Moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to provide some health benefits.
However, higher amounts can lead to severe problems.
In one study, levels of the inflammatory marker CRP increased in people who consumed alcohol.
The more alcohol they consumed, the more their CRP levels increased. (C-reactive protein (CRP) is a substance the liver produces in response to inflammation. A high level of CRP in the blood can be a marker of inflammation. A wide variety of conditions can cause it.)
People who drink heavily may develop problems with bacterial toxins moving out of the colon and into the body. This condition — often called leaky gut — can drive widespread inflammation that leads to organ damage.
To avoid alcohol-related health problems, intake should be limited to two standard drinks per day for men and one for women.
An alcoholic drink is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar.
The consumption of alcoholic drinks, often referred to as “drinking”, plays an important social role in many cultures. Most countries have laws regulating the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Regulations may require the labeling of the percentage alcohol content and the use of a warning label. Some countries ban such activities entirely, but alcoholic drinks are legal in most parts of the world.
The global alcoholic drink industry exceeded $1 trillion in 2018.
Alcohol is a depressant, which in low doses causes euphoria, reduces anxiety, and increases sociability.
In higher doses, it causes drunkenness, stupor, unconsciousness or death.
Long-term use can lead to an alcohol use disorder, an increased risk of developing several types of cancer, cardiovascular disease and physical dependence.
Psychological Effects of Alcohol
When it comes to the brain, alcohol acts as a depressant to the CNS. However, it can have inconsistent effects, exciting users under some conditions and sedating users under other conditions.
Excitement, typically at lower doses, may be due to alcohol suppressing the inhibitory parts of the brain. Functions such as breathing, speech, thought, memory, and movement can be impacted by consuming alcohol.
Mental effects may include mood changes, decreased inhibitions, relaxation, impaired judgment, slowed reaction times, difficulty remembering, confusion, and loss of consciousness.3 Chronic use of alcohol can lead to changes in the brain, as described in previous sections.
Excessive alcohol use, even if not chronic, can lead to alcohol-induced psychiatric syndromes, such as alcohol-induced depressive disorder,
Alcohol-induced bipolar disorder,
Alcohol-induced sleep disorder,
Alcohol-induced psychotic disorder, and more.
These disorders are temporary and can occur after significant intoxication and/or withdrawal.
Alcohol use disorder is also linked to several mental illnesses which can develop separately from the disorder and may even predate it, such as major depression,
Some anxiety disorders,
Schizophrenia,
Bipolar disorder, and others.
These disorders may increase the likelihood of alcohol-related issues, possibly due, in part, to using alcohol as a self-medicating substance.
There also may be common underlying risk factors that increase the likelihood of both substance use disorders and mental illnesses.
Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.
Thank you ….Liver health risks: One of the possible severe medical consequences of chronic alcohol abuse is liver disease. Over time, with consistent alcohol abuse, the liver may become inflamed and/or scarred. Conditions such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis may develop.
Digestive system risks: Alcohol can wear down the lining of the stomach and increase the production of stomach acid, which can contribute to ulcers.
Alcohol may also alter nutrient breakdown, absorption, transportation, storage, and excretion, leading to nutrient deficiencies and/or trouble fully using nutrients.
For example, thiamine deficiency is common and can lead to serious neurological issues. Alcohol can also impair blood sugar control.
The most important immediate action of alcohol is on the higher functions of the brain—those of thinking, learning, remembering, and making judgments.
Many of the alleged salutary effects of alcohol on performance (such as better dancing, happier moods, sounder sleeping, less sexual inhibition, and greater creativity) have been shown in controlled experiments to be a function of suggestion and subjective assessment.
In reality, alcohol improves performance only through muscle relaxation and guilt reduction or loss of social inhibition. Thus, mild intoxication actually makes objectively observed depression (and dancing for that matter) worse.
Experiments also indicate a dependence of learning on the mental state in which it occurs. For example, what is learned under the influence of alcohol is better recalled under the influence of alcohol, but what is learned in the sober state is better recalled when sober.
