A small wine is not harmful to the body? wrong! These damages to the body from drinking, you have to know!
When it comes to the harm of alcohol to the human body, everyone can explain a few points, such as it is closely related to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, may cause stomach problems, may cause cancer, and so on.
However, many people maintain a dismissive attitude towards alcohol itself, because in everyone's opinion, talking about toxicity beyond the dose is hooliganism. The harm of alcohol to the human body is based on long-term heavy drinking.
And if it is just a small drink every day, within the safe range of drinking, naturally there will be no diseases.
But in fact, the famous medical journal "The Lancet" has long mentioned that there is no so-called safe dose for drinking alcohol. As long as alcohol enters the body, it will cause damage to various organs and tissues . The safest amount of drinking is actually "0".
Among all alcohol injuries, the most noteworthy and vigilant point is that alcohol has the possibility of causing cancer!
At the end of the last century, alcohol was actually listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer , a subsidiary of the WHO . The so-called first-class carcinogens are substances or mixtures that have a clear carcinogenicity to the human body.
A large number of studies have shown that people who drink alcohol are more likely to develop cancer than people who do not drink alcohol. A single intake of alcohol exceeds 5-7 units. Compared with people who do not drink alcohol, the risk of cancer increases significantly , but The risk will not continue to increase.
The reason why alcohol is associated with cancer can be divided into two points for analysis:
1. Direct damage
In the process of alcohol entering the human body, it mainly comes into contact with two organs, such as the mucosa of the digestive tract and the liver. At the moment of contact with the mucosa of the digestive tract, it will penetrate the protective layer above the mucosa of the digestive tract , causing direct damage to the mucosa and inducing chronic digestive tract diseases such as inflammation and ulcers .
Next, alcohol will be absorbed into the blood and reach the liver for decomposition and metabolism. In the process, both ethanol and acetaldehyde will have toxic effects on liver cells, resulting in liver cell damage and liver function inhibition, and then develop into alcoholic liver disease , which includes fatty liver, hepatitis, cirrhosis , etc.;
2. Chemical damage
The essence of alcohol is actually ethanol, and it has no direct carcinogenic effect. However, when alcohol enters the liver and begins to metabolize, it will produce a large amount of acetaldehyde and free radicals.
Acetaldehyde has extremely strong lipid peroxidation and toxic effects . It and free radicals can damage the membrane system of liver cells and affect the function of liver cells. At the same time, acetaldehyde can also change the expression of cellular DNA, which in turn increases the possibility of carcinogenesis.
Under the dual effects of chronic disease and carcinogens, patient cells are repeatedly damaged and repaired . Once in the process of repair, the wrong replication and gene mutation of cellular DNA may cause the formation and development of cancer cells, and eventually canceration will appear.
Judging from the current clinical data , alcohol is closely related to various gastrointestinal cancers, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, etc. The more long-term heavy drinking, the greater the possibility of developing cancer in the future.
However, this does not mean that drinking a small amount of alcohol for a long time is safe. As mentioned above, as long as drinking alcohol can cause harm to the body. It's just that the damage occurs sooner or later, and the severity is different.
Therefore, for the sake of future health and in order to minimize the risk of cancer in the future, it is still very necessary to avoid drinking alcohol from now on.