Author: John Carter

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

As a result, they eventually need to drink more to notice the same effects they once did. The pancreas helps regulate how your body uses insulin and responds to glucose. If your pancreas and liver don’t function properly due to pancreatitis or liver disease, you could experience low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia.

Risk factors for alcohol use disorder

These effects may be more serious and more noticeable if you drink regularly and tend to have more than 1 or 2 drinks when you do. Past guidance around alcohol use generally suggests a daily drink poses little risk of negative health effects — and might even offer a few health benefits. Discover how many people with alcohol use disorder in the United States receive treatment across age groups and demographics. Explore how many people ages 18 to 25 engage in alcohol misuse in the United States and the impact it has.

Alcohol’s physical effects on the body

These symptoms typically improve quickly when alcohol use stops. If your body can’t manage and balance your blood sugar levels, you may experience greater complications and side effects related to diabetes. These effects might not last very long, but that doesn’t make them insignificant. For more information about alcohol’s effects on the body, please visit the Interactive Body feature on NIAAA’s College Drinking Prevention website. Alcohol use can thicken those fluids, which can clog the ducts that those fluids flow out of,” Dr. Sengupta explains. And that’s on top of the toll that alcohol use can take on relationships, not to mention the potential for financial strain and legal troubles.

1. Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol.
2. Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder.
3. Alcohol will also dehydrate the body, affecting kidney function, and increasing blood pressure.
4. When you stop drinking, you might notice a range of physical, emotional, or mental health symptoms that ease as soon as you have a drink.

Since those effects don’t last long, you might not worry much about them, especially if you don’t drink often. And prolonged alcohol use can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. 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. That’s because alcohol can weaken your immune system, slow healing and make your body more susceptible to infection.

Health risks of alcohol use

The esophagus is lined with moist tissue called mucosa, and it is this tissue which is vulnerable upon contact with alcohol. Certain factors may increase your chances of experiencing alcohol use disorder. With these conditions, you’ll only notice symptoms during alcohol intoxication or withdrawal.

Alcohol does funny things to the heart, as many a lovelorn romantic has found to their cost.

Over time, drinking can also damage your frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions, like abstract reasoning, decision making, social behavior, and performance. Drinking too much alcohol over time may cause inflammation of the pancreas, resulting in pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can activate the release of pancreatic digestive enzymes and cause abdominal pain. Alcohol use can begin to take a toll on anyone’s physical and mental well-being over time.

Alcohol can damage the kidneys’ ability to filter harmful substances from the blood. Alcohol will also dehydrate the body, affecting kidney function, and increasing blood pressure. On top of that, if you smoke, you are more likely to develop chronic kidney disease. This condition can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the number of symptoms you have. Some people who drink eventually develop a tolerance to alcohol.

Health Challenges

Learn up-to-date facts and statistics on alcohol consumption and its impact in the United States and globally. Explore topics related to alcohol misuse and treatment, underage drinking, the effects of alcohol on the human body, and more. “The good news is that earlier stages of steatotic liver disease are usually completely reversible in about four to six weeks if you abstain from drinking alcohol,” Dr. Sengupta assures.

Explore statistics on alcohol-related deaths and emergency visits in the United States. For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute’s webpage “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” (last accessed June 6, 2024).

Having a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a party here and there isn’t going to destroy your gut. But even low amounts of daily drinking and prolonged and heavy use of alcohol can lead to significant problems for your digestive system. But there’s plenty of research to back up the notion that alcohol does lead to weight gain in general. Alcohol intoxication occurs in the drinker’s brain (it’s the reason the vast majority of drinkers simply drink – that loss of inhibitions and the feel-good factor).

With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis. Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis. Heavy drinking can also lead to a host of health concerns, like brain damage, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and even certain kinds of cancer. Heavy alcohol consumption will do more than break up relationships. High blood pressure, stroke, alcoholic cardiomyopathy (enlargement and weakening of the heart itself), and congestive heart failure are some effects. People who binge drink or drink heavily may notice more health effects sooner, but alcohol also poses some risks for people who drink in moderation.

Alcohol withdrawal can be difficult and, in some cases, life threatening. Depending on how often you drink and how much, you may need support from a healthcare professional if you want to stop drinking. Excessive drinking may affect your menstrual cycle and potentially increase your risk for infertility. Over time, alcohol can cause damage to your central nervous system.