Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
1
Social
problem
2
Legal issue
3
TEMPERANCE
4
Accept
5
Not accept
6
Intellectual
STIGMA !!!!
!
7
Should take
8
Should not !!!!
9
SIN
10
WORSHIP
11
Increase IQ
12
DECREASE IQ !!!
13
Mind Depressant
14
Mind Stimulant !!!
15
WHERE IS THE TRUTH
about ALCOHOL
then ???????????
16
Same conflicts in
MEDICAL SCIENCES
about ALCOHOL
17
• Ethanol (alcohol, ethyl
alcohol) is the world's most
commonly used recreational
drug, yet, despite many
years of research, ethanol's
exact pharmacological
mechanism remains
somewhat elusive.
18
• Ethanol has been shown to
affect a member of nearly every
type of ion channel in the body,
but often at concentrations far
above those found in
recreational users.
19
• In order to make sense of the huge
amount of research into the effects of
ethanol on neurons, one must gauge it
against the threshold plasma
concentration of ethanol needed to
produce an effect and a rough
estimation of the fatal concentration
in humans, i.e. the range of ethanol's
concentration found during
recreational usage
20
• It is estimated that the plasma
concentration necessary to cause
threshold effects in humans is 5mM
(40mg/100mL) while in a review of 808
fatal alcohol poisonings, the mean
plasma concentration was 72mM.
• To put blood concentrations further in
context, the blood-alcohol limit in
most states in the US is 17.4 mM.
21
GABA-A receptors
23
• Exactly why there is this stark
dichotomy is unclear, though it
may have something to do with
more recently discovered facts
about the distribution of
"subunits" of GABA-A receptors.
24
NMDA receptors
• Inhibition of NMDA receptors by
ethanol is another theme that has
received a lot of attention, because of
the similar anaesthetic nature of
ethanol and the classical NMDA
receptor antagonists, >>>>>>>>>>>
the dissociative anaesthetics
(ketamine).
25
• The NMDA receptor is a compelling site
for explaining ethanol's actions, as the
concentrations of ethanol that start to
cause a significant inhibition of the
NMDA receptor are the same
concentrations at which the effects of
ethanol are beginning to be registered
in humans (~5mM).
26
• NMDA receptor antagonists are
classically known for their ability
to block the formation of
memories, an effect that larger
amounts of ethanol are renowned
for.
• However, one problem with this
theory is the lack of similarity
between alcohol's intoxication
state and that induced by ketamine
27
Nicotinic Acetylcholine
Receptors
• The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
is another interesting target of
ethanol.
29
• It is almost certain that ethanol's
classical "depressant" effects are not
mediated by this receptor, as the
classical nicotinic acetylcholine
receptor agonist nicotine is not
depressant.
31
Voltage-Gated Sodium
Channels
• Ethanol has been shown to
inhibit voltage-gated sodium
channels (the same channel
local anesthetics inhibit), but
only at very high concentrations
32
Potassium Channels and
GIRKS
• ethanol modulates potassium
channels.
• Potassium channels are very
important in reducing neuronal
excitability.
36
Glycine Receptor
42
• Despite ethyl alcohol being one of
the most widely used psychoactives,
the pharmacology of its altering
effects is still not yet fully
understood.
43
• There are many systems that it
is known to affect, but many of
the documented neuro-
physiological effects only occur
at plasma concentrations
outside the range that ethanol
is used in humans.
44
• Its effects on GABA-A receptors
seem tantalizing, but generally
unlikely, due to either a far too high
or too low potency, depending on the
subunit makeup.
45
• Ethanol's inhibition of NMDA
receptors seems likely to be a
contributor to its effects.
46
Is alcohol a Poison?
48
• Toxicologists emphasize that “the
dosage makes the poison.”
51
• Apparently to stigmatize
alcoholic beverages and
frighten people into alcohol
abstinence.
52
• The tactic was first used effectively by
the Anti-Saloon League, the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, the KKK
and other anti-alcohol groups. The
technique is still widely used today.
53
• Governmental efforts to
promote the belief that alcohol
beverages are harmful and to
censor any evidence to the
contrary have continued for
many decades, often under
pressure from special interest
groups.
54
"When news leaked that the two scientists'
report contained language to the effect that
moderate drinking was unharmful,
temperance organizations in the state
immediately rallied and deluged the
legislature and the governor's office with
cries of objection."
55
• The National Institutes of Health much
later funded a study that found
moderate drinkers to be less likely to
suffer heart disease, but refused to
allow the Harvard researchers to
publish the results because it
considered them "socially undesirable."
56