When consumed in large amounts over a prolonged period of time, alcohol harms virtually every part of your body. Here’s how.
Stomach: After it is ingested, alcohol reaches the stomach. Twenty per cent of the alcohol in a beverage is absorbed into the bloodstream almost immediately through small blood vessels in the stomach wall. The remaining 80 per cent travels on to the small intestines where it will be absorbed into the bloodstream there. Alcohol encourages the production of hydrochloric acid, which can impact the stomach’s protective lining. This explains why heavy drinkers experience heartburn, gastritis, reflux, ulcers and bleeding.
Blood: Given how quickly alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, it is perhaps not surprising that excessive drinking can have a serious impact on the blood. Prolonged drinking can cause blood conditions including several forms of anaemia and blood clotting abnormalities. It can also impair white blood cell function and thus reduce the strength of the immune system.
Brain: Alcohol affects almost every part of the brain, contracting brain tissue and depressing the central nervous system. It also destroys brain cells and unlike other types of cell in the body, brain cells do not regenerate. Alcohol has a major effect on the cerebral cortex, impacting thought processes and judgment, and depressing inhibition. It also blunts the senses and increases the threshold for pain. The effect of alcohol on the limbic system in the brain means that the drinker may experience memory loss and exaggerated states of emotion. Muscle movements become uncoordinated because of the impact on the cerebellum.
Alcohol affects the medulla (brain stem) resulting in drowsiness and, eventually, if consumption continues, causing the person to lose consciousness. It also depresses nerve centres in the hypothalamus that control sexual arousal and performance – sexual desire increases but sexual performance declines.
Small intestine: Twenty minutes after ingesting, the remaining 80 per cent of alcohol arrives in the small intestines and diffuses almost instantly into the blood. Alcohol blocks the absorption of water and sodium in the small intestines which is why a drinking session dehydrates.
Reproductive system: Excessive alcohol intake affects the brain and kidneys and therefore affects hormone production. In men, this can mean a reduction in the production of sperm and testosterone, which can cause impotence and/or infertility.
In the short term, because alcohol deadens nerve cells all over the body, a drinking session can lead to erection problems. In the long term, eight out of 10 problem drinkers suffer from serious erectile dysfunction.
Heart: Excessive and prolonged alcohol consumption can cause irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, heart disease and heart failure. Heavy drinking causes narrowing of blood vessels and raises blood pressure, forcing the heart to pump harder. It also damages heart muscle, causing the heart to pump less efficiently.
Liver: Alcohol in the blood stream is metabolised by the liver, where it is broken down by enzymes. The liver metabolises about one standard drink (ie one bottle of beer or a glass of wine) in one hour – it can not cope with anything more than this. The excess makes its way to your body tissues and blood stream, waiting there for the liver to process it.
Kidneys: The kidneys regulate fluids, acid/base balance, certain hormones and minerals in the body. Alcohol can influence or compromise the balancing functions of the kidneys, and thus can cause severe deterioration of kidney function. Alcohol blocks the release of the hormone vasopressin, which normally stimulates the kidneys to conserve fluid – without vasopressin, urine becomes diluted with water which explains why we need to urinate so much when we drink.
Lungs: A small amount of blood alcohol diffuses into the air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs. Here it is warmed and turned in to vapour that we exhale (which is how breathalysers measure blood-alcohol levels). Heavy drinkers are more susceptible to pneumonia and lung collapse, and also have more pulmonary infections.