But even low amounts of daily drinking and prolonged and heavy use of alcohol can lead to significant problems for your digestive system. She notes that talking about unhealthy alcohol use is more important than ever because the pandemic led to an increase in alcohol-related harms. “After the onset of the pandemic, there was a 25% increase in alcohol-related deaths,” she says.
Diarrhea and Heartburn
For example, it may be used to define the risk of illness or injury based on the number of drinks a person has in a week. Surgeon General’s Advisory reported that among 100 women who have less than one drink per week, about 17 will develop an alcohol-related cancer. Among 100 women who have one drink a day, 19 will, and among 100 women who have two drinks a day, about 22 will. Alcohol can affect behaviors that increase the likelihood of acquiring or transmitting HIV to others. Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health.
For women, more than three drinks on any day or more than seven drinks a week is heavy drinking. For men, heavy drinking means more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks a week. The evidence for moderate alcohol use in healthy adults is still being studied. But good evidence shows that drinking high amounts of alcohol are clearly linked to health problems. When acetaldehyde builds up in the body, it can damage cells throughout the digestive system and beyond.
Mental health
The more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer, but the risks start with any alcohol consumption. Alcohol impacts your hearing, but no one’s sure exactly how. It could be that it messes with the part of your brain that processes sound.
Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set What Alcohol Does off a chain reaction that affects your well-being. Lowered inhibitions can lead to poor choices with lasting repercussions — like the end of a relationship, an accident or legal woes. Each of those consequences can cause turmoil that can negatively affect your long-term emotional health. Having a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a party here and there isn’t going to destroy your gut.
Pancreas Damage and Diabetes
Normally, this organ makes insulin and other chemicals that help your intestines break down food. Along with toxins from alcohol, they can cause inflammation in the organ over time, which can lead to serious damage. After years, that means you won’t be able to make the insulin you need, which can lead to diabetes. Heavy alcohol use raises the risk for fractures and even low levels of alcohol intake increase the odds for recurrent gout attacks. Alcohol also impairs bone fracture repair and reduces bone density. Current research points to health risks even at low amounts of alcohol consumption, regardless of beverage type.
An Offbeat Heart
Alcohol influences neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. These brain chemicals are responsible for regulating your mood, concentration, motivation, and reward-seeking behavior. Alcohol also causes damage to nerves and pathways, which disrupts communication between essential organs and bodily functions. Alcohol use suppresses the central nervous system and destroys neurons. This can lead to conditions like stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS). Send a note of thanks to Mayo Clinic researchers who are revolutionizing healthcare and improving patient outcomes.
It can also lead to irritation of the lining of the stomach, called gastritis. Excessive alcohol use is a term used to describe four ways that people drink alcohol that can negatively impact health. Pancreatitis can occur as a sudden attack, called acute pancreatitis.
With so much data and so many variables, public health recommendations concerning alcohol differ around the world. For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute’s webpage “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” (last accessed June 6, 2024). Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder.
Factors affecting alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm
- Alcohol impacts your hearing, but no one’s sure exactly how.
- Alcohol widens your blood vessels, making more blood flow to your skin.
- Or it might damage the nerves and tiny hairs in your inner ear that help you hear.
- As they die off, the liver gets scars and stops working as well, a disease called cirrhosis.
Your gut microbiome is a hotbed of bacteria that help keep your digestive system happy and healthy. The trillions of microbes in your colon and large and small intestines are critical to proper digestion. They also help fend off inflammation and support healthy metabolism. That’s because your body already has processes in place that allow it to store excess proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
What Are the Psychological Effects of Alcohol?
- A 2024 report from the American Association for Cancer Research concluded that more than 5% of all cancers in the U.S. are attributable to alcohol use.
- Research has demonstrated that long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing cardiomyopathy.
- In the past, moderate drinking was thought to be linked with a lower risk of dying from heart disease and possibly diabetes.
- For example, it may be used to define the risk of illness or injury based on the number of drinks a person has in a week.
- But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver.
So, your system prioritizes getting rid of alcohol before it can turn its attention to its other work. Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. Steatotic liver disease used to go by the name fatty liver disease. If alcohol continues to accumulate in your system, it can destroy cells and, eventually, damage your organs. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver.
You’ll soon start receiving the latest Mayo Clinic health information you requested in your inbox. Newer studies are also uncovering how alcohol may interfere with the immune system and accelerate molecular signs of aging. When newer, larger studies account for these and other variables, the protective effect of alcohol tends to disappear.
Things like trouble concentration, slow reflexes and sensitivity to bright lights and loud sounds are standard signs of a hangover, and evidence of alcohol’s effects on your brain. 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.