Detrimental effects of malnutrition on the damage induced by alcoholism: a study of animal models that simulate chronic alcoholism and malnutrition of large human groups.

The specific influence of malnutrition on the pathophysiological changes induced by chronic alcoholism is controversial; most studies are inconclusive because they have been made in chronic alcoholics that develop malnutrition as a complication of alcoholism. However, in vast human groups, alcoholism evolves in individuals that belong to a chronically undernourished population. In an attempt to simulate real-life conditions of malnutrition-alcoholism in humans, we studied in rats: (1) the effects of chronic malnutrition with tortilla, a corn bread that constitutes the main diet of large human groups; (2) the effects of chronic alcoholism with commercial brandy; and (3) the effects of chronic alcoholism and malnutrition combined. The damage induced either by alcoholism or that induced by malnutrition alone were of similar degree, whereas the combination of malnutrition and alcoholism led to a worsening of some parameters studied: body weight, leucocyte count and, more remarkably, in the tissue damage of several areas of the central nervous system.