A few days ago, the video of a teenage girl imbibing 750Ml of Gilbeys dry gin shocked Kenyans.
What she did not know is that this is a death trap which Dr Bosire Wairimu explained to Kenyans from a medical perspective.
According to the medic, taking alcohol in such copious amounts is deadly.
“How our body responds to alcohol: At 25mg/dL-You start feeling some warmth and a kahappiness 25-40- You become euphoric with lapse of judgement 50-100-staggering, loss of balance, slurred speech >250- alcoholic coma >450- Death 0.01g/Litre = 1mg/dl,” she warned recently.
Dr Wairimu further explained that the liver has three enzymes that convert alcohol to acetaldehyde at the rate of 20-25 mg/dl, with the final product being water and Co2.
And if a person gulps down 750MLs of dry gin with an alcohol content of 40%, the liver is overwhelmed instantly.
“So imagine when someone ingests 750mls of 40% alcohol (300mls of pure alcohol) The liver’s ability to break is overpowered. So what happens?
“Acute alcohol intoxication with respiratory failure (impulses of your breathing come from the brainstem), aspiration (contents of the stomach getting to the lungs), low blood pressure and heart failure (mostly due to abnormal electric activity)- literally multi-organ failure,” she said.
When alcohol levels in the body are extreme, the blood sugar level drops to dangerous levels.
A person dies if immediate medical intervention is not given.
“Because low sugar levels is one of the aftermath of alcohol intoxication, clinicians resuscitate by giving high dose glucose through IV. If this is not done timely, one gets permanent brain damage and dies,” she added.
Men should not take more than two bottles of beer a day while women are urged to stick to one glass of wine a day.
“500mls of beer(4% alcohol)= 2 units so no more than 2 bottles per day. 250mls (12% alcohol)= 3 units . So no more than 1 glass of wine per day.”