Alcohol is listed as a first-class carcinogen, so can you drink alcohol? How much is a safe dose? One article popular science
It has to be said that whether in modern society or in ancient times, wine is an indispensable supporting role on the dining table. However, alcohol, a substance, has long been listed as a Category 1 carcinogen.
In fact, at the end of the last century, the International Agency for Research on Cancer published a list of carcinogens. They classified substances with different carcinogenic properties into four grades. The first class of carcinogens is those that have been clearly carcinogenic to the human body. Substances or mixtures, alcohol is just one of the carcinogens, and it is closely related to digestive tract cancer, liver cancer, etc.
The carcinogenicity of alcohol can actually be divided into two aspects. The first is that alcohol has a direct destructive effect. For example, when they come into contact with the mucosa of the digestive tract, they can damage the mucosal surface and cause inflammation and ulcers in mucosal cells.
In the process of liver metabolism, alcohol can damage healthy liver cells, leading to alcoholic liver disease. In the process of chronic inflammation, the cells are in an inflammatory environment, repeatedly damaged and repaired, and the immune function becomes worse and worse. Once the cell DNA has replication errors, it may cause canceration;
The second is chemical damage . The essence of alcohol is actually ethanol. In the process of liver metabolism, it will produce a toxic substance called acetaldehyde . This substance can directly attack healthy liver cells, causing cell damage and death .
At the same time, a large number of research investigations have shown that acetaldehyde also has the ability to change the expression of cell DNA , causing cell gene mutation. Under the dual effects of chronic diseases and carcinogens, the longer you drink alcohol for a long time, the greater the possibility of developing cancer in the future.
However, it is precisely because of this that many people blindly believe that the harm of alcohol is based on the dose. If my drinking dose is within the safe range, it will naturally not cause harm to the body. However, drinking is really harmful. Is it a safe dose?
First of all, according to the current clinical data, the harm of alcohol to the body has been confirmed, and it is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and cancer .
Both heavy drinking and long-term light drinking can cause bodily harm . It's just that the degree of damage to the body is different, and the time of the damage is different sooner or later. Therefore, from a clinical point of view, there is no so-called safe dose for drinking alcohol, and the optimal drinking amount is actually 0;
However, after all, there are many occasions in life that are difficult to shirk, and you need to drink a little by yourself. At this time, everyone should drink properly and not drink too much.
Under normal circumstances, it is clinically recommended that men should not consume more than 15 grams of alcohol per day, and female friends should preferably not exceed 10 grams . As for how to calculate the amount of alcohol you consume, there is a general formula, that is: the amount of alcohol you drink x the concentration of alcohol x 0.8 , the value obtained in this way is the amount of alcohol.
In addition, you can also calculate by the degree indicated on the bottle label. For example, 250ml of wine with an alcohol content of 16%, use 250x0.16, = 40ml, which is the alcohol content. The liver decomposes alcohol at a rate of about 10 milliliters per hour, so everyone should slow down the time of drinking and give the liver enough space to metabolize alcohol.
Of course, these calculation methods are helpless. Everyone should know that when alcohol enters the body, it will cause minor or serious harm or impact. Therefore, we should clearly recognize the harm of alcohol, try to avoid drinking alcohol in our life, and at the same time do not persuade alcohol. Only in this way can we stay away from alcoholic diseases and make our body healthy.