To Believe or Not to Believe ..
I remembered having this conversation with my uncle about his classmate, whom I call Ingkong (Grandpa), when I was in high school.
"I don't know what happened to Dan, he used to be the best student in our Algebra class, would you believe?", Rolando said.
"Really Bap? He was? How come he doesn't know how to solve this equation? Is he just tired or what?", I said.
"You know what? It's because his head is filled with beer and his brain can't seem to swim, it drowned.", Rolando replied.
As a kid, way back, I won't understand what my uncle said. How can Ingkong's brain be drowned in alcohol? Isn't it that when we eat or drink, the food will go to the stomach? Well, I guess my uncle was just trying to tell something that would give me clues about Ingkong's condition. Brain? Drowned in alcohol? To Believe or Not to Believe.
When I entered college, I was exposed to different information regarding alcohol, specifically Ethanol, the substance which is turned into beer and other beverages. At second year college, I took up a Psychology class. There is this certain topic about Drugs commonly abused as well as Substance abused, primarily Alcohol, along with their mechanism of action and toxicity.
That whole chapter gave me an idea of what my uncle is trying to say in our conversation. YES. I believe that the BRAIN could be DROWNED to ALCOHOL, but not literally of course.
I've known that Alcohol could drown the brain by abuse. This is by taking the substance and manifesting the harmful effects by massive intake.
Alcohol, basically acts as a depressant that affects the central nervous system. So, the feeling of being so great and hyper during "Inuman Sessions" only mask the real effects of alcohol. These feelings are just due to it's initial effect of blocking the inhibitory centers which brings us to the thought of being so excited and humorous.
Now, how would we know if a person is taking in alcohol, or he is abusing the substance? There is this term called Alcohol Testing. This Method may be proceeded through GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY and ENZYMATIC ASSAYS.
Sampling:
Arm preparation and sterilization before venipuncture must not be done with the use of alcohol swabs. Soap and water as well as other non - alcohol containing detergents may be used instead, to avoid inaccurate results during testing. Any contamination of alcohol with outside sources may alter the result's reliability.
Preferred Specimen: 8 - 10 ml of whole blood treated with Oxalate and Sodium Fluoride
* plasma should be obtained
Precautions:
- Care must be taken to prevent contamination of the sample of bacteria and other microorganisms which may form ethanol through their metabolic processes which may create a falsely elevated result.
- The container of the sample should be tightly sealed, since ethanol is volatile and will evaporate rapidly.
- Temperature should be regulated. Increase in temperature may cause the rapid evaporation of alcohol.
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
- Highly selective and specific
Serum sample mixed with internal standard is injected directly to the column. Fractionation occurs after a few minutes depending on the type of column and degree of separation.
Ethanol, methanol and isopropanol can be detected specifically since they separate well in the columns.
This technique can also be employed in the detection of ketoacidosis in diabetic patients by the use of a different internal standard (n - propanol).
* Requires committed instrumentation and high degree of skill.
Enzyme Analysis
This reaction employs Alcohol Dehydrogenase with NAD+ as a coenzyme. Upon the oxidation of ethanol, acetaldehyde is formed, NADH as the marker. The reaction is read at 340 nm to quantitate the ethanol present.
* Use of SEMICARBAZIDE is employed to inhibit further oxidation of acetaldehyde by trapping the excess substance to prevent false elevation of ethanol.
This method is not highly reliable due to sensitivity to other alcohol types. It is not specific to ethanol only. This may create elevation of the results by the quantitation of isopropanol.
If ethanol is present, the quantity recorded is from the peak, dropping to some lower points after some time.
Reporting of Results:
- percentage of ethanol concentration per deciliter.
- micromoles per liter
- 0.1% ethanol = 100 mg/dL
Now, as a pre - intern student, I've learned that, Brain could be Drowned to alcohol not because the liquid will go to the brain, but because the substance affects the brain and impedes its function, thus, killing its neurons.
Reference:
Calbreath, Donald. Clinical Chemistry
