Word: alcoholic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...quickly the alcohol takes effect depends on many factors. One person may be bombed after a glass, while another stays relatively sober after several. Because alcohol is diluted in the blood, a 200-Ib. man can usually tolerate more liquor than a 110-lb. woman. Food also retards absorption of alcohol from the gastrointestinal tract, and a few ounces taken with a meal are less powerful than an equal amount downed an hour before. By the same token, some drinks with food in them-eggnogs made with eggs, milk and cream, for example-have slightly less wallop than straight drinks...
...total quantity of alcohol in a drink and the rate of consumption determine the alcohol level in the bloodstream. Thus a Scotch and water would pack the same punch as Scotch on the rocks or a Scotch and soda if all three were drunk at the same speed; drinking more slowly gives the system a chance to eliminate some of the alcohol. The mixing of different types-beer, wine, whisky and brandy, for instance-might make a drinker sick, but it would not make him any more drunk than the same alcoholic measure of just one of these drinks...
...reversed by abstinence. More moderate imbibing-two drinks a night with meals, say-almost certainly does no harm to most people. New studies link drinking to heart-muscle damage and deterioration of the brain. Research by Dr. Ernest Noble of the University of California at Irvine shows that alcohol inhibits the ability of the brain cells to manufacture proteins and ribonucleic acid (RNA), which some researchers believe play a role in learning and memory storage. After 20 or 30 years, says Dr. Noble, two or three drinks a night on an empty stomach may impair a person's learning...
Such frightening studies of the results of drinking have not yet been accepted throughout the medical profession, but the physical effects on an alcoholic of very heavy drinking are beyond dispute. A pint of whisky a day, enough to make eight or ten ordinary highballs, provides about 1,200 calories-roughly half the ordinary energy requirement-without any food value. As a result, an alcoholic usually has a weak appetite and often suffers from malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. The slack cannot be taken up by popping vitamin pills; heavy alcohol consumption impairs the body's utilization of vitamins...
Inevitably, the alcoholic develops a fatty liver, and his chances of developing cirrhosis, a condition in which liver cells have been replaced by fibrous scar tissue, are at least one in ten. A severely damaged liver cannot adequately manufacture bile, which is necessary for the digestion of fats; as a consequence, the alcoholic often feels weak and suffers from chronic indigestion. This may be made worse by gastritis, which is caused by alcohol irritation of the sensitive linings of the stomach and small intestine. The troubles of a heavy drinker do not end there, and through damage to the central...