Breathe deeply: you've been drinking too much
Doctors have found a new fast way to remove alcohol from the blood
Maria Azarova, Naked Science
According to the World Health Organization, about three million people die from alcohol abuse every year on our planet (this is 5.3 percent of all deaths). At the same time, more than 13 percent of deaths among people aged 20-39 years are associated with alcohol consumption.
Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, contained in strong drinks, affects all body systems: it can cause disorders in brain functions, blood circulation and even nail growth, and also provokes the development of many diseases and sometimes leads to disability. Is it worth reminding that when a certain level of alcohol concentration in the blood is reached, intoxication occurs, which can damage organs and cause death?
A study by physicians from the University of Toronto (Canada), published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports (Klostranec et al., Accelerated ethanol elimination via the lungs), tells about a new, fairly simple method that can be a decisive factor in saving a person from alcohol intoxication. After all, alcohol poisoning happens so often, and people still don't know how to act in such a situation.
Usually, the liver is responsible for removing most of the alcohol from the body, and today there is no other effective method other than dialysis to purify the blood from ethanol. Among other "lightweight" treatment options are oxygen therapy and intravenous drip solutions.
A team from the University of Toronto has proposed a new method: its principle is to use the lungs to "exhale alcohol." According to scientists, the deeper and more frequent the breathing, the more alcohol leaves the body. But with hyperventilation, the body removes carbon dioxide from the blood along with alcohol: a decrease in the content of this gas is the cause of symptoms such as dizziness, tingling or numbness of the hands and feet, as well as fainting. Therefore, it is simply impossible to increase lung ventilation.
To do this, researchers have created a special device: it cleanses the blood from alcohol and at the same time returns to the body the amount of carbon dioxide that maintains its normal level, regardless of the degree of hyperventilation. The dimensions of the device are comparable to a conventional briefcase: it includes a valve system, connecting tubes, a mask and a small tank with compressed carbon dioxide.
Photo from the University Health Network Canadian discovery press release: a potential game-changer to reverse alcohol intoxication – VM.
"Isocapnic hyperpnea (hyperventilation; a condition when a person breathes deeper and more often compared to a state of rest. – Ed.), which has previously shown effectiveness in accelerating the removal of steam anesthetics and carbon monoxide, also accelerates the removal of ethanol from the blood. Our randomized study involved five healthy men who did not take medications and did not abuse alcohol in the anamnesis. The procedures were carried out after the protocols were approved by the Research Ethics Council. Before each experiment, the subject abstained from eating and drinking for six hours and from taking alcohol for 12 hours. Each man attended two classes on separate days. The testing area could not be left until the breathalyzer indicator was below 0.03%. Participants took 0.5 grams of ethanol (40% vodka mixed with 500 milliliters of mineral water) per kilogram of body weight for five minutes. Breathalyzer measurements were started 20 minutes after ingestion and continued at five-minute intervals for about three hours. In the control protocol, the subject sat and continued to breathe room air for three hours. The process of ethanol excretion was monitored on different days during normal ventilation and hyperventilation. So it turned out that isocapnic hyperpnea increased the rate of alcohol excretion in proportion to its level in the blood by more than three times," the article says.
As noted by Joseph A. Fisher, one of the authors of the work, the developed device is simple and low-tech. In addition, it can be assembled in any country: it does not require any sophisticated equipment or computers. However, doctors recommend conducting further research to find out how to implement their technology directly in clinics.
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