Alcohol consumption in parties might sound like fun, but regular heavy drinking can lead to serious health issues. Hazards Of Alcohol Abuse is a serious concern all over the world, and is linked to an alarming rate of road accidents too!
At times even a single-binge drinking episode can cause bodily impairment and damage… sometimes even death. And over time, if someone continues with excessive alcohol consumption they would be killed slowly by the toxic aphrodisiac.
Thankfully, there are tools like Freedom from Alcohol Calendar, founded by Jo and Kieran, which help in dealing with alcohol abuse by guiding the affected to restructure their relationship with alcohol. They treat alcohol addiction and have already helped hundreds of individuals get back to a healthy and normal life.
According to general medical research a deadly disease directly linked to chronic alcohol consumption is cirrhosis of the liver that most people are aware of. But apart from this, there are equally dangerous and deadly consequences of alcohol abuse that people also need to be aware of.
Alcohol addiction is also responsible for diseases such as –
Liver disease
You must have heard people and even your doctor saying that if you continue drinking in this rate and proportion, your liver would be damaged! Because alcohol s mainly metabolized in the liver and during metabolism, acetaldehyde is produced this is not only toxic but carcinogenic.
Chronic heavy drinking over a prolonged duration poses a risk for the development of alcoholic liver disease. If we talk about the early symptoms of heavy drinking, then alcoholic fatty liver syndrome tops the list. Chronic drinking impacts the liver’s metabolism of fats which results in fats getting accumulated in the liver. Although this issue is alarming, it is reversible.
Other effects of heavy drinking include long term inflammation of liver resulting in scarring of tissues which over time leads to cirrhosis. If a liver is unable to perform the tasks that it is designed to conduct, it will cause multiple organ failure and ultimately, death.
Cancer
As mentioned above, acetaldehyde produced in the liver from the breaking down of alcohol can cause cancer. That is to say, over time it can not only cause liver cancer, but also cancer in other organs and parts of the body, like breast cancer, cancers of the mouth, and even stomach cancer.
In addition to drinking, smokers have higher chances of getting infected with respiratory tract cancer and upper gastrointestinal tract cancer.
Brain damage
Heavy drinkers would be aware of symptoms like memory lapses, blurred vision, slow reaction time and even difficulty walking. Well, these all are signals specifying that the brain is getting impacted negatively due to the overconsumption of alcohol.
For starters, alcohol messes up with a person’s cognitive functioning and mood, emotions, and reactions by altering the neurotransmitters. Also, alcohol causes a person difficulty to solve even simple problems because it acts as a CNS depressant and therefore causes trouble in processing information.
Alcohol is also held responsible for disrupting the motor movement leading to injuries from sudden falls. Long term heavy drinkers have the probability to get victimized with early and premature dementia caused by the speeding of the brain’s normal aging process. Because human brains are supposed to develop fully until the age of 24, young adults are most vulnerable to brain damage caused by the heavy intake of alcohol.
Pancreatitis
So overconsumption of alcohol not only affects your liver but also causes inflammation of your pancreas, resulting in a deadly disease named pancreatitis. The inflammation results in chronic pain and most of the time the patient require to get hospitalized to get relief from it. As per doctors, this inflammation is the result of premature activation of proenzymes into the pancreatic enzymes combined with the exposure to the toxic acetaldehyde along with other chemical compounds, also toxic.
In fact, recent studies found out that 70 percent of people suffering from pancreatitis are heavy alcohol drinkers.
Dysfunctional immune system
Taking alcohol in large quantities over a prolonged duration eventually weakens the immune system making the body vulnerable to numerous infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and pneumonia. Alcohol also has the potency to cause impactful changes in the count of platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells.
For example, a count drop of WBC cells happens due to alcohol abuse, because the body’s production of white blood cells is restricted and eventually the cells get accumulated in the spleen, and as a result, the body’s power to ward off diseases weakens over time.
Cardiovascular diseases
Not only heavy drinking but even binge drinking can prove to be dangerous as it is responsible for causing heart diseases. This is because the level of triglycerides or fats rises leading to high blood pressure and eventually a stroke.
Also, heavy drinking has a medium probability of causing weakening of the heart muscle, known as cardiomyopathy, and heart-rhythm abnormalities.
Anemia
Heavy drinkers need to be aware because excessive drinking has also been found to affect the hematologic system, which consists of liver, bone marrow, blood, and spleen. That is why, it has can reportedly cause the count of RBCs to go down, and this syndrome is called anemia which can cause a host of symptoms including lightheadedness, shortness of breath and fatigue.
Osteoporosis
Although the presence of this bone disorder in this list might be a bit shocking, it is actually true! Heavy drinkers belonging from the adolescence and young adult life stages are prone to bone damage leading to osteoporosis and even loss of bone mass, in later life stages.
If the development of osteoporosis starts, then the chances of bone fractures increase alarmingly, especially in the proximal femur of the hip. Since alcohol messes up with the calcium and Vitamin D production of the body, it weakens the bone structure.
Accidents
Also, this is not any disease like the others featured in this list; this, in fact, has proved to quite a common health hazard of alcoholism. Even drinking alcohol is not only related only to car crashes but also suicides, domestic violence, drowning and even homicide.
Contrary to popular opinion, driving impairment can also happen even after binge drinking.
No pattern of driving after drinking is entirely risk-free as it is difficult to predict how an individual would be harmed after drinking alcohol!
Malnourishment
Malnourishment also is a cause of vitamin deficiencies, partly caused by alcohol drinking, but a poor diet also has a role in it. As nutrients are not completely broken down properly they are not used effectively by the cells.
Depression
Alcohol and depression are inter-related and numerous studies show that people who drink heavily suffer from depression and people who are depressed seek the solace of alcohol!
Seizures
Not only heavy drinking but the sudden withdrawal of alcohol can cause epilepsy-like symptoms and even prolonged seizures which is life-threatening. Also drinking excessive amounts of alcohol has been found to cause epilepsy in people who didn’t have this condition before they started using alcohol.
So as you can see, heavy drinking can negatively impact your body in so many ways! But there is always hope for people who want to try hard to restore normalcy and lead a healthy life.
