What Are The Effects Of Alcohol On The Nervous System

What Are The Effects Of Alcohol On The Nervous System – When you drink alcohol, it is absorbed into your bloodstream and affects every part of your body. After the first sip, the alcohol runs to the brain, releasing feel-good endorphins and your heart rate may increase. For heavy drinkers, alcohol has a serious long-term effect on your overall well-being, including your personality and mental health. Most importantly, alcohol seriously compromises your physical health. Below are the long-term side effects of alcohol in the body after long periods of time:

Heavy drinking can lead to brain damage and memory loss. A recent study looked at over 36,000 middle-aged adults and the relationship between their alcohol consumption and brain volume. The researchers found that one to two drinks a day was associated with changes in the brain equivalent to two years of aging. In other words, a 50-year-old who drinks a pint of beer or a glass of wine a day effectively ages his brain by two years. The participants self-reported that they consumed alcohol for more than a year, which can lead to inaccuracies if they forget their consumption or consumption was more abundant in other years. So while this research is in its early stages, the initial findings contradict the common myth that “a glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away.”

What Are The Effects Of Alcohol On The Nervous System

Another way heavy drinking can affect the brain is through the onset of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS). This debilitating brain disease can be caused by a lack of thiamine, a vitamin that most chronic alcoholics lack due to poor nutrition and poor body absorption. The first symptoms of WKS are loss of muscle coordination, visual disturbances and confusion. If left untreated, the brain suffers further damage, impairing learning and memory skills. WKS can be treated with abstinence from alcohol and proper nutrition, but full recovery can take years.

We Aren’t Drinking To Our Good Health

People who drink a lot are at risk of tooth decay, periodontal disease and possible pre-cancerous lesions of the mouth. Many alcoholic beverages have a high sugar content, which causes tooth erosion and cavities. Bacteria feed on sugar, so a person with an alcohol use disorder provides the perfect environment in their mouth for bacteria to flourish. The acid in wine, beer and citrus drinks also wears away enamel.

Unhealthy eating habits—from overconsumption of sugars and fats to underconsumption of critical vitamins and minerals—are common among heavy drinkers and can lead to gum disease. Bad breath – caused by rotting teeth and inflamed gums – is one of the clear signs that someone may be struggling with alcoholism. People with a lot of streaks also have a higher risk of developing cancer in the mouth, throat and esophagus. In the long term, alcohol has a serious effect on this part of the body.

Alcohol is a sedative, so one of its properties is that it slows breathing. In people who have been drinking heavily for years, alcohol damages the airways and interferes with the lungs’ ability to fight infection. In addition, alcohol weakens the body’s ability to clear mucus from the lungs, which increases the risk of pneumonia and other health complications.

Opioids, another sedative, are sometimes taken with alcohol to enhance the stress-relieving and calming effects, but this comes with great risks. When alcohol and opioids are combined, an overdose can occur. The respiratory organs may be so suffocated that they cannot breathe. Without enough oxygen to the brain, the organs begin to shut down and the brain can face irreversible damage. If not treated immediately, it can be fatal.

How Alcohol Affects Your Health

Alcohol affects the body’s ability to create healthy, new muscle because the substance slows muscle protein synthesis (MPS), the process of producing protein to repair damaged muscles and increase mass. In addition, drinking disrupts the flow of calcium in muscle cells, which affects muscle contraction. Repeated abuse combined with a poor diet also prevents the body from repairing damaged muscles.

As a result, long-term heavy drinking can cause muscle weakness or “alcoholic myopathy,” a disease that causes loss of muscle strength. Common symptoms of alcohol myopathy include muscle cramps, spasms, numbness and pain all over the body. Acute alcoholic myopathy can also appear temporarily after a night of binge drinking. A balanced diet, physical therapy and not drinking alcohol can help reverse this condition.

During intoxication, it is difficult for the pupils to contract and dilate normally. The automatic physiological function weakens, and the eyes cannot quickly adapt to various changes in light. For example, if bright lights are suddenly turned on in a room, people who have been drinking often complain that it is “too bright”.

