Common Short And Long Term Effects Of Alcohol

The impact of alcohol on your body starts when you start taking the substance. An occasional glass of dinner wine may not be a cause of concern, but excessive and prolonged alcohol use can lead to serious health problems.

Effects Of Alcohol

Injuries

The use of alcohol affects coordination, which leads to various injuries. Most motor accidents are caused by drunk drivers who risk injuries and deaths and endanger other road users. Also, alcoholism affects body balance, which leads to falls, drowning, or burns. In the recent past, alcohol use has led to many disability cases worldwide.

Violence

Excessive use of alcohol affects emotions. This may lead to aggressiveness, suicide, homicide, or sexual assault. Drinking has also led to violence in marriages, resulting in divorce, separation, or physical and emotional harm. Children brought up by alcoholic parents experience negligence, body, and emotional injury.

Miscarriages & Stillbirths

Alcohol use by pregnant mothers can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). This is because alcohol contains harmful substances that affect unborn babies. An alcoholic mother can also lose the baby through miscarriage or give birth to a pre-term or underweight child. Other mothers get life-threatening injuries due to falls and slips when drunk.

Chronic Diseases

Excessive alcohol use is connected to the throat, esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, mouth, and breast cancer in women. These diseases have long–term effects on a person and can lead to death if not treated immediately.

Risky Sexual Behaviors

Alcoholics aren’t in their proper states of mind and can engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners. Such behaviors put a person at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV or hepatitis B and C. Most women end up engaging in unsafe abortions or carrying unwanted pregnancies. Prolonged drinking affects the sexual reproductive health of men.

Hangover

Drinking sessions leave an alcoholic fighting hangover. This feeling can cause unpleasant symptoms such as headache, nausea, weakness, thirst, shaking, diarrhea or fatigue.

Heart Problems

The heart is quite vulnerable to the effects of excessive drinking. Over time, drinking weakens the heart, which results in the organ’s inability to supply oxygen to vital organs in the body. An ailing heart can lead to stroke, cardiomyopathy, or cardiac death.

Effects on Brain

Long-term use of alcohol affects brain functionality. Effects such as loss of memory, balance, and coordination are felt quickly. In some cases, brain damage can be irreversible. Other severe effects of chronic drinking are slurred speech, loss of emotional control, feet and hand numbness.

Sugar Levels

Alcohol affects the pancreas, which regulates insulin and glucose in the body. This subject’s alcohol to hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels in the body. Diabetic patients experience significant complications if they take excess alcohol.

Liver Problems

The liver helps to break down and flush out harmful substances from the body, such as alcohol. Continued use of alcohol affects the metabolism process, leading to cirrhosis and fibrosis. Liver disease can lead to death or toxin buildup in the body.

Dependency

Drinking too much alcohol can lead to physical and emotional dependency on alcohol. The condition worsens when an alcoholic decides to quit drinking. The common withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, nausea, high blood pressure, sweating, and seizures can be life-threatening. So, the safest way to treat addiction is through medical detoxification on either an inpatient or outpatient basis at institutions such as https://www.gallusdetox.com/.

Drinking alcohol has many effects on the body. The only proven remedy to the above problems is to stop and avoid taking alcohol. If you are an alcoholic, seek treatment from a reputable rehab facility and live a safe and healthy life.