How Does Alcohol Affect the Brain?

But when drinking becomes habitual or heavy, it increases your risk of high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat (arrhythmias), stroke, and cardiomyopathy (a weakening of the heart muscle). Chronic drinkers are walking around with a ticking time bomb in their chest—and most don’t realize it until it’s too late. Alcohol consumption irritates the lining of the stomach and intestines. A night of drinking can cause uncomfortable symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Chronic and excessive alcohol use disrupts the balance of bacteria in the gut microbiome (dysbiosis).

Memory loss & dementia

• No one should assume the information provided on Addiction Resource as authoritative and should always defer to the advice and care provided by a medical doctor.
• In low to moderate alcohol consumption, antioxidants may provide some cardiovascular benefits.
• Alcohol weakens your immune system, leaving your body more vulnerable to infections and illness.
• “Quitting alcohol improves your overall health and metabolic profile.

The liver is the body’s detox powerhouse, but alcohol overloads it like a Monday morning inbox. Over time, excessive drinking can lead to fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and eventually cirrhosis—a deadly condition where healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue. Our kidneys help regulate our body’s natural fluid balance through what’s called the renal system. Heavy fluid intake, such as excessive amounts of alcohol, can disturb this natural functioning.

Oftentimes, we aren’t thinking about how much or how often we consume alcohol or its effects on the body. How much harm alcohol causes your body depends on how much you drink, your pattern of drinking, and even the quality of the alcohol you drink. Your body size and composition, age, drinking experience, genetics, nutritional status, metabolism, and social factors all play a part as well. This kindling effect can also occur after chemical stimulus to the brain or body, such as anti-convulsant medication. This means a person’s alcohol withdrawal programme needs to be carefully planned, with close monitoring of its effects.

• Excess alcohol use can also impair nutrient absorption in the small intestine and increase the risk of malnutrition.
• The liver is the body’s detox powerhouse, but alcohol overloads it like a Monday morning inbox.
• Nowadays, current research states that any level of alcohol consumption can pose an increased risk of chronic disease development.
• While the harmful effects of alcohol can be disconcerting, healing and risk-reduction is within reach.

Long-Term Symptoms of Alcohol Use on Brain and Body

Intoxication impairs judgment and can result in inappropriate and illegal behaviors such as sexual promiscuity, disorderly conduct, driving while intoxicated and acts of violence. It can be misused among individuals of all ages, which may result in significant health, legal, and socio-economic damage. Alcohol is a legal recreational substance for adults and one of the most commonly used drugs in the United States. It can also be difficult for the body to process, putting extra pressure on the liver, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system, and other functions. At Georgia Addiction Treatment Center, we understand that every person struggling with addiction is unique. That means that every person’s path to recovery must be unique as well.

Alcohol misuse can also lead to high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), or increased heart rate. Chronic, heavy drinking raises the risk for ischemic heart disease (heart problems caused by narrowed arteries) and myocardial infarction (heart attack). Even if your heart is healthy, you’re significantly more likely to have a stroke if you drink heavily. In fact, one study found that binge drinkers (men who have more than 6 drinks in one day or women who have more than 4) have a nearly 40% higher stroke risk compared to those who never binge drink. Experts don’t fully understand the relationship between heavy drinking and stroke risk, Dr. Lebeda says.

Health effects of alcohol

People under the influence may engage in actions they would normally avoid, increasing the risk of injuries, accidents, and legal troubles. These changes in behavior can also impact relationships with friends or family who are around to notice the effects. Yes, you can experience significant reversal of alcohol-induced brain damage through prolonged sobriety, thanks to your brain’s neuroplasticity potential. Research shows that your brain can regenerate tissue and normalize cortical thickness in multiple regions. While complete recovery isn’t guaranteed, you’ll benefit from rehabilitation strategies including cognitive behavioral therapy and medication-assisted treatments.

Alcohol Overdose

“Some people think of the effects of alcohol as only something to be worried about if you’re living with alcohol use disorder, which was formerly called alcoholism,” Dr. Sengupta says. Drinking also impacts the sex-related hormones of testosterone and estrogen. Drinking can lower testosterone levels and cause sexual dysfunction. This can also create a negative correlation between alcohol and sex drive. This can deregulate menstrual cycles, cause or worsen infertility, and most disconcertingly, be a risk factor for some estrogen-mediated breast cancers. One of the simplest ways to keep your weight in check is by not drinking too much.

Acute pancreatitis can turn into chronic pancreatitis, which is a condition of constant inflammation of the what is alcoholism pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis is a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer and diabetes. Alcohol can affect behaviors that increase the likelihood of acquiring or transmitting HIV to others.

• These complications affect several bodily systems, including the GI, neurological, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems.
• You may like to read some more about alcohol consumption and risks .
• Drinking also impacts the sex-related hormones of testosterone and estrogen.
• Tolerance and dependence can both happen as symptoms of alcohol use disorder, a mental health condition previously referred to as alcoholism, that happens when your body becomes dependent on alcohol.
• With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis.

The Physical Effects of Alcohol on Your Body

• There is also evidence that alcohol can disrupt or delay puberty.
• Depending on how often you drink and how much, you may need support from a healthcare professional if you want to stop drinking.
• Alcohol affects every body system, so it can cause health problems throughout the body.
• Women who abstain demonstrate sharper declines in global cognitive function compared to light drinkers, though alcohol consumption beyond 10g/day consistently reverses any potential benefits.
• Alcohol disrupts frontal cortex functioning, leading to poor judgment, difficulty weighing options logically, and increased impulsivity.

Chronic alcohol use and binge drinking damage the heart muscle, making it harder for the heart to pump blood effectively. Alcohol can also contribute to arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) and hypertension (high blood pressure), increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. This article discusses the long-term effects of alcohol, including the risks to your physical health and mental well-being. Heavy alcohol use can disturb the endocrine system, disrupting the hormones that help maintain the body’s stability and health. There is also evidence that alcohol can disrupt or delay puberty. Current research points to health risks even at low amounts of alcohol consumption, regardless of beverage type.

What Are the Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on Your Body?

However, those with a lower socioeconomic status majority of minorities are less fortunate. They are faced with poverty, low income, unemployment, and lack of access to healthier food options, which then contributes to poor health and higher AUD risk. The correlation between levels of socioeconomic status is prominent in alcohol-related health illnesses between cultures. Chronic alcoholism is found to have a very strong relationship with both acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis. Chronic alcohol intake impairs the repair ability of the structures of the exocrine pancreas, thereby leading to pancreatic dysfunctioning 14. Most of the patients diagnosed with pancreatitis have a alcoholism symptoms strong history of chronic intake of alcohol.

Several prominent complications of heavy alcohol use involve the gastrointestinal (GI) system. The following sections describe potential alcohol-related medical complications organized by specific body systems. Here, we provide a brief overview of common medical problems that may be related to your patients’ consumption of alcohol.