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While browsing the news sites, from time to time you can come across news about people who took the doses of alcohol considered lethal and managed to survive. Is it a measurement error? Should people get used to higher alcohol concentrations and 12 alcohol levels, shouldn’t anyone be surprised? The reality is quite different, as explained in an interview with Medonet, the toxicologist Dr. Eryk Matuszkiewicz.
- Blood alcohol concentration of 4-5 per mille is commonly considered the “lethal dose”
- From time to time, however, the media describe examples of people who managed to survive despite the “record” 12 or even less than 14 blood alcohol levels
- The people who managed to do this are not natural phenomena. This is how addiction works – explains the toxicologist in an interview with Medonet
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Since the dawn of time, people have been consuming alcohol, which was supposed to make them euphoric. Alcohol, however, affects the entire body. 0,3 blood per mille causes distraction, 0,8 leads to reduced criticism, excitability and impaired eye-hand coordination, 1,5 causes balance disorders, delayed reaction time, bravado, aggressiveness and errors in logical thinking. At 2 per mille, drowsiness, mobility problems and speech disorders will appear. When there are 4 per mille of alcohol in the blood, there is a risk of falling into a coma, and at 4–5 per mille, the body poisoning occurs, which may result in death.
- Read also: Can I get on the bike after one beer? The toxicologist explains
Importantly, the lethal dose is indicative, however, and there are known cases of people who survived much higher concentrations.
In 2009, a 45-year-old resident of Maków-Kolonia was hospitalized after the driver of a passenger car had hit 12,3 per mille of alcohol in his blood, but in July 2013 the press wrote about a 30-year-old resident of Alfredówka, who survived 13,74 , 2012 blood alcohol per mille. The shameful record belongs to the driver who in May 22,3 in Dobrołęka led to a fatal road accident. There were XNUMX per mille of alcohol in his blood. Although the result of the study was confirmed at that time by a press spokesman from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Ostrołęka, there is a high probability that the sample was contaminated because the blood was taken not from the vein, but from the man’s wound.
Who can survive a very high blood alcohol concentration?
Why do some people have extreme alcohol tolerance? In an interview with Medonet, a toxicologist, Dr. Eryk Matuszkiewicz, answered this question. The answer, although clear, is unfortunately not upbuilding.
– To answer this question, it is necessary to explain what are the methods of determining the concentration of alcohol in the blood and the disadvantages of one of the methods – began the expert. – Alcohol can be determined by a specific method, i.e. a reference method, and analogously (non-specifically). In the latter case, the signifier, ie a laboratory technician or laboratory diagnostician, looks and evaluates: I obtained this [sample] color, that is, I relate it to such a standard and then I know what the concentration is. This method carries the risk of error because it is known that each person has an individual color perception. If we make a determination with a specific method, where everything is done by the apparatus for us, and we get the result, the error element is eliminated.
- Read also: The appearance of your nose shows whether you are overdoing it? The “nose of the alcoholic” is not only about drinking
As the expert emphasizes, high alcohol tolerance already indicates addiction.
– Assuming that we have 5 per mille marked with the reference method, for me there is only one explanation for tolerating such a dose. If someone tolerates such doses, it is an addicted person. If we had not developed tolerance, which is an integral part of addiction, we would not be able to withstand this dose and there could be respiratory distress, choking, which would even result in cardiac arrest and death.
Dr. Matuszkiewicz also explained what exactly is an alcohol addiction.
– Alcoholism, like everything else, starts from the first time. So we tried alcohol and we think about it and reach for it more and more often, we do not have to have any occasion or circumstances for it. Then we can not function normally without it and that is why we drink every day, i.e. fall into the so-called alcohol strings, which is the last phase of addiction. At the same time, tolerance develops underneath it all. The body adapts to these more and more new doses of alcohol, because this tolerance, in quotation marks, turns against us and makes us drink the same amount of alcohol, and the effect is no longer there. So we drink more and more, more and more, and we become more and more addicted. The body of a non-addicted person would not withstand such a high concentration of alcohol, which would lead to death – adds the expert.
- Read also: Are you a “weekend alcoholic”? Five warning signs
This is how the addict’s organism works
Dr Ryszard Feldman in an interview with TVN24 explained how it works:
As with any addiction, the person’s brain is more resistant to high levels. It is very important that these people have a different metabolism, the breakdown of alcohol is much faster, the concentration of alcohol drops much faster.
He also cited a story from his own ward in one of Warsaw hospitals. «There was a person in our ward who had more than 12 blood levels. This patient did not require intensive treatment. After a dozen or so hours he woke up and demanded to be released home »- he described.
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