Even a small amount of alcohol has an affect on your body. When you drink, alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream and distributed throughout your body. A tiny amount of alcohol exits your body in your urine and your breath.
You absorb alcohol more slowly if you eat, especially if the food is high in fat. However, if you drink more than your body can process, you’ll get drunk. How quickly alcohol is metabolized depends on your size and gender, among other things.
Alcohol consumption causes physical and emotional changes that can do great harm to your body. The long-term effects of alcohol abuse are many, putting your health in serious jeopardy and endangering your life.
It can lower your immune system
Alcohol use lowers your immune system’s ability to fight off disease. The damage can start almost instantly and in some cases can still be affecting your body days after your latest binge drinking session, even after the alcohol is no longer in your system. You’re at higher risk of contracting pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other potentially life-threatening conditions. It also puts alcohol users at risk of catching the common cold.
You can suffer brain damage
A recent study uncovered that among damage to the brain, excessive alcohol use negatively affects the hippocampus, resulting in poorer learning and memory development in both adolescents and adults. They also found that it can further alter adolescent brain development and repair.
It can lead to high blood pressure
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is another common effect of excessive alcohol use. Hypertension is associated with countless health problems, including chronic kidney disease, kidney artery aneurysms, and coronary artery disease, an increasing risk for a heart attacks and strokes, and more.
It can give you ulcers
Mixed with tobacco use, stress, and even excess use of OTC painkillers like ibuprofen, alcohol can play a role in the development of stomach ulcers and esophageal ulcers. The pain associated with these ulcers can upset your daily life, preventing you from fulfilling your daily duties in a timely fashion and causing even more stress.
It can be responsible for multiple types of cancer
Ask any person on the street what type of cancer is most associated with alcohol and you’re bound to get the same response, liver cancer. But liver cancer is not the only cancer that can develop as a result of excessive drinking. Excessive drinking can also increase your risk of developing bowel cancer, mouth cancer, breast cancer, and more. If any of these already run in your family, you risk increasing your odds even further by consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.
Alcohol is a depressant, leading to impaired bodily functions, bad judgement and poor life choices if consumed in high quantities. Its effects on the body can result in an increased risk of medical problems, costly hospital stays and a regular regimen of medications. Excessive alcohol use does more to damage your body than to preserve it.