Drinking Dangers: 4 Major Ways Alcohol Deteriorates Your Health

Alcohol is a drug that can negatively impact a person’s physical and mental health. Excessive drinking is a problem for millions of people worldwide. This article will discuss four health problems caused by excessive drinking.

Mental Functioning

Blacking out from drinking is not uncommon in those who drink excessively. When a person blacks out, he or she suffers from short-term amnesia. This means the drinker cannot remember events that happened during a drinking episode.

According to Kick Recovery Coaching, staging an intervention can help an abuser kick the alcohol habit. An intervention is also a good way of letting the drinker know that he or she is not fighting addiction alone. In fact, some problems associated with alcoholism are made worse when the drinker is isolated.

For instance, falling asleep at the wheel or taking a bad fall while drinking alone could cause the drinker to badly injure or kill someone.

Impact on the Heart

Excessive drinking often causes long-term heart trouble. Alcoholism increases a person’s chances of suffering a stroke or heart attack. Furthermore, excessive drinking can lead to cardiomyopathy, a condition in which heart muscles stretch and sag. An increase in blood pressure due to drinking can also impair heart functioning.

Liver Damage

According to the Cleveland Clinic, drinking too much negatively affects the liver. Your liver’s job is to remove alcohol from the blood and detox it. The process through which this is done is called oxidation. However, an excessive amount of alcohol in the body can lead to the destruction of your cells and organs, particularly the kidneys and liver. Thus, it is recommended that people limit their drinks to 1-2 per day.

Increased Cancer Risk

Researchers have determined that alcohol increases cancer risk. People who drink excessively have an increased risk of developing liver cancer, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer and both head and neck cancer.

How does drinking lead to the development of cancer? For starters, when the body breaks down the ethanol in alcohol, it is changed to acetaldehyde, a carcinogen and toxic chemical. Alcohol also impairs a person’s ability to absorb and metabolize essential nutrients. Lastly, alcohol can cause damage to lipids and proteins during the body’s oxidation process.

Drinking in moderation can have some health benefits. However, drinking a lot of alcohol, whether in a short time or over a longer time-span, can cause health deterioration. If you have a drinking problem, seek help for your addiction.