Pyridoxine, or vitamin B6, is more rapidly eliminated from the body during heavy drinking, over 50 percent of those who drink excessively seem to have defi­ciencies. Eating a well-balanced diet that includes 1.3 milligrams of vitamin B6 can correct the problem, but only if no further alcohol is ever consumed. Good food sources of pyridoxine include meat, fish, poultry, or fortified cereals.

Folate, another B vitamin, is also in low supply when people drink exces­sively, since folic acid is one vitamin that does not signifi­cantly alter the taste of any beverage in which it’s dissolved, some scientists have recommended that manufacturers add folic acid to alcoholic beverages as they are bottled or canned, but this hasn’t occurred and beverages except beer are completely devoid of folate.

A well-balanced diet may prevent folate deficiency in nondrinkers, but folate is lost from the body more rapidly in heavy drinkers. A folic acid sup­plement of 400 micrograms a day may prevent folate deficiency in drinkers.

Thiamin Food Source

Studies using brain imaging have consistently found that alcoholic men and women have greater brain shrinkage than non-alcoholics. The cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for coordination and some forms of learning, seems to be especially vulnerable to alcohol. The cerebellum is also affected by the body’s stores of thiamin, which regulates the metabolism of brain cells.

Thiamin is an important player in the way the brain works, and although the brain requires a continuous supply of thiamin, the body does not store it in any appreciable amount. Up to 80 percent of alco­holics have a thiamin deficiency.

Thiamin Structure

Laboratory studies indicate that a thiamin deficiency from alcohol abuse disrupts the ability of brain cells to do their job, resulting in impaired function and cell death. This may eventually lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder characterized by an unsteady gait, confusion, and memory loss.

Some doctors prescribe 50 milligrams of thiamin a day to temporarily supplement the diets of alcoholics, but brain damage caused by a thiamin deficiency cannot be reversed.

Alcohol Abuse In Pregnacy

Antioxidants are substances that protect your body’s healthy molecules against damage by unstable molecules called free radicals. Heavy alcohol use not only increases the production of free radicals, but it also depletes stores of antioxidants, like vitamins C and E. That means that while those nasty rogue molecules are increasing exponentially, the natural warriors needed to fight them off are decreasing rapidly. This imbal­ance is called “oxidative stress.”

There is some experimental evidence that when combined with abstain­ing from alcohol, supplemental antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium may prevent the progression of liver damage. Many doctors who treat alcoholism put patients on a supplemental program designed around their own antioxidant deficiencies. However, everyone, from teetotalers to problem drinkers, will benefit by getting the Daily Values of antioxidants.

The recommended daily intake is 30 IU for vitamin E and 60 milligrams for vitamin C, and the Daily Value is 70 micrograms for selenium.

Problems with alcohol are fairly common in the United States. Two- thirds of all Americans drink and sixty percent are light to moderate drinkers, but up to 10 percent drink excessively.

Alcoholic Problem

The lights to moderate drinkers are probably in pretty good health, because is safe and may be beneficial, since it lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. But excessive alcohol consumption is another story. Excessive drinking on a daily basis—more than three drinks for a woman and more than six for a man—increases your risk of cancer and can damage the liver, pancreas, heart, and brain, and also increases the risk of breast cancer in women, says doctor. It can cause vitamin deficiencies resulting in anemia, memory loss, osteoporosis, and night blindness. Although rare in this country, when scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency and pellagra due to niacin deficiency do occur, it’s usually in alcoholics.

The Liquid Saboteur

How does alcohol damage your health? It hinders your body’s ability to absorb, process, use, and store the nutrients found in food—plus it tends to edge out food in your diet.

Affection of Alcoholism

Alcoholic beverages are essentially made up of water, pure alcohol, and sugars, so they offer virtually no nutritional value. Alco­holic beverages are full of empty calories. If you’re a heavy drinker, those empty calories replace other nutrients in the diet. In addition, alcohol has a direct, toxic effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

The result is that many, if not most, of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients extracted from food during digestion cannot be absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract and into the bloodstream. Compounding the prob­lem is the fact that alcohol is toxic to the liver, the organ that processes nutrients. Normally the liver stores the nutrients it receives and turns food into the energy your body needs.

But once the liver is damaged, your body’s ability to properly use many vitamins and minerals such as thiamin, B6, and folate (the naturally occur­ring form of folic acid) is significantly reduced.

Alcoholism Treatment Units

And since a damaged liver produces less bile, a substance the body uses to prepare fat-soluble vitamins for absorption by the intestines, your body’s ability to absorb vitamins A, D, and E is also impaired.