Alcohol’s impact on your body starts from the moment you take your first sip. While an occasional glass of wine with dinner isn’t a cause for concern, the cumulative effects of drinking wine, beer, or spirits can negatively impact your entire body.
Digestive and endocrine glands
Drinking too much alcohol can cause abnormal activation of digestive enzymes produced by the pancreas. Buildup of these enzymes can lead to inflammation known as pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can become a long-term condition and cause serious complications.
Inflammatory damage
The liver helps break down and remove harmful substances from your body, including alcohol. In other words, the liver’s job is to rid your body of poisons, and it treats alcohol like a poison.
Long-term alcohol use interferes with this process and taxes the liver, increasing your risk for chronic liver inflammation and liver disease. The scarring caused by this inflammation is known as cirrhosis. The formation of scar tissue will destroy any organ, including the liver. As the scar tissue takes over, the working parts of your liver decrease, and it has a harder time doing its job of removing toxic substances from your body.
Sugar levels
The pancreas helps regulate your body’s insulin use and response to glucose. When your pancreas and liver are hindered or damaged by alcohol, you may experience low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. Or the damaged pancreas may fail to produce enough insulin to utilize sugar, leading to hyperglycemia, or too much sugar in the blood.
People with diabetes or hypoglycemia should avoid excessive amounts of alcohol, as it contains high amounts of calories and/or sugar and can make it difficult for the body to regulate glucose levels.
Central nervous system
To understand alcohol’s impact on your body, consider how it affects your central nervous system. Slurred speech may seem funny when watching a movie or a video, but it is actually one of the first warning signs you’ve had too much to drink. Alcohol can impede communication between your brain and your body, which is why you become uncoordinated after drinking too much. You may find it hard to balance or perform day-to-day tasks efficiently. This lack of communication and coordination is why you should never drive after drinking. As alcohol causes more damage to your central nervous system, you may experience numbness and tingling sensations in your feet and hands.
Drinking also makes it difficult for your brain to create long-term memories. It also reduces your ability to think clearly and make rational choices. Over time, frontal lobe damage can occur. This area of the brain is responsible for emotional control, short-term memory, and judgement, in addition to other vital roles.
Chronic and severe alcohol abuse can also cause permanent brain damage. This can lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder that affects memory.
Dependency
Some people who drink heavily may develop a physical and emotional dependency on alcohol. Alcohol withdrawal can be difficult and even life-threatening. It is common to need professional help to break an alcohol addiction, and often medications are prescribed to assist. Depending on the risk for withdrawal symptoms, detoxification can be managed on either an outpatient or inpatient basis.
Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal include:
- anxiety
- nervousness
- nausea
- tremors
- high blood pressure
- irregular heartbeat
- heavy sweating
Seizures, hallucinations, and delirium may occur in severe cases of withdrawal.
Digestive system
Though it takes time for damage to the stomach and the rest of the digestive system to become apparent, the more you drink, the greater the damage that will occur.
Drinking can damage the tissues in your digestive tract and prevent your intestines from digesting food and absorbing nutrients and vitamins. As a result, malnutrition may occur.
Heavy drinking can lead to:
- dehydration
- gassiness/bloating/a feeling of fullness in your abdomen
- diarrhea or painful stools/constipation
Dehydration and constipation caused by heavy drinking can also result ulcers or hemorrhoids, which can in turn may cause dangerous internal bleeding. Ulcers can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated early.
People who consume too much alcohol may also be at risk for various types of cancer, such as cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, colon, or liver. Regular tobacco use in conjunction with regular alcohol consumption is likely to increase the risk.
Difficulty absorbing vitamins and minerals from food can cause anemia (i.e., a low red blood cell count). One of the biggest symptoms of anemia is fatigue.
Circulatory system
Alcohol can affect your heart and lungs. People who are chronic drinkers of alcohol have a higher risk of heart-related issues than people who do not drink. Women who drink are more likely to develop heart disease than men who drink.
Circulatory system complications include:
- high blood pressure
- irregular heartbeat
- difficulty pumping blood through the body
- stroke
- heart attack/heart disease/heart failure
Sexual and reproductive health
Rather than lowering inhibitions and resulting in a more active, fulfilling sex life, alcohol can cause significant issues with sexual and reproductive functions. Heavy drinking can prevent sex hormone production and lower your libido. Men who drink too much are more likely to experience erectile dysfunction. Women who drink too much may stop menstruating, putting them at a greater risk for infertility.
Women who drink heavily during pregnancy put themselves and their unborn child at risk. There is a higher risk of premature delivery, miscarriage, or stillbirth. Babies may be born with:
- fetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD)
- learning difficulties
- long-term health issues
- increased emotional problems
- physical development abnormalities
Skeletal and muscle systems
As mentioned before, alcohol causes problems absorbing vitamins and nutrients. This includes the vitamins your body needs to keep your bones strong. Therefore, long-term alcohol use may cause thinner or weaker bones and increase your risk for fractures if you fall.
Drinking alcohol may also lead to muscle weakness, cramping, and eventually atrophy.