Drinking alcohol affects both physical and mental health. Both kinds of adverse health make you live unhappily and endanger your body. The more you drink, the more your body gets hurt and damaged. Let’s see the effect of alcohol on each part of your body, as well as the short-term and long-term effects of alcohol.
This article will divide the body that is affected by alcohol into three parts, which are:
- Effects of alcohol on the brain
- Effects of alcohol on internal organs
- Effects of alcohol on bones and muscles
Effects of alcohol on the brain
The negative effects of alcohol on the brain are different according to the amount of drinking and other factors. It does not mean different people drinking the same amount of alcohol will have the same symptoms. Symptoms from alcohol differ according to gender, the age of starting to drink, quantity of alcohol drinking, duration of drinking, age of the drinker at that time, and genetic background.
Although each person gets different effects from alcohol, the same product that people get from alcohol is that alcohol damages some parts and functions of the brain. Let’s see what features or functions of the brain are impaired and the symptoms after that damage.
- Occipital, temporal, and frontal lobe: Your vision will not be blurred. You may not be able to speak or listen to someone. You will need more control.
- Parental lobe: Your response time and motor skills will be impaired.
- Cerebellum: It is hard for you to stand up and walk.
- Hippocampus: You will become unconscious and lose short-term memory.
Brain disease from alcohol
- Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD)
Alcohol-related brain damage is caused by drinking too much alcohol for years. Alcohol damages drinkers’ brains in many ways, such as causing fatalities in nerve cells, damaging blood vessels, and causing people to lack thiamine or vitamin B1. - Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is caused by the body not getting thiamine or vitamin B1 from alcohol. Two stages of this syndrome have different degrees of symptoms. These two stages include:
Stage 1: Wernicke’s encephalopathy: The symptoms of this stage include losing memory, losing the ability to control the eye smoothly, having difficulty walking, and getting overweight or underweight. If people in this stage are treated quickly, they may have a better chance of recovering from the disease. These people can be treated by being given high doses of thiamine. Moreover, these people must stop drinking alcohol.
Stage 2: Korsakoff’s syndrome: The symptoms of this stage include difficulty learning something new, losing memory, or having a personality change. They may lose the ability to concentrate on something, solve problems, or make decisions properly. These people can be treated with high doses of thiamine and other hydration and nutrition. - Alcohol-related dementia:
Alcohol-related dementia is the result of an alcohol-damaged brain and a deteriorated ability to memorize and think. The symptoms of this include losing concentration on the job, losing emotional control, and losing empathy. These people may forget the incident that just happened in a short period. These people may lose the ability to make decisions, make judgments, and set goals.
This disease can be treated by getting fluids, salts, and high doses of thiamine. Moreover, it can be treated by getting a drug that supports the way it treats itself. - Depression
Alcohol could change some chemicals in your brain and make you depressed. There is a belief that alcohol could relieve the symptoms of depression for people who have the disease. However, it does not cure you from depression. Instead, it makes your symptoms more severe. - Hallucination
Hallucinations could be seen in people drinking alcohol. The symptoms of this disease include hearing unreal sounds and seeing fake images. People with hallucinations will listen to sounds, such as the sound of a clock, car, bell, etc., but these sounds are not natural.
Effect of alcohol on internal organs
Alcohol damages our internal organs. It is sure that when we drink alcohol for a long time, it means we are destroying our internal organs
The internal organs that are affected by alcohol include:
- Heart and blood vessel areas
Heart: Alcohol causes an irregular heartbeat. Moreover, drinking so much alcohol causes the body to lack vitamin B, which makes the heart work abnormally.
Blood vessels: Alcohol expands the blood vessels and causes coagulation of blood vessels. Finally, people with problems with blood vessels from alcohol may develop paralysis and disability throughout their lives. - Pancreas
When you drink so much alcohol, the chemicals that cause alcohol digestion become toxic and destroy cells in the pancreas. If you binge on alcohol for a long time, you will develop pancreatitis. - Liver
Alcohol causes many diseases in the liver. Alcohol destroys many cells in the liver by inducing fat accumulation in the liver and making the liver inflamed.
