The harmful effects of alcohol on the human body can take on impressive proportions. Drinkers pose a threat to physical and mental health - the internal organs suffer, the work of the key systems that control the human body is disordered (the effects of alcohol on the immune system are particularly dangerous), personality deterioration occurs, which affects the human nervous system.
The effects of alcohol on the body affect:
- Liver;
- Brain;
- The nervous system and the psyche;
- Cardiovascular system;
- Kidney;
- The digestive system;
- The immune system;
- Muscles and joints;
- Endocrine system;
- Spleen;
- Respiratory system;
- Visual organs;
- Appearance.
To avoid negative consequences, you must first know how alcohol affects the human body.
Harmful effects of alcohol on the liver
To find out how alcohol affects the liver, you may want to know what its purpose is. The liver is the organ responsible for removing toxic substances from the body; various metabolic processes require its participation. For those who consume alcohol frequently, it is important to know why alcohol is dangerous to the liver and how it works. Speaking of the dangers of alcohol, we can point out that it gradually destroys the liver. The ethyl alcohol that penetrates it is oxidized to form a very strong toxin - acetaldehyde. Accumulating in the liver, it modifies the organ and disrupts its work.
The effects of alcohol on the liver are truly devastating. Liver cells are destroyed by alcohol, replaced by scars or adipose tissue, so the body cannot perform its function normally (toxins accumulate in the body and eventually poison them).
The most serious consequence of how alcohol consumes immeasurably is harming the human body, cirrhosis of the liver. With this disease, the structure of the organ begins to change, the size decreases, the vessels suffer from it: they shrink, the pressure in them rises, the blood stagnates. The natural result in this situation is rupture of the vessel wall and bleeding, which causes many deaths.
The effect of alcohol on the brain
The effects of alcohol on the body primarily affect the brain. In a state of intoxication, a person’s cerebral cortex is destroyed as parts of it gradually become numb and die.
For those who like to drink alcohol, the brain changes - it is full of ulcers, scars and edema, blood vessels dilate, cracks appear in places, cysts appear in dead areas. These consequences once again prove that alcohol at any dose has a negative effect on the human body.
The effect of alcohol on the nervous system and the psyche
Alcohol addicts need to know how alcohol affects the psyche. Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially in excessive doses, leads to the destruction of the psyche. Man’s personality and behavior change completely, mental and moral degradation begins. Alcohol and the nervous system interact with the personality. The effect of alcohol on sleep can lead to insomnia. There are other significant consequences - mental disorders and violations of a proper perception of reality. Alcohol is harmful to memory, concentration, and movement coordination. It follows that the effect of alcohol on the human psyche causes great harm to the whole body.
There is a need to understand in more detail why alcohol is harmful to human mental health. The detrimental effect of alcohol on the human body and especially on the nervous system is that nerve fibers are damaged and their conductivity deteriorates, in medicine such a violation is called polyneuritis. A person loses sensitivity due to pain and temperature changes, numbness in the legs and arms, weakness and "woolness". Other signs: swelling, increased sweating, "goosebumps" on the skin, itching and burning, sharp severe pain, muscles tensing as if stabbed with needles.
The most common central nervous system effects of alcohol consumption are:
- Delirium tremens. It is worth knowing why such a condition is dangerous. Appears after cessation of prolonged alcohol consumption, accompanied by hallucinations, delirium, fever, and fever, suicidal tendency;
- Encephalopathy. It is caused by acute deficiency of B vitamins in chronically drinkers. Symptoms include vision and vestibular problems, confusion;
- Alcoholic dementia syndrome. Loss of elementary mental abilities, problems with counting, speech, perception, concentration, memory;
- Alcoholic epilepsy. It manifests itself in cramps and seizures in a state of hangover;
- The psychosis of Korsakov. Loss of perception in the limbs is combined with significant memory impairment.
Undoubtedly, the mental consequences of alcoholism lead to personality degradation, and the psychology of its behavior causes confusion.
Cardiovascular problems
Alcohol is harmful to the health and normal functioning of the heart muscle. Heart disease is one of the most common causes of many deaths among drinkers.
The volume of this muscular organ can increase with regular alcohol exposure. In addition, the consequences of high doses of alcohol include arrhythmia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, risk of stroke, ischemic myocardial damage, and atherosclerosis.
Kidney and drink
The kidneys are very important organs. It behaves as follows: it removes fluid from the body, cleanses the blood of toxic substances, and participates in metabolic processes. Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages forces the kidneys to their maximum intensity.
It threatens whole pathological conditions - dehydration, metabolic disorders, poisoning, stones, pyelonephritis, kidney failure, urinary tract inflammation, cancer.
How alcohol affects the digestive system
Alcoholic beverages are toxic to the digestive system. The walls of the esophagus are affected, heartburn appears, the geg reflex increases, the vessels in the esophagus become thinner and wider, and during vomiting, the venous walls may rupture, causing bleeding.
In addition, alcohol causes irreparable damage to the protective membrane of the stomach. The result is premature aging of the organ and impairment of its functions. Typical diseases of drinkers include gastritis, ulcers, and even stomach cancer.
The effect of alcohol on immunity
Information about how alcohol affects immunity is twofold. Moderate drinking can help you better cope with colds. However, with more frequent alcohol consumption, human immunity is inhibited.
