How to help people with alcohol poisoning

Definition

Alcohol poisoning is a symptom that results from people drinking too much alcohol in a short period. As a result, alcohol is absorbed into the body rapidly. Your liver does not have enough time to eliminated from the body. That causes a large amount of alcohol to accumulate in the body. When so much alcohol is in your body, it forces you to be endangered. 

Cause of alcohol poisoning

Alcohol poisoning results from drinking alcohol more than the recommended limit at one time of drinking. When you drink so much alcohol, the liver does not eliminate alcohol from the body in time. Alcohol accumulated in your body will disrupt the function of your body. The most severe effects of alcohol are you may have a seizure or pass away.

Types of alcohol poisoning

There are two types of alcohol poisoning: acute and chronic alcohol poisoning. Let’s see the symptoms of each type of alcohol poisoning.

1. Acute alcohol poisoning: Acute alcohol poisoning happens in drinkers who drink many small doses or one large dose of alcohol in a short time. There are three stages of acute alcohol poisoning – excitement, incoordination, and coma.
   
   1.1  Excitement: At this stage, the drinkers will not control themselves. They dare to tell their secret, but they forget the secret they have said after they stop getting drunk. This is because they need help with memorisation. They also need help with judgment, concentration, and response. 
   1.2 Incoordination: The drinkers will be moody and violent at this stage. Sometimes, they will be sleepy. They will vomit and have nausea. They have an incoherent voice and slurred speech.
   1.3 Coma: At this stage, the drinkers’ temperature will decrease. Their breath is stertorous. They become unconscious. Although you pinch or slap them, they are still cold.
    
2. Chronic alcohol poisoning: Chronic alcohol poisoning happens in drinkers who drink alcohol for a long time. The mouth and tongue of the drinkers become tremorous. They become insomniacs. They have trouble with memory and judgment. They become unconscious.

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and its impact on your health

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is a measure of the amount of alcohol in your blood. Knowing the amount of alcohol helps you anticipate the problem you will have after drinking it. The more alcohol is in your blood, the more you will have issues with it. Let’s see the degree of alcohol and the difficulty of drinkers in each stage.

1. Mild impairment: 0.0-0.05%
   The drinkers may be relaxed at this stage, but many problems exist. They need help in concentration, memorisation, balance, and communication. Moreover, they fall a little bit asleep.
2. Increased impairment: 0.06-0.15%
   At this stage, the drinkers have an attempt to consume more alcohol. They have problems in concentration, memorisation, balance, and communication, like in the previous step. However, there are some more problems for drinkers at this stage. They also have problems driving a car, and they are violent.
3. Severe impairment: 0.16-0.30%
   At this stage, all the problems, including concentration, memorisation, balance, and communication of drinkers, are more severe than in the previous step. They could not decide on anything because the skill of the drinkers could be better. Other symptoms that appeared in this stage include vomiting and being unconscious.
4. Life-threatening impairment: 0.31-0.45%v
   At this stage, the drinkers are unconscious and are at risk of fatality. 

Symptoms of alcohol poisoning

These are the symptoms when alcohol poisoning of the drinkers is not severe. 

• They will get anxious. 
• His interlocutor needs help understanding his speech when they talk to someone. 
• They will sleep longer than other times of sleeping. 
• They will fall asleep. 
• They will vomit heavily. 
• They will have a high rate of heartbeat. 
• They will breathe slowly. 

These are the symptoms when alcohol poisoning of the drinkers is severe.

• They will vomit as blood. 
• They will have seizures, or sometimes they may pass away. 
• They will have low sugar in their blood. 
• They will heavily dehydrate. 

First aid 

After you see the drinkers have the problem after heavily drinking alcohol and think that they are in alcohol poisoning, you should help them by doing the following:

1. Try to call for an emergency. 
2. Awake the drinkers and help them sit. 
3. Help the drinkers drink water. Do not let them drink coffee because caffeine in coffee may increase the severity of the effects of alcohol on their body. 
4. If the drinkers are unconscious, help them lie on their side and observe whether they breathe. 
5. If the drinkers do not breathe, do the CPR process. 
6. Make the body of the drinkers warm. 
7. Observe the symptoms of the drinkers.
8. Do not let the drinkers sleep and vomit because these two actions may cause more severe symptoms of the drinkers. 
9. Do not take a shower to the drinkers. 

How to drink safely

• Eat some food before drinking. This is because alcohol will rapidly be absorbed when there is no food in your stomach. 
• Do not drink alcohol for a long period in one time of drinking. 
• If you feel dizzy, you must stop drinking immediately. 
• Drinking water together with drinking alcohol. 

How to prevent alcohol poisoning

1. Avoid drinking games: Drinking games happen in many countries. People make a drinking game to make drinking enjoyable and to help them drink so much alcohol in a short period. That causes alcohol poisoning in drinkers. Therefore, you need to avoid drinking while drinking.
2. Have a meal before drinking alcohol: When you have an empty stomach, you can drink so much alcohol. Therefore, you need to have a dinner to reduce the space for alcohol in your stomach. It makes you consume less amount of alcohol. You do not drink a large amount of alcohol in a short period because your stomach will be complete before it happens. You do not have alcohol poisoning.
3. Do not consume alcohol together with taking medicine: If you must take medication, do not take it at the same time as alcohol. You must take medicine while drinking water only. If you take a pill with alcohol, it causes you to have alcohol poisoning. 
4. Make yourself hydrated: You must drink water after drinking alcohol every time. 

If you drink alcohol more than the recommended limit, you will have a chance to have alcohol poisoning. You may suffer from the side effects of alcohol. Therefore, you should drink alcohol within the recommended limit.