Ways Alcohol Affects Your Overall Health
Alcohol’s impact on your body starts from the very second you take your first sip. While the occasional glass of wine isn’t much of a concern, the compound effects of drinking wine, beer, or spirits however can take its toll in the most severe manner if not moderated.
If you’re getting ready for a night out or are looking for the perfect nightcap, read on to make sure you know you are aware of the trade-off beforehand and to be able to prepare your body accordingly.
The Short-Term Effects
There’s no need to be a regular drinker to experience short-term effects of alcohol on the body and mind. The liver is biologically able to process at most one standard drink of alcohol per hour. However, this can vary depending on a number of factors, including the person's age, weight, liver function, and gender. The effects of alcohol can range from mild, such as skin flushing, to more severe symptoms such as passing out or vomiting.
Some of the short-term effects of alcohol can include:
Lowered inhibitions (resulting in poor social judgment), trouble concentrating, loss of coordination, dulled perception (especially vision), mood swings, reduced core body temperature, raised blood pressure, passing out, vomiting, ethnic coma.
The Long-Term Effects
Drinking excessively over time, trigger chronic physical and mental health issues. Heavy drinking is scientifically proven to contribute to liver damage, cardiovascular disease, and multiple types of cancer.
The long-term effects of drinking may include:
Reduction of grey and white matter of the brain, memory loss, as well as loss of attention span , learning disabilities, alcoholic hepatitis, liver fibrosis, steatosis, throat, mouth, larynx, breast, liver, colorectal, or esophageal cancer, high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, stroke(s), irregular heart beat.
Alcohol Poisoning
Binge drinking is a dangerous practice that is bound to cause physical harm and can consequently lead to alcohol poisoning.
Some of the signs for alcohol poisoning can include: confusion, nausea/vomiting, slowed breathing, cyanosis, or a blue-tinted skin, pale skin, low body temperature, or hypothermia, unconsciousness, and seizures.
It is extremely important to notify your local emergency services if you feel a person is experiencing alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning can result in permanent brain damage or death if not treated promptly - a person’s BAC (blood alcohol concentration) can keep rising even after they stop drinking or pass out.
More information about excessive drinking
15 or more drinks over a week and/or 4 or more glasses per occasion is considered excessive drinking.
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ABUSE ON THE BODY
Chronic heavy drinking is tied to several health problems. Below are some of the ways alcohol can affect your body:
Liver: One of the likely medical consequences of chronic alcohol abuse is liver disease. Over time, with frequent alcohol abuse, the liver can become inflamed and scarred. Fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer are some of the conditions that can develop.
Digestive system: Alcohol can wear down even the lining of the stomach and increase the production of stomach acid, which can consequently lead to ulcers. Alcohol may also alter nutrient breakdown, absorption, transportation, storage, and excretion, leading to nutrient deficiencies and trouble fully utilising nutrients. For instance, thiamine deficiency is common and can lead to serious neurological issues. Alcohol also has the ability to impair blood sugar control.
Pancreas: Alcohol can prompt pancreatic production of harmful substances, which can be a catalyst for pancreatitis and result in impairing overall digestion.
Central nervous system (CNS): Thiamine, or vitamin B1, deficiency associated with chronic heavy drinking can lead to Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome. Symptoms can include confusion, impaired coordination, learning disabilities, and memory difficulties.
Cardiovascular (CV) health: Drinking alcohol has major impacts on cardiovascular health. In 2016, alcohol-related CV diseases caused an estimated 593,000 deaths globally. Consuming too much alcohol is linked to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, trouble circulating blood to the body, blood clotting, strokes, cardiomyopathy (sagging, stretched heart muscle), or even heart attacks. Excessive alcohol use, both directly and through malnutrition, can also lead to anaemia.
Reproductive health: Erectile dysfunction and irregular menstruation are some of the effects alcohol can have on a person’s reproductive health. Both men and women can suffer from reduced fertility with long-term, heavy drinking. Women who drink while pregnant are at an increased risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, or having a child with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
Bones: Calcium imbalance in the body is a common problem with alcohol abuse. Consuming too much alcohol can also alter vitamin D levels, which is a major component for calcium absorption. Lack of calcium increases the risk of osteoporosis which in turn increases the risk of bone fractures.
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ABUSE ON THE BRAIN
When it comes to the brain, alcohol is mimicked as a depressant to the central nervous system. This can have varying effects, exciting users under some conditions and sedating users under other conditions. Excitement, typically at lower doses, may be due to alcohol suppressing the inhibitory parts of the brain. Functions such as breathing, speech, thought, memory, and movement can be impacted by consuming alcohol. Mental effects can include mood changes, lowered inhibitions, relaxation, impaired judgment, slowed reaction times, difficulty remembering, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Chronic use of alcohol can eventually lead to permanent changes in the brain, as explored in the previous sections.
Alcohol use disorder is also linked to several mental illnesses which can develop separately from the disorder and may even predate it, such as major depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and others. These conditions may increase the likelihood of alcohol-related issues, possibly due, in part, to using alcohol as a self-medicating substance. There also may be common underlying risk factors that increase the likelihood of both substance use disorders and mental illnesses.
TO SUMMARIZE
Excessive alcohol use, even if not chronic, can lead to alcohol–induced psychiatric syndromes, such as alcohol-induced depressive disorder, alcohol-induced bipolar disorder, alcohol-induced sleep disorder and alcohol-induced psychotic disorder amongst others. These disorders are however temporary and can occur after significant intoxication and/or withdrawal.
Now that you know what to expect, you might just prevent yourself from getting into more serious trouble the next time you pick yourself up a drink. There’s never a good enough reason to drink alcohol but if you really must, make sure you’re conscious of how much you intake and do so within your tolerance limits. Moreover, a good rule of thumb is to keep hydrated throughout and have at least one 16-ounce glass of water for every 12-ounce beer or 4 to 6 ounces of liquor you drink.