what are the harmful effects of drinking alcohol?
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Long-Term Health Risks. Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases and other serious problems including: High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems. Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, and colon.
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Heavy drinking can make you more likely to get serious health problems like liver disease, cancer, and peptic ulcers, among others. Regular or high alcohol use can hurt your heart and lead to diseases of the heart muscle, called cardiomyopathy. Drinking alcohol regularly also can raise your blood pressure.
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Drinking alcohol, especially in the first 3 months of pregnancy, increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and your baby having a low birthweight. Drinking after the first 3 months of your pregnancy could affect your baby after they're born.
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How does alcohol affect my heart? There is a very clear link between regularly drinking too much alcohol and having high blood pressure. Over time, high blood pressure (hypertension) puts strain on the heart muscle and can lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD), which increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.
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1. Anemia. Excessive alcohol use can affect the hematologic system, which is made up of the blood, spleen, bone marrow, and the liver. It can cause your red blood cell count to be abnormally low, which is a condition called anemia.
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Consuming too much alcohol is linked to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, trouble pumping blood through the body, blood clots, stroke, cardiomyopathy (sagging, stretched heart muscle), or heart attack. Excessive alcohol use, both directly and through malnutrition, can also lead to anemia.
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In fact, drinking too much alcohol can even lead to gastritis, which is when your stomach lining gets irritated, inflamed and erodes. Symptoms vary but include indigestion, stomach pain, nausea, upset stomach and more vomiting. Alcohol poisoning is a common cause of vomiting after drinking.
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Drinking too much can have multiple negative effects on your body in the long term. Risks include weight gain, pancreatitis, heart problems, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, and a damaged liver.
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Alcohol slows the immune system, making bacteria-fighting white blood cells sluggish and much less efficient. Heavy drinkers may be more likely to succumb to illnesses such as tuberculosis or pneumonia, and increased risk of numerous forms of cancer.
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How Does Alcohol Affect the Brain? Alcohol has a profound effect on the complex structures of the brain. It blocks chemical signals between brain cells (called neurons), leading to the common immediate symptoms of intoxication, including impulsive behavior, slurred speech, poor memory, and slowed reflexes.
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Some studies found that, when comparing people who consume alcohol, drinking small quantities of alcohol (up to one standard drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men) is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome and early death.
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Brain scans of heavy drinkers indicate that alcohol negatively affects neurotransmission, brain cell metabolism, and blood flow within the frontal lobes and cerebellum.
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Put simply, alcohol irritates your digestive system. Drinking – even a little – makes your stomach produce more acid than usual, which can in turn cause gastritis (the inflammation of the stomach lining). This triggers stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in heavy drinkers, even bleeding.
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Heavy alcohol drinking is positively associated with many diseases and conditions, such as liver cirrhosis, upper gastrointestinal cancers, breast cancer amongst women, traffic accidents and violence, and overall mortality is relatively higher amongst individuals with a high alcohol intake compared with light consumers ...
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The liver. The liver breaks down most of the alcohol you drink so that it can be removed from the body. This creates substances that are even more harmful than alcohol. These substances can damage liver cells and cause serious liver disease.
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Excessive drinking (defined as more than one drink per day for women and more than one or two drinks per day for men) is associated with an increased risk for many health issues, such as liver disease (hepatitis and cirrhosis), irregular heart rhythms and heart failure, stomach ulcers, brain damage, stroke, cancer ( ...
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These symptoms can include anxiety or jumpiness, sweating, shaking, nausea, irritability, fatigue, and loss of appetite. continued use despite harmful consequences – even though drinking causes problems in various aspects of life and health, your loved one sadly continues to use alcohol.