Question

A 51-year-old male professional is in the habit of consuming six to eight rum and cokes each evening after work. He assures the nurse practitioner, who is performing his regular physical exam, that his drinking is under control and does not have negative implications for his work or family life. How could the nurse best respond to the patient's statement?

Answer 1

Answer:

"When your body has to regularly break down that much alcohol, your blood and the functional cells in your liver accumulate a lot of potentially damaging toxic byproducts."

Explanation:

Excessive alcohol consumption, as the man exposed in the question consumes, negatively affects the body's metabolism as ethanol is metabolized by the liver, where harmful substances such as acetaldehyde are released after alcohol is metabolized. It is also known that alcohol consumption generates oxidative damage, free radical accumulation and depletion of hepatic anti-oxidative capacity. In this context, we can conclude that excessive alcohol consumption accumulates toxic byproducts in the body.

Therefore, we can conclude that what the nurse would say to the man presented in the above question is: "When your body has to break down that much alcohol, your blood and the functional cells in your liver accumulate a lot of potentially damaging toxic byproducts".