Author: James Anderson

Effects of Alcohol on the Body

Excessive drinking may affect your menstrual cycle and potentially increase your risk for infertility. If your body can’t manage and balance your blood sugar levels, you may experience greater complications and side effects related to diabetes. A damaged pancreas can also prevent your body from producing enough insulin to use sugar. Here’s a breakdown of alcohol’s effects on your internal organs and body processes.

These brain changes cause drinking behaviors as described in thesidebar above. For the person experiencing secondhand drinking, thelabel does not matter. It is estimated that more than one-half of American adults have aloved one who drinks too much and one in four children will live withalcohol abuse or alcoholism before the age of 18. These are theestimated numbers of Americans whose lives are typically impacted bySHD.

Also, more research is needed to determine whether similar findings would emerge for other years, as the data was collected in 2014 and 2015.

Effects of short-term alcohol use

1. And that’s on top of the toll that alcohol use can take on relationships, not to mention the potential for financial strain and legal troubles.
2. Drinking alcohol decreases your ability to react quickly and efficiently to whatever is happening on the road.
3. Drinking alcohol can also lead to muscle weakness, cramping, and eventually atrophy.
4. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways.

Alcohol withdrawal can be difficult and, in some cases, life threatening. Depending on how often you drink and how much, you may need support from a healthcare professional if you want to stop drinking. With these conditions, you’ll only notice symptoms during alcohol intoxication or withdrawal. Long-term alcohol use can affect bone density, leading to thinner bones and increasing your risk of fractures if you fall.

Property Damage

Others, like loss of consciousness or slurred speech, may develop after a few drinks. Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder. 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. Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. Secondhand drinking is what happens to the husband whose wiferepeatedly promises to stop or cut down but every night can’t keep herpromise.

Alcohol Use and Your Health

Alcohol abuse can lead to many behaviors that put strain on a marriage, including legal problems, inability to contribute financially and neglect. Secondhand Drinking (SHD) is a term to describe theimpacts on a person who is on the receiving end of a person’s drinkingbehaviors. When secondhand drinking is chronic, it can change a person’sbrain, which in turn can change the very quality of their life. Many alcoholics do not realize the impact their addiction has on the people around them.

Chronic drinking can affect your heart and lungs, raising your risk of developing heart-related health issues. The connection between alcohol consumption and your digestive system might not seem immediately clear. Over time, drinking can also damage your frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions, like abstract reasoning, decision making, social behavior, and performance. Slurred speech, a key sign of intoxication, happens because alcohol reduces communication between your brain and body.

The secondhand harms of drinking impact 1 in 5 adults, study says

Through secondhand drinking, alcohol addiction affects friends, spouses and children, causing family problems and damaging relationships. Impaired judgment due to alcoholism and secondhand drinking doesn’t just result in direct property damage like broken windows and slashed tires. While this is also a form of property damage, it is classified separately by the law and can result in severe charges if law enforcement catches you in the act. In total, the effects of secondhand drinking hurt more than 53 million people every year.

Alcohol can cause both short-term effects, such as lowered inhibitions, and long-term effects, including a weakened immune system. It’s easy to imagine how second-hand smoke can impact an innocent bystander – most of us have probably inhaled the smoke from someone else’s tobacco without wanting to. But it’s not the only habit that can affect others; ‘second-hand drinking’ is a thing, too. The morning after a night of over-imbibing can cause some temporary effects on your brain. 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.

Inviting Authors, Companies and Professionals working in Addiction Recovery

When you stop drinking, you might notice a range of physical, emotional, or mental health symptoms that ease as soon as you have a drink. As a result, they eventually need to drink more to notice the same effects they once did. 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.