higher than official statistics.
• The level of alcohol consumption in Russia is 15.7 liters of pure alcohol per year per capita. If we exclude 41% of Russians who do not consume alcohol (old people, babies and rare adults), it turns out that 59% of the population drink the entire volume. That is, one drinking Russian man consumes 35.38 liters of ethanol per year, or 175 bottles of vodka, or half a bottle every day. A drinking Russian woman drinks about a glass of vodka a day. According to this indicator, we are second only to the residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And it's not toast.
• According to Rospotrebnadzor, 33% of boys and 20% of girls consume alcohol (including beer) every day in Russia. The peak of mass introduction to alcohol consumption has shifted to the age group of 14–15 years.
• To date, about 90% of high school girls have consumed alcoholic beverages at least once. The number of adolescents who do not consume alcohol gradually decreases with age, which is especially noticeable among girls. Among them, initially, the number of non-drinkers is less than among boys, and by the age of 18 there are no non-drinkers at all (although alcohol consumption is episodic).
• According to WHO, every fifth inhabitant of Russia dies due to excessive alcohol consumption.

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