Internal organ diseases from alcohol
These are the internal organ diseases from alcohol.
- Stroke
Drinking alcohol causes adverse effects on the body, including getting overweight, having diabetes, having an abnormal heartbeat, and having high blood pressure. These conditions increase the risk of stroke. - High blood pressure
Binging alcohol could boost your blood pressure to be higher in a short period. If you binge drink for an extended period, your blood pressure will be high all the time. The more you drink, the higher your blood pressure will be. - Alcohol-induced cardiomyopathy
Alcohol-induced cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the lower chambers of the heart are extended as a result of so much alcohol inside the body. The extension of nature causes abnormalities in the heartbeat. It makes it less practical to pump blood to other body parts. Therefore, many parts of the body experience many negative symptoms from this condition, such as edema in the lower legs, coughing, pain in the chest, unconsciousness, etc. Moreover, you may be fatigued and eat less food. - Pancreatitis
Drinking more alcohol than the recommended limit can cause you to have pancreatitis acute and chronic. You may have one of two types of pancreatitis. Learn more about pancreatitis, which has different symptoms in your body. After you drink alcohol, at first, you will develop acute pancreatitis. If you still binge on alcohol after this, you will develop chronic pancreatitis. Let’s see how alcohol causes you to create these two types of pancreatitis and the symptoms of these two types.
– Acute pancreatitis: Alcohol reduces the activity of cells in the pancreas, and the pancreas does not work efficiently. This type’s symptoms include diarrhea, stomach pain, and high temperature.
– Chronic pancreatitis: If you are in acute pancreatitis and you still binge alcohol, you will develop chronic pancreatitis. The symptoms seen in chronic pancreatitis include yellow eyes and skin, weight loss, and floating, stinky, gummy bowel movements. - Liver cirrhosis
If you drink alcohol regularly, it causes the fascia to accumulate in the liver. It affects the effectiveness of function in the liver. The symptoms observed in people with liver cirrhosis include feeling bored with food, losing weight, itchiness in the region of the skin, etc.
Effects of alcohol on the bone and muscle
Alcohol also has negative impacts on bones and muscles in our body. Let’s see how bone and muscle are affected by alcohol and disease in these two parts of our body.
Muscle
Alcohol causes impairment in muscle protein synthesis, which impedes the muscle’s ability to thrive. Moreover, it reduces the effectiveness of metabolism and fat-burning. This causes the calories to accumulate in the body and result in fat.
Besides, alcohol impedes the recovery of muscle in many ways—alcohol results in adverse effects on our sleep. Alcohol disrupts our sleep, so we do not sleep effectively. Sleep is something that helps recover the muscles. Without good sleep, muscles are not well recovered. Muscle recovery is not only affected by good sleep but also by enough nutrients. Alcohol disrupts the body’s ability to absorb nutrients in the e-sett. With enough nutrients, muscle mass is recovered effectively.
Bone
When alcohol goes into your stomach, it reduces the effectiveness of the pancreas and liver in absorbing calcium and vitamin D. Calcium is an important thing to nurture bone, and vitamin D is a significant vitamin to help the body absorb calcium. This makes bones weaker. In addition, alcohol causes the reduction of estrogen, which is a considerable item in reconstructing bones in your body. This causes the body to experience bone loss.
Besides damaging the item that formulates bones, alcohol increases the hormones that harm bone formation, which are cortisol and parathyroid hormone. Cortisol obstructs bone formation and causes the bone to break down more quickly. On the other hand, parathyroid hormone causes a reduction of calcium in bone more quickly.
Bone and muscle disease caused by alcohol
Osteoporosis: Drinking alcohol causes the loss of bone mass and causes the disease called osteoporosis.
