Taking not more than two drinks of alcohol in a day is beneficial but going beyond that can have serious implications on men’s health. Know about alcohol effects on the body.
Two drinks for men and one for women are acceptable and beneficial for heart but indulging into excessive drinking can be detrimental to your health. Excessive drinking is associated with long-term alcohol effects on the body. Even a little amount of alcohol affects the body. It quickly enters the bloodstream and reaches to almost all the organs of the body. A very little amount of alcohol exits the body through urine and nose. Men are more likely to do excessive drinking than women. They are at higher risk of injury or death when combined with excessive drinking.
Here are the alcohol effects on different parts of the body:
The Central Nervous System
As soon as you drink alcohol, it is absorbed by your stomach and small intestine and enters your bloodstream. Alcohol is a depressant and it slows down your brain and other parts of the nervous system. It makes your body less coordinated, impairs your vision, hinders your ability to talk and walk and, deteriorates your ability to think and make decisions.
Also Read:Alcoholism and Alcohol Poisoning: It could happen to you
Excessive drinking interrupts the process of formation of memories in your brain and impulse control. The long term effects of alcohol include the shrinking of the frontal lobes of the brain. Once you get addicted to alcohol, sudden and frequent withdrawal of alcohol can cause nausea, anxiety, nervousness, give you seizures, make you insane, etc.
Severe alcoholism can damage your brain permanently causing dementia which is a serious memory loss problem. Damage to the nervous system can leave you in pain, numb or generate sensations in your hands and feet. Addiction to alcohol can cause a thymine (Vitamin B) deficiency causing trouble in the eyes.
Digestive system
Alcohol effects on the digestive system are hazardous. Alcohol can scrape off your digestive tract from your mouth to colon. Binge drinking can severely injure the parts of your digestive tract at once.
The habitual misuse of alcohol can damage the salivary glands. It can cause irritation in the mouth and tongue, leading to diseases of the gum, tooth decay and even tooth loss. Heavy drinking may cause ulcers in the oesophagus and stomach, acid reflux and heartburn. There may be dangerous internal bleeding, due to ulcers, haemorrhoids or damaged liver.
Heavy drinking can cause inflammation of the pancreas, as a result, pancreas will no longer be able to aid in digestion and regulate metabolism.
Alcohol makes it difficult for your digestive tract to absorb vitamins, nutrients and control bacteria. Alcohol makes your body malnourished and weak. Men who drink
alcohol excessively along with tobacco use are at higher risk for mouth, throat, oesophagus, upper-gastrointestinal and colon cancers.
Circulatory system
Even a single incidence of alcohol consumption can have serious alcohol effects on the circulatory system. It increases the risk of heart related complications.
Complications like poisoning of the heart muscle cells (cardiomyopathy), irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), high blood pressure, etc. can occur. The long term effects of alcohol on the circulatory system are stroke, heart attack and heart failure.
Sexual and reproductive health
Alcohol decreases the levels of male hormone, testosterone in the body. This reduction in testosterone levels decreases the sperm count and percentage of healthy and motile sperms in semen.
Also Read:Health screenings as an indicator of men’s health
Skeletal and muscle system
Alcohol interferes with your inflammatory and hormonal responses to exercise, and makes it harder for the body to repair damaged proteins and synthesize new one. As a result, the entire workout goes in vain.
The skin
Alcohol dilates the blood vessels in face, making them more prone to breakage. This causes red eyes and a rosy-skinned condition called rosacea. To balance out these widened arteries and veins, the heart has to pump more fluid into the surrounding tissues. This leaves you with a bloated, fluffy face.
Immune system
Alcohol makes the immune system weak. It is incapable of warding off viruses, bacteria, germs and, all types of illnesses. The long term effects of alcohol include pneumonia and tuberculosis. Heavy and habitual drinkers are at higher risk of cancers.
Conclusion:
While drinking one or two glass of alcohol per day is beneficial to health, going beyond that can land all you in trouble. Excessive drinking is more common in men. It causes various alcohol effects to occur in all the parts of the body.
