Scientists in Canada say they have arrived Found a new way to treat potentially life-threatening alcohol intoxication – by helping people literally breathe alcohol into their system. His device, which is the designAcquisition to allow people to safely hyperventilate, alcohol approval from healthy volunteers accelerated three times faster In a small pilot study.
In general, toxins such as alcohol are broken down by large amounts in the liver. The liver can take many punishments, but the rate at which it metabolizes alcohol is constant, meaning You can’t speed up the process At a time when the amount of alcohol in your body is enough to be fatal or seriously harmful. Most likely, all doctors can do when someone goes through is to make sure their breathing and body functions are stable until the liver completes its function.
But the lungs also play a role Small role Alcoholically removed naturally from our body, something that you may have noticed if you have ever smelled on someone’s breath. This happens when the blood saturated with alcohol reaches the lungs to replenish with fresh oxygen. Some alcohol in the blood, With carbon dioxide, Then exhale.
This process can be accelerated by hyperventilation, or by the action of rapid breathing. The trouble is, When we hyperventilate, we also lose a lot of carbon dioxide. To prevent this from happening, our body has evolved to make us seriously upset or lose consciousness when we do hyperventilation for too long (so it can become debilitating when one is scared).
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According to study author and inventor Joseph Fisher The device has found a way to interrupt this trigger while still keeping the person safe. The patient is equipped with a gas mask, which is connected to a supply of oxygen oxygen and carbon dioxide. The mixture of gases they breathe causes them to hyperventilate, while the device then feeds them enough carbon dioxide that the body does not exhale involuntarily.
“With each breath, it is designed to release a normal amount of carbon dioxide and return an extra amount on the next breath,” he said. Said Fisher, an anesthesiologist and senior researcher at the University Health Network in Toronto. In an email. “All this is done simply by a mechanical valve so it’s stupidProof – without the need for electronics or computers. “
To test out Device, Fisher and his team recruited five healthy volunteers and asked them to lightly intoxicate (drink of choice 80-Proof vodka mixed with 500 ml of water). In a series of experiments conducted over two days, they were observed both naturally and for half an hour using the device. Their alcohol levels were measured by a breathalyzer and by blood samples taken throughout the experiment. Compared to the natural method, the volunteers fell silent three times Fast when using the breath Device.
The team had findings Published On scientific reports Thursday.
Although the study sample is very small, it means that its results should be viewed with a little caution, the device itself is not untested. Just last year the company Fisher Co.Founded Rnhill Medical, won Marketing approval From the Food and Drug Administration for a device (known as a clearermate) for use in emergency rooms in the U.S. as a treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning. Fisher says the same device could be used to treat both conditions as well as others in the future, including more toxic forms of alcohol poisoning, such as People who have consumed Windshield-washer fluid (methanol) or bootleg booze (polyethylene glycol).
According to Fisher, the original fact That helps clear our lungs Alcohol has been known from our body for almost a century. But he’s not sure why no one has yet thought of trying to exploit this process.
“The method is so simple and clear that even looking at it, no one recognizes its potential.” “Hiding in plain sight. I don’t know how else to explain it. “
This device can be used safely by anyone with alcohol poisoning who is conscious, it can promise even more for those people Pass out, While still safe for health care workers to manage. “The higher the concentration of alcohol in the blood, the more effective the method is,” Fisher said. “If the patient is unconscious, a tube can be placed in the lung to protect the patient’s breathing, and the method can be applied manually.”
Although ClearMThe eat device has won the FDA Allowed for carbon monoxide poisoning, more Information will be required It is accepted as a treatment for alcohol poisoning. For that, Fisher and his team hope that other researchers will be ready to test this device in real.World settings, Like emergency rooms and intensive care units, And publish their own findings.
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