DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Will you please discuss the effects of alcohol abuse on the body? My husband drinks a half-gallon of wine every night and has done so for many years. He drinks to get drunk. He used to drink Scotch but switched to wine because “it’s not as strong as hard liquor.” Please describe the effects of this on his body. – T.J.

ANSWER: An alcoholic drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor. All have the same effect on organs in this amount. Generally, men can safely have two alcoholic drinks a day; women, one.

A man who drinks five to seven alcoholic drinks a day (half that amount for a woman) for 10 years frequently faces the consequences of a scarred, nonfunctioning liver – liver cirrhosis. The only cure for a cirrhotic liver is liver transplantation. Lesser amounts of alcohol that exceed the safe limit can fill the liver with fat, a dangerous condition, or can inflame the liver – alcoholic hepatitis, an even more dangerous condition. Cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis are potentially lethal.

Excessive amounts of alcohol can inflame the pancreas and lead to its inability to produce digestive enzymes and insulin. The consequences are malnutrition and diabetes.

Alcohol does not spare the brain. Among other things, it can cause a degeneration of the cerebellum, the part of the brain that contributes to balance. It can permanently injure nerves and result in a condition of chronic burning pain or of profound muscle weakness.

Alcoholism can weaken heart muscle and lead to heart failure.

It greatly increases the risks for mouth and esophagus cancer.

Chronic overindulgence depresses the number of white blood cells, and that makes a person vulnerable to many infections.

The list goes on and on. I don’t know if you, I or this information will affect your husband’s drinking.

Often, alcoholics – and your husband is an alcoholic – use alcohol as self-medication for psychological problems that can be treated if only they will face the problem and admit they need help.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I would like some information on Guillain-Barre syndrome. My doctor thinks I might have it. – B.M.

ANSWER: If you have Guillain-Barre (gee-YAWN buh-RAY) syndrome, it must be a very mild case. GB results from an attack by the immune system on nerve insulation. It peels the insulation off nerves and causes them to short-circuit. The attack usually comes after a respiratory or intestinal infection. The infection turns on the immune destruction.

Early symptoms are a tingling or painful sensation in the feet or lower legs. That’s followed by muscle weakness beginning in the legs and ascending so that even the breathing muscles can become paralyzed. When that happens, patients have to be treated in intensive-care units and placed on ventilators. Paralysis usually spreads rapidly, and hospitalization is the rule for this illness.

Once the diagnosis is made, treatment is begun quickly to stop the progress of the infection. One therapy is intravenous gamma globulin, which can neutralize the nerve-destroying antibodies produced by the immune system. Another treatment is to cleanse the blood of the harmful antibodies in a procedure called plasmapheresis.

About 85 percent of GB patients recover within months to a year. Five percent die, and the rest are left with some permanent disabilities.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Last weekend, my husband and I ate a lobster dinner. We have developed all the symptoms of a cold. Could this be due to the lobster? – P.G.

ANSWER: Cold germs are spread via direct contact with hands or fingers coated with the cold virus or through inhaling airborne sprays of virus that come from a coughing or sneezing infected person.

I can assure you – something I can rarely do – that you did not catch a cold from eating lobster.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Six years ago, after petting a dog, I developed scabies. Since then, if I am even close to a dog, the condition returns. I use scabies medicine, but it takes a long time for it to work. Do you know of any procedure that could help me? – S.S.

ANSWER: The next time you have a skin outbreak of what passes for scabies, get to a dermatologist. Much in your story doesn’t add up. The human scabies mite is adapted to human skin only. It doesn’t come from animals. On rare occasions, the mite that causes dog mange can cause a skin reaction in humans that might pass for scabies, but it is not scabies, and this doesn’t happen often.

I can’t tell you what you have. I can be pretty sure in telling you that you don’t have scabies.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.