Alcohol also affects the communication between the brain and the eyes. As a result, this can cause double vision, a condition in which the brain slows down the rate at which its visual system synchronizes information from the two eyes. The problem of double vision and delayed adaptation to changes in light make driving under the influence extremely dangerous. In addition, excessive alcohol consumption can weaken the eye muscles, change peripheral vision and the ability to distinguish colors. In rare cases, alcoholism can cause blindness due to damage to the optic nerve.

Long Term Effects Of Alcohol Abuse And Alcoholism

A fast or irregular heartbeat is common in people who drink frequently. Alcohol can have a profound effect on this part of the body as well. In fact, some studies show that consuming just one to three alcoholic drinks a day can increase the risk of developing an abnormal heartbeat. An irregular heartbeat can cause fatigue, dizziness or shortness of breath.

Alcoholic cardiomyopathy, or weakening of the heart muscle, is another serious disease caused by excessive alcohol abuse. In the long term, alcohol can thin and weaken the heart muscle so that it reduces the ability to pump blood throughout the body. As alcoholic cardiomyopathy worsens, it can lead to other complications, such as heart failure.

The liver plays one of the most important roles in the process of breaking down alcohol. The liver, which is responsible for producing enzymes and filtering harmful substances from the blood, processes more than 90% of alcohol. In the liver, enzymes work hard to destroy alcohol molecules, while the rest of the substance leaves the body through urine, sweat and breath.

The liver can only process a certain amount of alcohol per hour. Usually one drink per hour. When people drink hops, the liver cannot process the toxins fast enough and the excess alcohol enters the bloodstream, causing intoxication. Repeated heavy drinking can damage the organ and lead to cirrhosis, which is scarring of the liver.

Long Term Effects Of Alcohol Poster Print By Spencer Sutton/science Source

The stomach is the first part of the body that alcohol comes into contact with after the mouth. Excessive alcohol consumption can increase the production of stomach acid and gradually wear away the lining of the stomach. If enough erosion occurs, it can lead to a condition called gastritis. Gastritis causes a burning sensation in the stomach, an unpleasant feeling of fullness after eating and nausea. If left untreated, ulcers and stomach tumors are likely to form in the digestive tract.

In addition to irritating the stomach lining, heavy drinking also destabilizes the balance of the body’s gut microbiome, leading to an overgrowth of bad bacteria. Too much bad bacteria can lead to weight fluctuations, skin problems and disturbed sleep cycles. Alcohol consumption destroys the cells of the digestive tract and thus prevents the stomach’s ability to properly digest and absorb nutrients from food. This is why many stripes become mildly malnourished over time.

A long-term effect of alcohol on the body is also damage to the pancreas, another important organ that helps with digestion. When functioning normally, the pancreas releases digestive enzymes that help break down food and exocrine hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels. However, chronic alcohol consumption weakens these functions, which often leads to pancreatitis.

Pancreatitis is a painful inflammation of the pancreas that can be acute or chronic. This condition occurs when the abundance of toxins from the breakdown process of alcohol begins to damage the cells of the pancreas. In addition, the digestive enzymes normally released into the small intestine become trapped in the pancreas and begin to digest the organ itself. The damaged tissue then becomes inflamed, and if heavy drinking continues, this condition can become permanent. Some of the effects of pancreatitis include jaundice, back and abdominal pain, discolored stools, and vomiting.

The Harmful Effects Of Alcohol Poster

The kidneys filter waste from the blood, regulate the balance of water and minerals in the body, and produce hormones. Excessive alcohol consumption can have harmful side effects on this part of the body. Since drinking causes dehydration, the kidneys, as well as other organs in the body, are overloaded with little water. Dehydration caused by alcohol is a common cause of kidney stones, when the urine concentrates and the body cannot remove toxins properly.

People who maintain heavy drinking double their chances of developing kidney disease compared to the general population. Binge eating or consuming four to five servings in less than two hours can sometimes impair kidney function to the point of acute kidney failure. In this case, the kidneys temporarily lose their filtering ability and the dangerous amount of waste begins

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