7.2: Health Effects of Alcohol Abuse
Drinking too much, on a single occasion or over time, can take a serious toll on your health. Here’s how alcohol can affect your body:
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Brain
- Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination.
- Learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance.
- Mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
- Social problems, including lost productivity, family problems, and unemployment.
- Violence, including homicide, suicide, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence.
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Heart
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Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing problems including:
- Cardiomyopathy – Impaired ability of the heart to deliver blood to the body, can lead to heart failure
- Arrhythmias – Irregular heart beat
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
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Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing problems including:
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Liver
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Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver inflammations including:
- Steatosis, or fatty liver: A condition where normal liver tissue is replaced by more than 5-6 percent fat. The accumulation of fat can cause inflammation, cell death, and scarring, which can lead to liver fibrosis.
- Alcoholic hepatitis: Inflammation of the liver caused by drinking alcohol that can result in scar tissue.
- Liver Fibrosis: Occurs when the liver is damaged and the organ develops scar tissue in response to the inflammation. Advanced liver fibrosis results in cirrhosis, liver failure, and portal hypertension and often requires liver transplantation.
- Cirrhosis of the liver: A condition in which your liver is scarred and permanently damaged.
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Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver inflammations including:
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Pancreas
- Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion.
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Cancer
- Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers, including cancers of the mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and breast
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Immune System
- Drinking too much can weaken your immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink too much. Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows your body’s ability to ward off infections, even up to 24 hours after getting drunk.
- Risky sexual behaviors, including unprotected sex or sex with multiple partners. These behaviors can result in unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.