THE PARADOX IN ALCOHOLISM

Ethyl alcohol is produced by the fermenting action of yeast on cereals, potatoes and fruits. The potency of an alcoholic drink is gauged in terms of alcoholic content, to which the term ‘proof’ is given. A 100⁰ proof spirit, for example, contains about 50% alcohol.

Alcoholic drinks are divided into four categories: Spirits and liqueurs (whiskey, gin, vodka, brandy and the whole range of liqueurs), which are usually between 50⁰  and 70⁰  proof; fortified wines such as sherry, and the wide range of aperitives, which are fortified with pure alcohol and brandy, and contain between 16-18% alcohol; wines, which usually have a 7-15% alcohol content; and beers, which have a 5% alcohol content..

The most potent local Nigerian brew, ogogoro is in the class of its own. Ogogoro (variously called Sapele-water, Kai-Kai, Kparaga, Sonse, Push-Me-Push-You, etc) is distilled from the juice of Raffia palm trees. Its active ingredient is ethanol and has 30-60% alcoholic content. In Nigeria hundreds die from improperly brewed ogogoro.

As drink and commodity respectively, ogogoro carried substantial cultural and economic significance within Nigeria. It is an essential part of numerous religious and social ceremonies. Ijaw priests pour it onto the ground as offering to their gods, while fathers of brides in some parts of the country use it as a libation by which they provide their official blessing to a wedding.

The economic facets of ogogoro have been equally salient throughout recent Nigerian history. Many poor Nigerian families homebrew the drink as a means of economic subsistence, many of whom sell shots of it on city street corners. The criminalization of ogogoro which occurred under the colonial administration is also believed to have been largely economic; while the public justification for the law regarded health, it has been argued that colonial officials were seeking to suppress local economic activity which might draw money or labour away from the colonial system.

Another local brew of interest is burukutu. This is a popular alcoholic drink among indigenes of northern and middle-belt regions of Nigeria. It is made from fermented sorghum and other protein-enriched grains. Its 3.1-4.0% alcohol is far less than that of ogogoro.

Burukutu serves as a source of alcohol especially to those lacking the financial means to patronise refined brews like beer and other foreign drinks. In Plateau State almost every village has a designated joint dedicated to the brew, sale and consumption of the revered drink. The stylish sharing of the drinking gourd is known to be a potential for the spread of tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

Scientifically, alcohol is regarded as a food, sometimes like sugars. It is full of calories, but does not provide any of the nutrients the body needs. As soon as it comes to contact with the lining of the stomach, it is absorbed into the bloodstream. For this reason, alcohol drunk during or after meal is absorbed more slowly than alcohol drunk on an ‘empty stomach’.

As soon as it enters the bloodstream, it’s carried to the liver, then to the heart, the lungs and the brain. Having reached the brain it slows down activity and impairs the efficiency of the central nervous system. Worries and inhibitions are discarded and the drinker goes through a phase of carefree exhilaration and happiness. One become ‘drunk’, that’s pass the limit when you have complete control over your actions, when the alcoholic content of the blood is about one-tenth of one per cent.

However, be all that as it may, it is a fact that in the concentration of 1%, alcohol acts like an anaesthetic on the brain and the nervous system. Perception and the thought processes are further slowed down. It becomes difficult to coordinate movement, and the ability to react quickly is lost. If one persist in drinking after becoming drunk, and the concentration of alcohol builds up, after a certain point the alcohol has a poisoning effect. The body reacts with nausea and vomiting, and in extreme cases unconsciousness, from which the drinker emerges with a raging headache, an upset stomach and other symptoms of hangover.

Chronic alcoholism, to which both sexes are susceptible, is nowadays regarded as illness, which, indeed, it is. There is evidence to suggest that some cases are the result of a defect in the body’s metabolism that is the process whereby food and drink are converted into new living matter and waste. The metabolic defect results in the body using alcohol in a way that it makes it more poisonous than it is to people who don’t have the defect.

The snag with alcohol is that the more one drinks, the more one builds up the tolerance to its effects, with the result that eventually one needs to take more and more to produce the desired effects. The frequent social drinker is, therefore, always in danger, even if he or she controls the intake of alcohol during one session, of developing this tolerance and the progressive need for more alcohol, which eventually becomes compulsion.

When this stage is reached personality changes occur. The former frank and trusting man or woman become suspicious and resentful, and these traits are increased if the alcoholic is criticised or rejected by family and friends. The appetite declines, resulting in an unbalanced diet, which undermines the general health. In the last stages, the liver, heart and the nerves are affected, which may lead to convulsions and delirium tremors and eventually death.

There is only one cure to chronic alcoholism-absolute abstinence from consuming alcohol in any form for the rest of one’s life. This, of course, is a drastic remedy, and one which the compulsion and addiction of the disease makes a cure possible only if the alcoholic can somehow be encouraged in his/her desire to be cured.

There are a number of treatments available, but they have to be specially tailored to the individual needs of the alcoholic. For example, when anxiety and depression have caused the compulsion, a sedative may relieve these states of mind, and so remove the compulsion. For other cases, there are various drugs that work on the principle of aversion therapy. Taken with alcohol, they make the latter taste so horrible to have other extremely unpleasant effects, that the patient develops a thorough loathing for it. One form of treatment which seems to be particularly successful with alcoholism resulting from social drinking, is group therapy provided by the world-wide organisation, Alcoholic Anonymous which holds meetings whereby cured alcoholics give support and encouragement to those who wished to be cured.

NB: This unpublished article was written when I was a university student in 1994. I reproduced it here as a tribute to a friend who recently as a result of chronic alcoholism.