Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="guywhofishes" data-source="post: 54820" data-attributes="member: 337">dirty - please translate for us lay peoples[h=1]Alcohol's effect on body temperature: hypothermia, hyperthermia or poikilothermia?[/h]<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Myers%20RD%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=6974036" target="_blank">Myers RD</a>.[h=3]Abstract[/h]A  series of five experiments was undertaken in order to characterize the  pharmacological effects of alcohol on the body temperature of the  unrestrained rat. After a thermistor probe was fixed within the colon of  each animal and its body temperature had stabilized, physiological  saline. 2.0 g/kg or 4.0 g/kg of ethyl alcohol was given by intragastric  gavage. A constant concentration of 20% was utilized with doses  determined volumetrically according to the individual weight of the  animal. The following observations were made: (1) At a laboratory room  temperature of 22 degrees C, alcohol produced a dose-dependent decline  in colonic temperature. This fall was enhanced when the rat was placed  in a chamber with an ambient temperature of 8 degrees C, but reversed  into a hyperthermic response when the ambient temperature of the rat was  elevated to 36 degrees C. (2) If the rat was exposed for one hour to  either a warm (36 degrees C) or cold (8 degrees C) ambient temperature  beginning at the time of the intragastric gavage with alcohol, the body  temperature of the animal correspondingly decreased or increased,  respectively. The magnitude of the shift in the animal's colonic  temperature depended solely on the dose of alcohol given, i.e.,  thermolability was enhanced to a greater extent by the r.0 g/kg dose  than the 2.0 g/kg dose. Exposure of the rat to a high or low ambient  temperature prior to intragastric gavage with alcohol also affected the  body temperature displacement as well as the direction of change. (3)  Following the 4.0 g/kg alcohol dose, the animal's colonic temperature  could be controlled precisely by varying the ambient temperatures in the  26 degrees C--32 degrees C range of thermoneutrality; in fact, within  limits, the rat's temperature could be held constant at any  predetermined level. (4) Pretreatment of the animal with 6.0 ml of a 50%  solution of glucose given subcutaneously failed to attenuate the  poikilothermic effect of intragastric alcohol administered in a dose of  4.0 g/kg. (5) Comparisons of the effect on body temperature of  equipotent doses of sodium pentobarbital (25 mg/kg), administered  intraperitoneally, and alcohol (4.0 g/kg) given by gavage showed that  either a high or low ambient temperature elevated or lowered the colonic  temperature of the rat at an identical rate and magnitude. It is  concluded that alcohol acts acutely as any other anesthetic agent to  abolish all thermoregulatory control functions. Thus, the physiological  mechanisms for the dissipation of body heat as well as those for heat  production are incapacitated by the drug. Clearly, alcohol is a  poikilothermic agent, and thus, the decline in body temperature observed  in the animal typically kept at a laboratory room temperature of 20  degrees C--24 degrees C represents the result of a cold challenge and is  not due to a postulated "hypothermic" effect of alcohol.- - - Updated - - -my crude attempt:alcohol doesn't just screw up your ability to stay warm in cold temps - it also screws up your ability to cool off in hot temps?i.e. it turns you into an amphibian?</blockquote>

Verification: What is the most common fish caught on this site?

Reply to thread

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA