Effect of alcohol in our body

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The Effects of Alcohol On Your Body: Side Effects, Dangers & Health Risks

Alcohol is the second most widely used substance in the U.S., behind tobacco. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 86% of Americans ages 18 and older reported using alcohol at some point in their lifetime.1
Although alcohol can make a person feel happy, pleasant, and sociable in short periods of time, excessive or chronic, long-term drinking can lead to alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction, officially referred to as an alcohol use disorder. Chronic alcohol use is also associated with other cognitive and mental health issues, including problems with learning or memory as well as exacerbating or causing serious mental health issues like depression and anxiety.2,3
Alcohol doesn’t just affect the mind; it also affects the body. Evidence suggests that even drinking within recommended limits may increase a person’s overall risk of death from various causes, such as from several types of cancer and certain forms of cardiovascular disease.4 This article will help you understand how alcohol affects your physical health as well as answer many common questions about alcohol and its short-term and long-term effects on the body.

How Does Alcohol Influence Your Physical Health?​

Any amount of alcohol can affect your body’s health and wellness, and the risk starts from the moment you take a sip. An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, with more than half of those deaths due to health effects like heart or liver disease from drinking too much over time.5,6

Is There a Safe Amount of Alcohol?​

Although research suggests a low to moderate amount of alcohol may have certain protective factors for the cardiovascular system, a robust 2018 study published in The Lancet suggests the only truly “safe” level of drinking is zero.3,7 As phrased in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, “If adults age 21 years and older choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more.” Although the Guidelines suggest that men who choose to drink should limit drinking to no more than two drinks per occasion, and women should have no more than one. (Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men.)8 Drinking less is better for your health, and among those who do drink, higher average alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of death from all causes compared with lower average alcohol consumption.4

Short-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Body​

• Brain: Alcohol slows down the chemicals and pathways your brain uses to control your body, altering mood, slowing down reflexes and affecting balance. It also can contribute to learning, memory, and sleep problems.
• Heart: Alcohol increases your heart rate and expands your blood vessels, making more blood flow to the skin (which causes you to feel warm), however, this heat passes out through the skin, causing body temperature to fall after it has risen.
• Digestive: Alcohol is first broken down in the stomach, promoting an increase in digestive juices. Alcohol also irritates the small intestine and colon where it is further broken down and absorbed, and it also can affect the normal speed that food moves through them, which may result in abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea.
• Kidney: Alcohol dries out (i.e., dehydrates) the body, which can affect the kidneys and the body’s ability to regulate fluid and electrolytes. It also disrupts hormones that affect kidney function.
• Liver: Alcohol—most of it, in fact—is metabolized in the liver, which filters circulating blood and removes and destroys toxic substances, including alcohol. The liver can handle a certain amount of alcohol, but as a person continues to drink, it can become stressed to the point of causing permanent damage.

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Drinking excessively within a short period of time, or , increases the stress on your body and internal organs (and can result in feeling a hangover following a drinking session). High levels of alcohol in your body can result in headaches, severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion.3
Drinking excessively, even on a single occasion, increases a person’s risk of detrimental heart effects. These effects include:16

• Cardiomyopathy, which means that your heart muscle has a harder time pumping blood.
• Arrhythmias, which is an irregular heartbeat.
• High blood pressure.
• Stroke.

Excessive alcohol use on a single occasion can also put you at risk of alcohol poisoning. This can occur when your body is overwhelmed by the amount of alcohol you drank and is no longer able to effectively process it from your system. You can experience a negative impact on your breath rate, heart rate, and gag reflex. Severe alcohol poisoning can lead to a coma and even death.3