Alcohol is a psychoactive substance that produces dependence properties that have been used by many people for centuries. The harmful effects are seen extremely after a long span of excessive drinking.
If you have lots of alcohol once in a long while, it might not have lasting damages to your body, but excessive drinking almost every day or frequently can lead to preventable causes of death.
CNS- Central Nervous System
You must have noticed that alcohol impacts your nervous system quickly causing you to give hard times doing simple things like walking or talking. Slurred speech is the very first sign of excessive drinking.
Too much alcohol damages your frontal lobe, the area of the brain that is responsible for short-term memory, emotional control, and eventually, it causes permanent brain disorder.
Liver damage
The liver helps break down and remove waste and harmful substances from your body. Consuming too much alcohol can lead to problems of this process and causes liver inflammation.
Liver inflammation is called cirrhosis, the formation of scar tissue that destroys the liver and that liver then is not able to break down and remove waste hence leads to life-threatening.
Pancreatitis
Excess alcohol leads to pancreatitis; it is the inflammation of the pancreas. It is premature activation of proenzymes and chronic exposure to acetaldehyde which is a chemical that damages the pancreas.
The pancreas helps regulate blood sugar levels, overconsumption of alcohol leads to side effects related to diabetes. It prevents the body from producing enough insulin to manage sugar levels in your body.
Digestive problems
Alcohol burns your esophagus, the inner linings of the intestines and stomach. This gives you ulcers and chronic inflammation in these parts making them difficult to digest.
The vitamins and minerals are not absorbed adequately due to damage of the gastrointestinal tract into the blood leading to malnourishment.
Immune Dysfunction
Overconsumption debilitates the immune system which then causes various diseases. Alcohol affects the white cells and platelets. A change in number, mostly reducing weakens the immune system and ability of the body to ward off infections and diseases.
Cardiovascular health
Alcohol causes the rise in blood pressure by triggering the release of hormones that cause constriction of blood vessels; it adversely affects heart health.
Angina, High blood pressure, and heart failure are the complications alcohol leads. Stroke is another deadly complication of excessive boozing.
Osteoporosis
Heavy alcohol consumption during adolescence affects bone health and increases the risk of developing osteoporosis. It is the loss of bone mass.
Alcohol changes the calcium and vitamin D production in the body and cortisol levels which weakens the bones.
Cancer
Chronic alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, larynx, liver, rectum, stomach, and breast.
It damages the cells of the organs in your body causing cancer. People who tend to smoke while drinking is at higher risk of developing cancer.
Conclusion
Though a little bit of alcohol cannot affect your health for a long time but this can change into binge drinking. And that would obviously be a matter of problem as it damages almost every aspect of your health- brains, nervous system, digestive system and bones too.
If you think the problem is slipping out of your hands, you can always seek the help of a doctor and therapist to manage your drinking habits. Prevention is always better than cure.
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