8.2: Health Effects of Alcohol Abuse

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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:

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.

Heart:

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

Liver:

Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver inflammations including:

Steatosis, or fatty liver
Alcoholic hepatitis
Fibrosis
Cirrhosis

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.

Cancer:

Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers, including cancers of the:

Mouth
Esophagus
Throat
Liver
Breast

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.

Learn more about alcohol’s effects on the body.

Contributors and Attributions

Public Domain Content

Health Effects of Alcohol. Authored by: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Provided by: National Institutes of Health. Located at: https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright