Alcohol and your health: Risks, benefits, and controversies

By examining the lifestyle characteristics of people who consume either no alcohol or varying amounts of alcohol, researchers may uncover other factors that might account for different health outcomes. For example, gender, age, education, physical fitness, diet, and social involvement are among the factors that may be taken into account in determining relative risk of disease. Alcohol consumption has consequences for the health and well-being of those who drink and, by extension, the lives of those around them. The research reviewed here represents a wide spectrum of approaches to understanding the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption.

• To avoid driving after consuming alcohol, it’s helpful to designate a nondrinking driver, or to use public transportation.
• Impulsiveness, loss of coordination, and changes in mood can affect your judgment and behavior and contribute to more far-reaching effects, including accidents, injuries, and decisions you later regret.
• But when alcohol swings into action, it tells your brain to hold off on making that hormone.
• Alcohol use can exacerbate mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression, or lead to their onset.

Your Brain Shrinks

Alcohol misuse at an early age increases the risk of developing AUD. Genetics or a family history of alcohol misuse increases that risk as well. Childhood trauma, mental health issues, and stress can effects of alcohol on the body also lead people to begin drinking or drink more than usual. Continuing to drink despite clear signs of significant impairments can result in an alcohol overdose.

Alcohol and cancer: A growing concern

No one should ever ride in a car with a driver who has been drinking. In people assigned male at birth, alcohol consumption can decrease testosterone production and sperm quality. In people assigned female at birth, alcohol use can interfere with regular ovulation and menstrual cycles and marijuana addiction make it difficult to get pregnant.

• With alcoholic liver disease, the greater the alcohol intake per week the greater the liver damage and that increases exponentially for someone drinking six to eight bottles or more of wine in that period, for example.
• Teens who drink are also more likely to die by falling or drowning, and are more likely to drink and drive.
• Ethanol is classified as a “depressant” because it has a generally slowing effect on brain activity through activation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathways.
• Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them.

Excessive alcohol use includes:

Heavy drinkers who suddenly stop or reduce their alcohol intake will experience mild withdrawal symptoms within 6 hours after their last drink. It can potentially be fatal depending on your drinking habits, how long you’ve been drinking, and how frequently you drink. Drinking also impacts the sex-related hormones of testosterone and estrogen.

Effects of alcohol on the brain

• If you drink every day, or almost every day, you might notice that you catch colds, flu or other illnesses more frequently than people who don’t drink.
• It can also make it harder to keep a steady body temperature and control your movements.
• Alcohol has been found to adversely affect our immune system and the matter of concern as far as this issue is concerned is that immune responses are influenced by even moderate amounts of alcohol intake 26.
• If you are on any medications, talk to your health care provider about how alcohol may affect them.
• It’s found in a wide range of alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits like vodka, whiskey, rum, and gin.

A recent report in BioMed Central’s Immunology journal found that alcohol impairs the body’s ability to fight off viral infections. Alcohol is quickly absorbed under the tongue and the mucosal lining of your mouth. The rest goes into your bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine. Working with an addiction specialist can help you determine the proper course of action toward recovery. However, when the intestines become irritated and inflamed by too much alcohol, they lose their efficiency, which manifests as chronic diarrhea.

Effects of Alcohol on the Body

During this time, a person may do things that they do not remember later. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic brain disorder that makes it difficult to control alcohol use, even when it’s causing problems. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has information on how alcohol impacts your health. It also has resources to help those looking to change their drinking habits.

Unhealthy alcohol use is one of the most consistent factors that increases the likelihood of developing a blood or brain vessel blockage disease, respectively called coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease. These conditions have very serious consequences, and can even manifest as heart attacks and strokes when blockages prevent blood flow to the brain or heart. Alcohol consumption irritates the lining of the stomach and intestines.