Lecture 1 Flashcards
How many units of alcohol are recommended for men and women?
14 units/week spread over at least three days for both men and women
What is a unit of alcohol?
8g of pure ethanol which equates to 10ml of ethanol or roughly half a pint or a small 125ml glass of wine
How quickly is alcohol eliminated?
7g per hour and its elimination kinetics are linear and constant meaning that excess alcohol cannot be removed more quickly.
How is alcohol metabolised.
Alcohol is converted to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase. Acetaldehyde is converted to acetate through aldehyde dehydrogenase. Acetate is then converted to acetyl Co-A.
What causes a hangover?
Buildup of acetaldehyde as well s dehydration due to the inhibition of ADH.
What causes liver damage?
Build up acetaldehyde as well as alcohol metabolism using up lots of NAD+ and excess acetyl Co-A production.
Excess acetyl Co-A often used to make fatty acids and ketone bodies as not enough NAD+ available for oxidation.
Liver damage occurs in the form of fatty liver, alcoholic cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis
What causes fatty liver in alcoholism?
Excess acetyl Co-A used to make ketone bodies and fatty acids. Impaired liver function means that lipoproteins used for fat transportation re not produced properly. This results in fat accumulating around the liver.
What are the main effects of alcohol oxidation?
Lactic acidosis, rate crystal accumulation resulting in gout, hypoglycaemia, fatty liver and oedema
How does alcohol oxidation lead to lactic acidosis?
NAD+ is required to convert lactic acid to pyruvate. NAD+ is used up in alcohol oxidation and so lactic acid is not converted leading to lactic acidosis.
How does alcohol oxidation lead to gout?
Urate and lactic acid use the same transporter in kidney. Excess lactate leads to poor urate transport and its subsequent build up. The Uris crystals accumulate in tissues and produce gout.
How does alcohol oxidation lead to hypoglycaemia?
Inadequate NAD+ for glycerol metabolism and inadequate pyruvate for gluconeogenesis as it cannot be converted from lactate due to lack of NAD+.
What causes oedema and lower lipoprotein synthesis in alcohol oxidation?
Liver function is impaired through the accumulation of fat and acetaldehyde etc so it fails to produce adequate amounts of lipoprotein and albumin.
What causes fatty liver?
Excess acetyl co-A results in fatty acid synthesis and impaired liver function results in lack of lipoprotein synthesis. This leads to fatty acid accumulating around the liver.
What is the name of the drug used to treat alcoholism and what does it do?
Disulfiram. It inhibits the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme which results in buildup of acetaldehyde which results in hangover symptoms on consumption of alcohol.
What is oxidative stress?
An imbalance between free radicals and cell defences (antioxidants). Either free radicals outnumber cell defences or cell defences are reduced so that free radicals outnumber ability of cell defences to combat them
What are some of the diseases that oxidative stress contribute to?
Cardiovascular disease, alzeihmers, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, pancreatitis, Parkinson’s, MS etc