Alcohol Health Effects

Alcohol depresses the nervous system. Mainly it influences the brain. In this respect, it may be compared to a slow-acting anesthetic. Reflexes are slowed and coordination of muscle action is impaired. It is because of these effects that the person under the influence of alcohol is a very dangerous automobile driver. Alcohol suppresses the intellectual functions of the brain. This is the reason why a person feels elated under the influence of alcohol. With the usual inhibitions removed, he says and does things that he would ordinarily refrain from. In cases of prolonged use of alcohol, there develops a gradual deterioration of the brain tissues with various manifestations of mental illness.

There is evidence that alcohol causes damage to the muscle cells of the heart, causing their eventual deterioration. The major cause of cardiomyopathy (a sub acute or chronic disorder of heart muscle) in the western world is alcoholism.

Alcohol depresses the respiratory functions. For this reason the use of alcohol for the relief of pain is dangerous. A quantity of alcohol sufficient to make a person delirious or forgetful to his discomforts will interfere with breathing and may even cause death.

Alcohol affects the digestive organs. It increases the flow of both saliva and gastric juices. It irritates the mucous membranes and the stomach lining, causing gastritis and varicose veins of the esophagus which tend to bleed.

Alcohol has a direct toxic effect on the pancreas, producing acute pancreatitis. Prolonged intake of alcohol increases the risk of chronic pancreatitis.

Perhaps the most publicized bodily damage from continued use of alcohol is cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis is hardening of the liver because of an increase in the fibrous tissues and the degeneration of the liver cells. Fatty liver and alcoholic hepatitis can also result from alcohol drinking.

Alcohol interferes with normal digestion and absorption of nutrients, and promotes malnutrition and disease states.

The immediate effect of alcohol on the kidney is an increase in urine output, increasing fluid loss; therefore increasing thirst. Alcohol degenerates body tissues.

On the reproductive organs, alcohol may have either one of two effects. In moderate amounts, it tends to remove inhibitions relating to sexual activity and causes a false impression that sexual potency is increased. In large doses, however, it produces sexual impotence.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy has been shown to act as a teratogenic agent (an agent or influence that causes physical defects in the developing embryo) in man, inducing fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Babies with this syndrome are born with a definite pattern of physical, mental and behavioral abnormalities; are shorter and lighter in weight than normal; have abnormally small heads; several facial irregularities; genitalia, joint and limb abnormalities; heart defects; and poor coordination. Most are mentally retarded, show a number of behavior problems and poor attention span.

Prolonged use of alcohol results in peripheral neuritis — an inflammation of the nerves, which causes intense suffering and which results from the nutritional deficiencies typical in these cases.

Alcohol has the effect of decreasing the ability to perform muscular work.

Alcohol has a toxic effect on the bone marrow. There is defective red blood cell development and maturation.

Many studies have shown a positive association between alcohol consumption and high blood pressure or hypertension. Although the mechanism is unknown, the relationship appears to be causal since cessation of alcohol intake leads to a fall in blood pressure, and resumption of drinking gradually increases blood pressure. Furthermore, the complications of hypertension, especially stroke, also seem to be more common in heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers are defined as those who consume five or more alcoholic drinks a day, with a drink being a 12-ounce can of beer, 1.25 ounces of whiskey, an average cocktail, or four ounces of wine.

Some studies have established a correlation between alcohol ingestion and cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus. Heavy alcohol usage is also linked with cancer of the upper respiratory tract and upper gastrointestinal tract.