Too much alcohol has a detrimental effect on many areas of your body, from impairing your reasoning ability to altering your mood and damaging the tissues of your brain, stomach and muscles.
The brain
At first, small amounts of alcohol can have a stimulatory effect on the brain, but as blood alcohol levels rise your brain becomes increasingly intoxicated. This affects coordination, balance, reflexes and your ability to respond coherently.
Long-term alcoholism can result in a deficiency of thiamine, a B vitamin, leading to an inability to metabolize carbohydrates.
A single unit of alcohol can slow down your brain. In extreme cases the drinker loses consciousness as key brain centers are affected by alcohol. Prolonged alcohol abuse permanently reduces mental ability, leading to dementia.
Vision
As the visual cortex ix affected, vision may become blurred. The drinker may experience double vision and be unable to focus on objects, perhaps even suffering hallucinations.
Breathing
A small amount of alcohol is excreted through the lungs; this and the quantity of alcohol that remains in the mouth can lead to bad breath and the drinker literally reeking of alcohol.
In extreme cases, excess alcohol can anaesthetize brain centers and lung muscles to such an extent that the drinker stops breathing resulting in death.
Stomach
Excess alcohol can lead to nausea and stomach ulcers. In extreme cases, alcohol poisoning can lead to such violent vomiting that portions of the stomach lining are expelled from the body.
Large quantities of alcohol affect the appetite, causing heavy drinker to neglect their diet. Alcohol has a high calorie count, but few useful nutrients; many drinkers become overweight and bloated.
Liver
Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage the liver, causing it to shrink and become defective, a condition known as cirrhosis. The liver is the main detoxing organ of the body and it is the one that is hardest worked and most likely to suffer stress from alcohol excess. If this continues, it will be unable to carry out its detoxifying role adequately and your body will suffer further illness.
Pain receptors
As the level of alcohol in the blood rises, the brain’s pain center is numbed and the body becomes desensitized. This may seem to be an advantage when you fall over at the time, but the bruises will still hurt in the morning when you sober up.
Alcohol’s effect on mood
The most immediate effect of alcohol is that drinkers become more relaxed and sociable. This is particularly marked in people who are usually shy and quiet as its effects enable them to ‘loosen up’. This exacerbates as time progresses, however, and can result in violent or depressive tendencies that are brought out as the drinker loses control of their social restraints. Long-term alcohol abuse can trigger severe mental illnesses, such as paranoia and schizophrenia.
Pregnancy
Drinking while pregnant can result in the baby being born with a low birth-weight and in severe cases, birth defects and fetal alcohol syndrome.
Alcohol can also have a number of effects on fertility, ranging from reducing your ability to think rationally and say ‘no’, therefore increasing the likelihood of unwanted pregnancy, to reducing sex drive. It also reduces men’s ability to perform and will lower sperm count.
Headaches
As the body seeks to excrete toxins from the alcohol as quickly as possible, rates of urination and sweating both increase. This can leave the body dehydrated, leading to a throbbing headache.
Speech
Lack of muscle control can lead to slurred speech, while loss of the ability to make rational judgments can lead to the drinker saying things they may regret in the morning, even if they think they mean them at the time.
Heart
Excessive drinking of fattening alcoholic drinks, such as beers and lagers, causes drinkers to put on weight, resulting in strain on the heart.
Alcohol’s relaxant properties can slow heartbeat and even, in extreme cases, cause the heart to stop beating altogether leading to heart attacks and strokes.
On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that the tannins in some alcoholic drinks, such as red wine, help to prevent the build-up of cholesterol and are beneficial in sensible quantities.
Blood
In general, alcohol reaches the bloodstream within five minutes of ingestion and the more you drink, the more you have travelling in your blood.
Alcohol can affect your red blood cells’ ability to release glucose, causing blood sugar levels to fall to abnormally low levels (hypoglycemia) and resulting in confusion and loss of consciousness.
Muscles
Muscle coordination is increasingly reduced as the relevant control centers of the brain become intoxicated. This can result in clumsiness, staggering and an inability to stand up.
Memory
Excessive measures of alcohol can affect short-term memory so that the drinker does not remember what they did or said the following day.
Skin
An excessive alcohol intake can lead to unpleasant skin condition, such as jaundice. Small blood vessels in the skin begin to dilate giving the individual a flushed appearance. Tiny blood vessels may break on the face and neck leading to a blotched, ruddy face.
If you are going to drink alcohol, drink in moderation to avoid these detrimental effects on your body.
