In chiropractic college I remember our histology professor used to tell us, “the dose makes the poison”. What he meant by that was; anything introduced into the body in the wrong quantity can cause harm to an organism. That’s why when someone has obviously had too much to drink we say that they’re inpoisonated. Actually we don’t, we refer to them as intoxicated (inpoisonated fit better with my story), but that brings up an interesting question…What’s the difference between a poison and toxin? Generally speaking both are bad for you (obviously), but a toxin comes from within and poison is ingested, inhaled, absorbed, or otherwise taken in by an organism. Bringing me back to my professor’s favorite saying, the dose taken in is actually what makes something poisonous.
When you consume alcohol your body will immediately begin working to get rid of it. It works to eliminate what it recognizes as poisonous. This complex process of events leads to inflammation, along with, releases compounds that are toxic to your own cells. This series of events is what is referred to as intoxication, or alcohol poisoning. Constantly subjecting your body to this leads to death in the short term, or a longer drawn out death in which your organs start to fail.
I’m certainly not against drinking alcohol. There are numerous studies which suggest consuming 3-5 drinks per week can actually be beneficial. Over consumption is my main concern. As a Chiropractor I am very focused on helping your body maintain health and maximize your full potential. Even drinking too much one time leads to a breakdown of organ tissues, dehydration, etc. I don’t have to explain how not fun it is to lay on the couch hungover the day after ‘over toxifying’ your liver. Your liver has a big job to do detoxifying what you consume and without it you cannot survive … that’s why they call it your liver, because you can’t live without it.
