The harmfulness of alcohol was once proven by giving alcohol to baboons.
In January 1974: Cirrhosis of the liver is caused specifically by the toxicity of alcohol and not by the diet often associated with drunkenness, as previously believed.
Research conducted on baboons at the Mount Sinai Hospital in the United States showed that continuous alcohol consumption leads to fatty liver, liver inflammation and liver cirrhosis before long. The final results were not affected, even though the test animals received sufficiently versatile and complete nutrition at the same time.
“Liver damage caused by alcohol cannot be avoided even with a good diet, the consequences depend solely on the amount of alcohol consumed,” says Emanuel Rubin, one of the researchers who participated in the experiment.
In exams baboons were used because their livers are very close in structure to human livers. For ethical reasons, volunteers cannot be used for experiments leading to irreversible liver damage.
Thirteen baboons were given a whole bottle of liquor a day. This amount corresponded to about half of the baboons' daily energy needs. The other half came from nutrition.
There was also a control group of thirteen baboons who received exactly the same nutrition, the same vitamins and the same minerals as the forced drunk baboons, but no alcohol at all.
The baboons who drank alcohol all suffered liver damage that took between nine months and four years to develop. Liver cirrhosis occurred in two, alcohol-induced liver inflammation in four, and fatty liver in seven baboons.
Liver defects were not observed in the comparison group that lived without alcohol. – –
Health authorities estimate that there are nine million alcoholics in the United States. The number is constantly increasing, as more and more women have also started to drink alcohol.
Cirrhosis of the liver is on the way to the top of the US cause of death statistics. According to statistics for New York, cirrhosis is the third leading cause of death among those aged 25-64. Only heart disease and cancer are ahead of it. – –
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