Effects of alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse has become a growing problem in the U.S. today. Even though alcohol prevents certain illness and extends life, alcohol abuse needs to be controlled before it gets to out of hand because it has many negative effects on a person’s body, it can cause harm to children mentally and physically, and not only affects the person drinking it but the people around them.
Alcohol abuse has many negative effects on the body. One way it affects the body is through the heart. It can cause a stroke, high blood pressure along with many other complications. Alcohol abuse can also cause cancer in the mouth, liver, thought, and esophagus. It can also weaken the immune system and prevent proper digestion in the pancreas.
Alcohol abuse can also affect the brain by changing the way it looks and works. This causing mood change and behavior change making it hard to think clearly and move with coordination. Moving without good coordination could cause the person drinking to stumble or even fall. It also can affect the liver causing fatty liver, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is inflammation and/or thickening of tissue.
Weschke and Niedeggen did research and test showing that the group received the placebo post measurements were greater than there pre measurement for the contrast perception test, and the group that received the alcohol there pre measurements were greater than there post measurements in the same test as the placebo group. Also they did another
4) The general effects of alcohol on the brain are blurred vision, weakened motor skills, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times and impaired memory. In the liver alcohol causes fat deposits to develop in the liver and cause inflammation even eventually liver disease. Similarly, in the pancreas prolonged use can cause inflammation which yields vomiting, fever, weight loss, and is potentially fatal. Lastly, in the kidneys alcohol can increase the risk of high blood pressure developing in chronic kidney disease.
Many people, including alcoholics, are not fully aware of the devastation caused by alcohol abuse. Not only does alcohol have an impact on physical health, it causes a host of problems from a mental and emotional standpoint. This addiction is not only harmful to the body, it tears families apart, leads to job loss, and often causes isolation for the person who drinks.
Kids are often abusing alcohol, but do not really understand the effects it may have on their life. When overwhelming their bodies with alcohol, they should ask themselves “What causes me to drink so much? What are the outcomes of me abusing alcohol? What can alcohol abuse lead to?”
These effects lead to the familiar signs of drunkenness: difficulty walking, slurred speech, memory lapses, and impulsive behavior. Long-term heavy drinking can shrink the frontal lobes of the brain, which impairs thinking skills” (NIH Senior Health, 2012). Additionally, Alcohol has a detrimental affect one the liver, another vital organ in the body. It causes an infectious death upon the liver, especially if consumption is taking place for a long period time. Interestingly enough, statistics show that drinking alcohol can affect the heart in good and bad ways. On one hand, studies show that moderate drinking -- up to two drinks a day for men and one drink for women -- can lower the chances of developing heart disease. On the other hand; however, heavy drinking -- either all at once or over time -- can damage the heart. Long-term alcohol use can also result in high blood pressure, which increases a person's risk of heart disease (NIH Senior Health, 2012).
Small amounts of alcohol have many effects on your body. When you drink alcohol it goes straight into your bloodstream and is distributed throughout your entire body. Alcohol consumption causes many physical and emotional changes that can do the greatest amount of harm to your body. There are long- term effects of drinking alcohol, putting your body and health at risk. Alcohol can take a toll your digestive system. Drinking heavy or small amounts can injure parts of your digestive tract. Alcohol can damage several things such as: salivary glands, tongue, can lead to gum disease, tooth decay , and even tooth loss. It can cause heartburn, acid reflux, and ulcers in the esophagus. Inflammation in the pancreas kan mess with your ability to digest and metabolism. By your digestive system being damaged it can cause gassiness, abdominal fullness, and diarrhea and kan also lead to internal bleeding. A single drink of alcohol can cause trouble on your heart. Stroke , heart attack , heart failure, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat , and poisoning of the
Alcohol can cause dehydration, heart arrhythmias, high blood pressure and long term affects include stokes, cirrhosis, cardiomyopathy, fatty liver disease, and a weakened immune system.