Decreased immunity is manifested by a decrease in a specific protein, lysozyme, which is part of saliva, tears and other secretory secretions. This protein neutralizes harmful microbes that enter the body and prevents the development of various infectious diseases. Thus, we can confidently claim that alcohol lowers immunity.
The effect of alcohol on joints and muscles
Muscle tissue suffers from any dose of alcohol, which is very detrimental to muscle health. It slows down or completely stops the growth of muscles, they become atrophied, flabby, and alcohol can even destroy them completely. This can increase your body fat stores. Alcohol and joints are not compatible concepts. The effect of alcohol on the health of the bone system is very significant because it destroys bone tissue, flushes calcium out of the body, bones age quickly, become brittle, and often fractures also occur. After drinking alcohol, the joints often hurt.
Joint problems are common in the lives of alcoholics. People who drink often develop arthritis, inflammation of joint formations. Signs of arthritis: The joints start to hurt, especially the knee. After another snack, the pain intensifies.
Alcohol retains fluid in the body, edema appears, uric acid ceases to be normally excreted, and accumulates in the form of salts deposited in the joints, which provokes the appearance of gout. Excess fluid enters the joint, presses the wall of the joint cavity, touches the nerve fibers, pain appears in the various joints after alcohol. Over time, alcoholic beverages cause deformation and complete destruction of joint formations.
How alcohol affects your appearance
A person who is addicted to alcohol is easily recognizable in the crowd. Typical drink appearance:
- the bluish color of the nose;
- reddened and swollen face;
- bags under the eyes;
- bruises from bruises or falls;
- sloppy clothes;
- Frizzy hair.
The effect of alcohol on the skin is also negative. A shade of red appears, which is explained by increased blood flow under the influence of alcohol. High loads on the blood vessels cause damage, tiny capillaries rupture, causing bruises on the face in the form of blue and red dots. The bluish tinge is the result of severe vascular damage, and the blood does not supply these areas well with oxygen.
To remove alcohol from the body, a large amount of fluid is involved, dehydration occurs, people who drink a lot of alcohol feel strong thirst, trying to quench this. The fluid accumulates and leaves slowly as the body tries to protect itself from repeated dehydration and forms water reserves from which the face and other parts of the body swell.
The effect of alcohol on the endocrine system
The effects of alcohol and human health are also associated with the work of the hormonal system. Main organs:
- Thyroid gland (regulates metabolism);
- The pituitary gland and hypothalamus (controls the work of the whole system);
- Pancreas (responsible for insulin production);
- Pineal gland (produces hormones that affect sleep, blood circulation and the nervous system);
- The adrenal gland (produces adrenaline);
- Thymus (regulates the growth and development of immune cells);
- Gonads (produce male and female hormones).
The effects of alcohol on the thyroid gland and other organs of the endocrine system are such that it reduces the production of some hormones and increases the production of others. For example, men have a predominance of female hormones and decreased levels of male hormones. For women who drink, the opposite is true. Hormonal disorders adversely affect the condition of the entire body. Some endocrine pathologies are associated with congenital gene mutations, and these mutations are often the result of too much alcohol consumption. Normal interaction between alcohol and the thyroid gland and other endocrine organs is impossible.
How alcohol can affect the spleen
Often the spleen hurts due to frequent alcohol consumption. This organ plays the role of utilizing old and damaged blood cells in the body. It is a reserve blood store that supplies the vessels of the circulatory system when needed. In addition, this organ cleanses the blood of pathogenic microorganisms.
Pain in the left hypochondrium may indicate spleen problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption. It is easy to explain why alcohol consumption is dangerous and why the spleen hurts. Most often this organ is enlarged, splenic infarction, abscess is also possible, in severe cases it is necessary to remove this organ. The consequences of excessive consumption of any type of alcohol can severely disrupt spleen function and lead to death.
Respiratory effects
Drinkers need to be aware of how alcohol affects lung health. Alcohol vapors affect the respiratory mucosa, which contributes to the development of pneumonia, bronchitis, chronic pharyngitis, and laryngitis (hence the hoarseness of the drunk). Moreover, these diseases are severe and long-term. Pneumonia can flow into pneumoclerosis (hardening of the lung tissue). Alcohol in the blood causes the destruction and abnormal expansion of lung tissue (emphysema).
The example of the lungs shows how irreparable damage alcohol causes to the human body. High doses of alcohol impair the respiratory activity of the lungs, in some cases breathing may stop completely. Delirium tremens is often accompanied by inflammation and pulmonary edema. There is also an association between alcohol and the incidence of lung cancer.
The effect of alcohol on human vision
Not everyone knows exactly whether alcohol is harmful to vision and why alcoholics suffer from eye pain. Under the influence of alcohol, intracranial pressure increases. This damages the vessels in the eyes and a number of small bleeds, the oxygen supply to the muscles is cut off, they are under constant tension. This condition can result in atrophy of the eyeball muscles and deterioration in vision quality.
In addition, alcohol can affect the nerve fibers in the fundus, disrupting the function of the optic nerve. The most severe effect of alcohol on the visual system is blindness.
Alcoholism and its consequences have a devastating effect on the body, and the psyche can also change significantly. Only by stopping drinking can the process of destruction of your body be stopped.