would you like to know how dose alcohol effect the Liver?

Ethyl alcohol is a waste product of cellular respiration in yeasts. To these simple organisms, alcohol is toxic and they quickly excrete It; to us it is intoxicating. Because alcohol diffuses through the phospholipid framework of cellular membranes, it can enter every cell of the body. While alcohol affects every cell of the body, it is the effects on brain cells that we seek.

 Alcohol relaxes most people, makes them more sociable, and helps them have a good time. Some people drink too much alcohol, a habit that can seriously damage every cell of the body. At first, the only signs of this problem are changes in behavior, however, the widespread damage to cells becomes apparent: a bluish nose from broken blood vessels in the skin: loss of mental agility and physical coordination caused by damage to brain cells; various signs of malnutrition; and a potbelly. The worse problems, how-ever, are not easily seen for they involve damage to the liver.

The liver performs many crucial functions. One function is to convert toxic molecules into harmless molecules. More than 95% of the alcohol consumed enters the liver for detoxification. The liver becomes over-whelmed with this task and can no longer perform its normal functions. The alcohol in a drink is carried by the blood from the stomach and intestines to the liver. While in the bloodstream, some of the alcohol is exhaled as it passes through the lungs, causing the odor of alcohol on the breath; some of it passes to the muscles, where it damages muscle cells; and some of it passes to the brain, where it produces its effects. Alcohol that enters the liver is broken down into acetaldehyde and hydrogen:

The acetaldehyde is then converted to an acetyl group and shipped to other body cells for conversion into acetyl coenzyme A, which enters cellular respiration at the Krebs cycle. Strangely, it is the hydrogen atoms that damage liver cells. They join with NAO.' to form NADH and protons. Recall that NAO. contributes electrons to the electron transport chain. When a person drinks excessively, the electrons transferred from alcohol to NADH flood the electron transport chains of liver cells, as diagrammed. The chains can no longer accept electrons from the normal pathways of cellular respiration—glycolysis, conversion of pyruvic acid to acetyl coenzyme A, and the Krebs cycle. As these normal pathways slow down, the normal fuels—glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids—accumulate and the liver cells convert them into fats.

 Normally, the liver ships fats, via the blood, to special fat cells elsealn the breakdown of alcohol by liver cells, electrons are transferred to NADH and carried to the electron transport chain. When a lot of alcohol is consumed, the electron transport chain receives so many electrons from alcohol that it can no longer accept electrons from normal pathways. These normal pathways then shut down and their fuels—monosaccharides, amino acids, and fatty acids—are converted to fats. The fats accumulate within liver cells and interfere with liver functions.

where in the body. But in heavy drinkers, the liver cells cannot deal with the fat because they are too busy ... detoxifying alcohol. Fat accumulates within the liver cells. In time. the liver cells become en-gorged with lat and no longer perform .. their normal functions.

 In this stage, called alcoholic hepatitis, the liver is swollen and tender. The person does not i feel well or look healthy. The skin and 1. whites of their eyes develop a yellowish %. tinge, a clear sign of liver damage. An alcoholic's health continues to deteriorate as the liver cells begin to . die. Scar tissue replaces the dead cells - and impedes the flow of blood through  this crucial organ. This condition, - known as cirrhosis of the liver, interferes severely with liver function.

The liver normally synthesizes blood proteins (which hold water in the blood), supplies the blood with sugar, and eliminates toxic molecules. An alcoholic is likely to develop a potbelly as fluid accumulates within the abdominal cavity. The fluid leaks out of blood vessels in the liver, because blood stagnates within scarred regions and at the same time does not contain enough proteins to hold water inside the vessels. Diabetes mellitus develops when the dam-aged liver fails to control how much sugar it releases into the blood. The most serious problem, the one that kills, is nitrogen poisoning from an inability of liver cells to convert ammonia into urea for excretion by the kidneys. Cirrhosis of the liver is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.