The mouth is the first affected, alcohol can cause significant damage to the salivary glands, gums, and tongue. Heavy drinkers may begin to notice tooth decay. Next the esophagus is affected which can cause ulcers to form and arise in the stomach as well. The American Addiction Center states, “Cirrhosis of the liver is a condition that results in scarring of the liver tissue… scarred tissue cannot perform the proper functions that healthy liver tissue can such as cleaning the blood and helping to fight infection.” An individual’s immune system is greatly affected by the use of alcohol. Pancreatitis can form by the abuse of alcohol. Alcohol can cause changes in the function of the kidneys and make them less able to filter the blood that runs through them. The heart is the most important organ in the body and is also greatly affected by alcohol. The American Addiction Center says, “Some of the effects alcohol can have on this organ include: heartbeat irregularity, increased blood pressure, stroke, stretching of the heart muscle.” Stretching of the heart muscle can make it too weak to pump blood efficiently throughout the body. Alcohol can also cause certain cancers to arise in people who abuse the use of it. The American Cancer Society states that, “Alcohol use has been linked with cancers of the: Mouth, Throat (pharynx), Voice box (larynx), Esophagus, Liver, Colon and rectum, Breast. Alcohol may also increase the risk of cancers of the pancreas and stomach.” The more frequently one drinks the more likely they are to getting any of these cancers. Alcohol can have specific affects towards a woman’s body and bodiely functions. The American Addiction Center states, “A woman can see the disruption of her menstrual cycle due to alcohol abuse, and menstruation can even stop completely.” This can cause a woman to not be able to have children. Abuse of alcohol can destroy ones body and life in only a
Alcohol is one of many dangerous substances that effects our bodies. The effects of this drug can be very harmful. Alcohol is a potent non-prescription drug sold to anyone over the national legal drinking age, 21. Unlike other deadly drugs it is easy to access. This makes it easy to over-consume and create a tragic accident, even death. It can damage a person not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. Many people each year become more and more addicted to alcohol and soon experience all of it?s dangerous effects. Even if alcohol use is discontinued, some of these damages can not be cured, because the scars have been left on those that drink and those that surround them. The only hope
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that fits in the depressant classification. Depressants slow down brain and body functions. The consumption of alcohol has various effects on the body like altering mood and behavior, making it harder to think clearly and make coordinated body movements. Alcohol usage also increases high blood pressure and long time effects of consuming alcohol can increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke and can cause inflammation of the liver, and pancreas. Long-term usage of alcohol abuse can lead to alcoholism, which can cause harm to health, interpersonal relationships and work.
Effects of alcohol include difficulties making desicoions, and a slow reaction time. However, this is just a portion of the dangerous things alcohol can do to you. Alcohol also affects your liver, nervous system and heart - this happens when ethanol enters your bloodstream. When ethanol enters your bloodstream, it slows you down - increasing your risk of accidents, attacking others - and even pregnancy as you may make extremely unsafe decisions.
There are so many impacts that alcohol has on your body-acute effects, short-term effects, and long-term effects. A person’s brain is affected extremely from alcohol. While you are under the influence, cognitive abilities are affected even with the smallest measures of alcohol. Memory cells and those
From all types of health problems to the bad decisions one makes while under the influence such as drinking and driving, to the depression and sadness it can bring. There are a countless number of effects it has on the body physically, mentally, and emotionally. As mentioned earlier, alcohol affects almost every organ system, either directly or indirectly. Unfortunately, drinkers often do no think about what kind of effect alcohol will have on them when they get older; so many people end up learning the hard way after developing serious problems with their
In Jill Dombrauckas’s (2015) report, she discussed that the Pennsylvania DUI Association made a large amount of researches about alcohol’s effect on body systems. In one research, alcohol affects the central nervous system which means when the individual drink alcohol, the messages that are carried to and from the brain and the body’s muscles can be slowed delivery. For example, the incoming signals from the brain, like the painful sensory that will decrease the injury’s awareness. Also the signals from the brain to the muscles will lead the motor skills becoming insensitive.
The abuse of alcohol over long periods of time may also cause diseases such as cirrhosis, acute alcohol hepatitis, and the most severe liver disease. Cirrhosis is a disease in which the liver becomes so scarred that the patient lacks sufficient healthy tissue to perform the organ?s functions. Once you?ve got it, you are stuck with it. (Gross, 6) The worst thing about these diseases is that you will not know you have them unless you are medically examined on a regular basis. Alcohol consumption is a large contributor to the development of several types of cancer- mostly dealing with the neck and brain. We know that cancer kills and therefore it is safe to say that in some cases, alcohol can be deadly. It is important to realize that alcoholism is a disease. A heavy drinker will experience the effects of withdrawal syndrome (which include hypertension, anxiety, disorientation, hallucinations, and seizures) if he decides to stop drinking. Being addicted to alcohol is similar to being addicted to any other drug in that once one starts using, it is tough to live without. It is also a ?gateway drug? just as marijuana and other sedatives. (Bennett, Woolf, 13-23)
Alcohol has no beneficial attributes on a person’s health. Alcohol can have several harmful effects on human organs. Some organs in the human body that are damaged by alcohol consumption are the brain, kidneys, and liver. The human liver is the one organ that suffers the most damage. As stated in an article published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Because the liver is the chief organ responsible for metabolizing alcohol, it is especially vulnerable to alcohol – related injury” (NIAAA, 2005). Regular use of alcohol can lead to alcoholic liver disease (ALD). The severity of ALD can vary based on several different factors. Some of these factors include gender, age, the amount consumed, and how often alcohol is used. “ALD includes three conditions: fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis” (Alcohol Alert, 2005).