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Effects on behavior
People ordinarily drink alcohol to obtain effects that they have been taught to expect; the state of expectation combines with the pharmacological action of the drug to produce the desired effect.
Small amounts of alcohol are drunk in the expectation of reducing feelings of tension, relieving feelings of anxiety, and, conversely, experiencing exhilaration and a loss of inhibition.
The anxiety-suppressing action of alcohol is largely a function of muscle relaxation and the removal of social inhibitions. But anxiety reduction is also a function of suggestibility and of the cultural permissiveness present in drinking settings.
Shy people become outgoing or bold; well-behaved people become disorderly; the sexually repressed become amorous; the fearful become brave; the quiescent or peaceful become verbally or physically aggressive.
In people with clinically diagnosed anxieties and phobias, however, alcohol is little better than a placebo, and alcohol consumption actually worsens sleep patterns, depression, and the risk of suicide.
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Blood alcohol concentration
Because brain alcohol concentrations are difficult to measure directly, the effects of alcohol on the brain are calculated indirectly by noting the physical and mental impairments that typically arise at various levels of blood alcohol concentration, or BAC.
Typical symptoms shown by drinkers at successive BACs are listed in the table. Inefficiency in performing some tasks may begin at concentrations as low as 0.03 percent.
The impairments at these concentrations may not be visibly manifested by all individuals, but laboratory tests show that alertness, visual acuity, and capacity to distinguish between sensory signals are all diminished.
Reflex responses and the time of reaction to a signal, as well as neuromuscular functions, are slowed. Complex reactions, such as those that require the brain to process more than one type of incoming information simultaneously, are impaired at BACs too low to affect simple reflexes and reaction times.
The majority of drinkers begin to show measurable impairment at just above 0.05 percent, and in fact most jurisdictions in Western countries make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle at various levels between 0.05 to 0.08 percent.
Most people exhibit some degree of functional sedation and motor incapacitation at a BAC of 0.10 percent, and most people are considered intoxicated at 0.15 percent. Habitual heavy drinking, however, does produce increased tolerance to alcohol.
As BACs rise above 0.15 percent, intoxication steadily increases.
Well-adapted, very heavy drinkers may continue to function fairly well in some motor and mental tasks even up to concentrations of 0.30 percent, but, long before this level of alcohol concentration is reached, most people will appear visibly drunk, showing the common symptoms of slurred speech, unsteady gait, and confused thinking.
At a 0.40-percent BAC, most people will be anesthetized to the extent that they will be asleep, difficult to rouse, and incapable of voluntary activity—indeed, they will be in a state in which they can undergo surgery.
At yet higher BACs, deep coma sets in. Between 0.40 and 1 percent, the breathing centre in the brain or the action of the heart may be anesthetized, and then death will quickly follow directly from alcohol intoxication.
Ordinarily, however, it is not likely that anybody would attain a BAC above 0.40 percent by drinking. In a man of average build such a level would require the ingestion and unmetabolized absorption of between a pint and a quart (that is, almost a half-litre to a full litre) of spirits.
Long-term health effects of drinking
Know about good and bad cholesterol and how moderate alcohol consumption can lower heart disease
The drinking of a small amount (1 ounce [30 ml] of absolute alcohol, or two standard drinks per day), even if done regularly for years, does not have any conclusively demonstrated pathological effect except for a small increased risk for some cancers. An exception to this rule is drinking during pregnancy—even one standard drink a week may harm the fetus.
Drinking just 0.5 ounce (15 ml) of alcohol a day has been shown to be a mild anticoagulant and, like small doses of aspirin, to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.
Mild infrequent intoxication produces a variety of temporary biochemical disturbances in the body: the adrenal glands may discharge hormones, sugar may be mobilized from stores in the liver, the electrolytes balance may be slightly altered, and the metabolism and equilibrium of the liver may be disturbed.
However, these changes leave no chronic aftereffects, and the body rapidly returns to normal.
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