The Metabolism of Alcohol 



HAROLD L. HIGGINS 



CINCINNATI 



Introduction 



Aside from the three important groups of foodstuffs, the proteins, 

 the fats and the carbohydrates, ethyl alcohol, CH 3 -CH 2 OH, is the most 

 available nutriment the animal organism has to meet its heat requirements. 

 It is burned in the body to carbon dioxid and water, and each gram of 

 alcohol when thus oxidized yields approximately 7.2 calories of heat. 

 But while alcohol thus offers good possibilities from a nutritive point 

 of view, its status as an altogether satisfactory food is enhanced by its 

 pharmacological and toxicological action. This action of alcohol at first 

 is most marked upon the central nervous system; the release of cerebral 

 inhibition and the anesthetic features 'probably stand out foremost. The 

 pathological changes as a result of overindulgence in alcohol are well 

 known. It is quite universally recognized that too much alcohol is harm- 

 ful to the human organism, and that, to be of any practical use for nutri- 

 tive purposes, the quantity of alcohol taken must be small. Therefore, 

 in discussing the nutrition of alcohol in this chapter the effects of mod- 

 erate or small quantities will be more particularly considered. 



Absorption of Alcohol 



Alcohol requires no digestion for absorption, but it is absorbed directly 

 from the gastro-intestinal tract mainly into the portal blood but also by 

 the lymphatics (Dogiel, 1874). A considerable proportion of the alcohol 

 taken by mouth is absorbed in the stomach and the remainder in the small 

 intestine (Bodlander, 1883). The quantities or proportions absorbed in 

 the stomach and in the different parts of the small intestine vary according 

 to the rate with which the alcohol passes through the pylorus ; alcohol taken 

 with food will remain longer in the stomach and a larger proportion of it 

 will be absorbed there than if the alcohol were taken on an empty stomach. 

 One observer found that twenty per cent of alcohol was absorbed in the 

 stomach, nine per cent in the duodenum, fifty-three per cent in the jejunum 



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