ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON INTERNAL ORGANS
Action on the stomach.
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The action of alcohol on the stomach is extremely dangerous
that it becomes unable to produce the natural digestive
fluid in sufficient quantity and also fails to absorb the
food which it may imperfectly digest. A condition marked by
the sense of nausea emptiness, prostration and distention
will always be faced by an alcoholic. This results in a
loathing for food and is teased with a craving for more
drink. Thus there is engendered a permanent disorder which
is called dyspepsia. The disastrous forms of confirmed
indigestion originate by this practice.

How the liver gets affected.
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The organic deteriorations caused by the continued use of
alcohol are often of a fatal character. The organ which most
frequently undergoes structural changes from alcohol, is the
liver. Normally, the liver has the capacity to hold active
substances in its cellular parts. In instances of poisoning
by various poisonous compounds, we analyse liver as if it
were the central depot of the foreign matter. It is
practically the same in respect to alcohol. The liver of an
alcoholic is never free from the influence of alcohol and it
is too often saturated with it. The minute membranous or
capsular structure of the liver gets affected, preventing
proper dialysis and free secretion. The liver becomes large
due to the dilatation of its vessels, the surcharge of fluid
matter and the thickening of tissue. This follows
contraction of membrane and shrinking of the whole organ in
its cellular parts. Then the lower parts of the alcoholic
becomes dropsical owing to the obstruction offered to the
returning blood by the veins. The structure of the liver may
be charged with fatty cells and undergo what is technically
designated 'fatty liver'.
How the Kidneys deteriorate.
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The Kidneys also suffer due to the excessive consumption of
alcohol. The vessels of Kidneys lose elasticity and power of
contraction. The minute structures in them go through fatty
modification. Albumin from the blood easily passes through
their membranes. This results in the body losing its power
as if it were being run out of blood gradually.
Congestion of the lungs.
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Alcohol relaxes the vessels of the lungs easily as they are
most exposed to the fluctuations of heat and cold. When
subjected to the effects of a rapid variation in atmospheric
temperature, they get readily congested. During severe
winter seasons, the suddenly fatal congestions of lungs
easily affects an alcoholic.
Alcohol weakens the heart.
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Consumption of alcohol greatly affects the heart. The
quality of the membraneous structures which cover and line
the heart changes and are thickened, become cartilaginous or
calcareous. Then the valves lose their suppleness and what
is termed valvular disorder becomes permanent. The structure
of the the coats of the great blood-vessel leading from the
heart share in the same changes of structure so that the
vessel loses its elasticity and its power to feed the heart
by the recoil from its distention, after the heart, by its
stroke, has filled it with blood.
Again, the muscular structure of the heart fails owing to
degenerative changes in its tissue. The elements of the
muscular fibre are replaced by fatty cells or, if not so
replaced, are themselves transferred into a modified
muscular texture in which the power of contraction is
greatly reduced.
Those who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the
central and governing organ of the circulation of the blood
learn the fact so insidiously, it hardly breaks upon them
until the mischief is far advanced. They are conscious of a
central failure of power from slight causes such as
overexertion, trouble, broken rest or too long abstinence
from food. They feel what they call a 'sinking' but they
know that wine or some other stimulant will at once relieve
the sensation. Thus they seek to relieve it until at last
they discover that the remedy fails. The jaded, overworked,
faithful heart will bear no more. it has run its course and
the governor of the blood-streams broken. The current either
overflows into the tissues gradually damming up the courses
or under some slight shock or excess of motion ceases wholly
at the centre.

