Alcohol’s Effects on Health National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

Studies indicate a link between chronic alcohol consumption and long-term neurological complications. Alcohol can cause the hippocampus to shrink if consumed habitually over a long period, even in small amounts. The hippocampus is the area of the brain responsible for memory and learning. Binge drinking interrupts the brain’s communication pathways by flooding it with endorphins and dopamine, two of the brain’s «reward» chemicals. However, despite feeling temporary relief, even moderate drinkers don’t experience true health benefits.

Multiple body systems

In people assigned female at birth, alcohol use can interfere with regular ovulation and menstrual cycles and make it difficult to get pregnant. Alcohol use can cause sexual dysfunction, such as difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection and decreased sexual sensations. The impact alcohol has on the reproductive system extends beyond these temporary effects. Chronic alcohol use causes hormone imbalances in both men and women and leads to problems with fertility. Excess alcohol use can also impair nutrient absorption in the small intestine and increase the risk of malnutrition.

How Alcohol Affects Your Body

In fact, 52% of people admitted to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury have a measurable amount of alcohol in their system when they arrive at the emergency room. Certain factors may increase your chances of experiencing alcohol use disorder. With these conditions, you’ll only notice symptoms during alcohol intoxication or withdrawal. These symptoms typically improve quickly when alcohol use stops. Long-term alcohol use can affect bone density, leading to thinner bones and increasing your risk of fractures if you fall.

Around 31% of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities involve alcohol. The rate of alcohol-related emergency department visits increased by nearly 50% from 2006 to 2014, and about one-third of injuries treated at trauma centers are alcohol Sobriety related. In addition, a significant number of sexual assaults involve alcohol use. A comprehensive 2015 review found that alcohol use is one of the leading contributors to pancreatitis because it causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances. But once the sedative effect wears off, it can disrupt or lower the quality of your sleep. Binge drinking too often can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Excessive Drinking Leading to Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)

This is notable, because heart disease is already the leading cause of death in men and women. Alcohol’s effects go beyond it’s effects on individual health and well-being; it also has steep economic and societal costs. The excess use of alcohol leads to billions in lost productivity and healthcare costs.

Risks to Respiratory Ability and Pneumonias

• Unhealthy alcohol use can cause a change in shape and loss of motion in the lower chambers of the heart, which is a medical condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
• The heat from that extra blood passes right out of your body, causing your temperature to drop.
• It is important to always consume in moderation and to seek care if you exceed your limits.
• Along with unintentional injury, alcohol plays a significant role in intentional injuries as a result of aggression and violence.
• Laryngeal cancer affects the voice box, which contains vocal cords and aids in breathing.

In general, a healthy diet and physical activity have much greater health benefits than alcohol and have been more extensively studied. One night of binge drinking can jumble the electrical signals that keep your heart’s rhythm steady. If you do it for years, you can make those heart rhythm changes permanent and cause what’s called arrhythmia. Over time, it causes heart muscles to droop and stretch, like an old rubber band. Your heart can’t pump blood as well, and that impacts every part of your body. Over time, heavy drinking makes the organ fatty and lets thicker, fibrous tissue build up.

Some studies have found that even light or moderate drinking can lead to some deterioration of the hippocampus. We can all experience temporary and long-term effects of alcohol, depending on our consumption. This article discusses the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol and how to change your drinking habits. From the first sip, alcohol impacts the body—even if you don’t realize it.

• For men, binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks during a single occasion, while heavy drinking is 15 or more drinks per week.
• What many people don’t know is that alcohol abuse makes anxiety worse.
• It’s also why alcohol can make you feel sleepy or drowsy, especially as your blood alcohol concentration rises.
• Shortly after consumption, your body rapidly absorbs alcohol into the bloodstream.
• Over time, your brain’s structure and function change, leading to tolerance, meaning you may require higher amounts of alcohol to achieve the desired effects.
• If you have a little too much alcohol once in a while, it probably won’t do lasting damage if you’re otherwise healthy.

It can also make it harder to keep a steady body temperature and control your movements. Heavy drinking means eight or more drinks a week for women and 15 or more for men. The lower recommendation for women isn’t just because they are, on average, smaller than men. They produce less of the enzyme (called alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH) that breaks down alcohol. In addition, women tend to have more body fat, which tends to retain alcohol.

Problem drinking is not defined only by how often or even how much a person drinks. Instead, it comes down to the effects of alcohol addiction on a person’s life. People who have issues with their work life, family relationships, finances or emotions because of their alcohol use could have a drinking problem. Heavy drinking can affect the liver, which is our body’s natural detoxifying organ. Alcoholic liver disease is a spectrum of disease that includes steatosis, where an excess of fat builds up in the liver, and alcoholic hepatitis, where liver cells are chronically inflamed.

• The brain’s reward center becomes overloaded, leading to cravings when the alcohol wears off.
• If you or someone you know is experiencing withdrawal symptoms from long-term alcohol use, seek medical attention or professional treatment immediately.
• Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism.
• Over the long term, alcohol can increase your risk of more than 200 different diseases, including in the liver and pancreas, and certain cancers.
• Chronic alcohol use causes hormone imbalances in both men and women and leads to problems with fertility.

In the United States, people younger than age 21 are not legally able to drink alcohol. Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder. “Excessive alcohol consumption can cause nerve damage and irreversible forms of dementia,” Dr. Sengupta warns. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. Ways that your standard hangover cures won’t even begin to touch.

Genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors can impact how drinking alcohol affects your body and behavior. Theories suggest that for certain people drinking has a different and stronger impact that can lead to alcohol use disorder. These usually occur shortly after drinking and can last for several hours.

It also has a heavy strain on families, communities, and society as a whole. Increased violence, injuries, accidents, child abuse, and intimate partner violence are all linked to alcohol use. If a person consumes large amounts of alcohol regularly, their tolerance can increase, and the body requires more alcohol to achieve the desired effect. Alcohol can have a serious effect on the developing brain, from fetal development to the end of adolescence. If a woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy, the child may be born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Since the liver can only process the equivalent of one drink at a time, the body may remain saturated with the alcohol that has not yet left the body.