Alcohol’s Effects on the Body National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

But prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to chronic (long-term) pancreatitis, which can be severe. Having a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a party here and there isn’t going to destroy your gut. But even low amounts of daily drinking and prolonged and heavy use of alcohol can lead to significant problems for your digestive system. With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis. Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis.

Parents should also discuss with their teens the dangers of binge drinking— consuming more than five drinks in a row. This is a serious problem among the 21 million college students in the United States, and has led to deaths from alcohol overdose. Each year, more than 4 million teens in the United States have trouble at school, with their parents, and sometimes with the law because of the effects of drinking alcohol.

If you drink every day, or almost every day, you might notice that you catch colds, flu or other illnesses more frequently than people who don’t drink. That’s because alcohol can weaken your immune system, slow healing and make your body more susceptible to infection. Your body breaks alcohol down into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages your DNA. Damaged DNA can cause a cell to grow out of control, which results in cancerous tumors. You probably already know that excessive drinking can affect you in more ways than one. You might not link a cold to a night of drinking, but there might be a connection.

Check your drinking‎

The short-term effects of alcohol develop quickly—within minutes after your first drink—impacting mood, coordination, speech, memory, and behavior. Though alcohol seems woven into the fabric of our social lives, drinking can have harmful health effects, even in small doses. Short-term and long-term effects of alcohol can negatively impact the mind and body, despite any potential benefits. Alcohol consumption irritates the lining of the stomach and intestines. A night of drinking can cause uncomfortable symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Chronic and excessive alcohol use disrupts the balance of bacteria in the gut microbiome (dysbiosis).

Loss of Coordination

The less alcohol you drink, the lower your risk for these health effects, including several types of cancer. Your brain helps your body stay well-hydrated by producing a hormone that keeps your kidneys from making too much urine. But when alcohol swings into action, it tells your brain to hold off on making that hormone. That means you have to go more often, which can leave you dehydrated. When you drink heavily for years, that prozac withdrawal timeline extra workload and the toxic effects of alcohol can wear your kidneys down.

Risks, Dangers, and Effects of Alcohol on the Body

Ways that your standard hangover cures won’t even begin to touch. Like a clog in a drain, those thickened fluids can jam up your ducts. That can lead to pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas. When you drink too much alcohol, it can throw off the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut. Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol.

1. Once the effects of alcohol wear off, glutamate (a neurotransmitter) levels increase, which can lead to feelings of depression and anxiety, or “hangxiety” (hangover and anxiety), the day after drinking.
2. In people assigned female at birth, alcohol use can interfere with regular ovulation and menstrual cycles and make it difficult to get pregnant.
3. To keep it all going smoothly, you need them in the right balance.
4. To your body, alcohol is a toxin that interrupts your immune system’s ability to do its job, thereby compromising its function.
5. If your pancreas and liver don’t function properly due to pancreatitis or liver disease, you could experience low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia.

Slurred speech, a key sign of intoxication, happens because alcohol reduces communication between your brain and body. This makes speech and coordination — think reaction time and balance — more difficult. That’s one major reason why you should never drive after drinking. Many people assume the occasional beer or glass of wine at mealtimes or special occasions doesn’t pose much cause for concern. But drinking any amount of alcohol can potentially lead to unwanted health consequences. Alcohol can cause both short-term effects, such as lowered inhibitions, and long-term effects, including a weakened immune system.

Health risks of alcohol use

Loss of coordination (ataxia) is a common short-term effect of alcohol and is linked to how alcohol affects the brain’s cerebellum. The cerebellum is the brain’s control center for movement, balance, and coordination. This article discusses everything you need to know about the short-term effects of alcohol. Understanding how alcohol affects the mind, body, and overall health can help you make the most informed decisions about your consumption habits. If you’re concerned with your alcohol consumption and attitude toward drinking, talk to a healthcare provider as a first step. Wine—specifically red wine—contains high levels of antioxidants.