The damage of alcohol to the human body can take on impressive proportions. A person who drinks puts physical and mental health at risk: internal organs suffer, the work of the most important systems that control the human body is disorganized (the influence of alcohol on the immune system is especially dangerous), degradation occurs personality, which is due to the effect on the human nervous system.
The effects of alcohol on the body affect:
- Liver;
- Brain;
- The nervous system and the psyche;
- Cardiovascular system;
- Kidneys
- The digestive system;
- The immune system;
- Muscles and joints;
- Endocrine system;
- Spleen;
- Respiratory system;
- Visual organs;
- External appearance.
To avoid negative consequences, you must first know how alcohol affects the human body.
The harmful effects of alcohol on the liver.
To find out how alcohol affects the liver, find out what its purpose is. The liver is an organ responsible for the elimination of toxic substances from the body; various metabolic processes require your participation. For people who often drink alcohol, it is important to know why alcohol is dangerous for the liver and how it works. Speaking of the dangers of alcohol, it can be noted that it gradually destroys the liver. The ethyl alcohol that enters it oxidizes and forms a very strong toxin: acetaldehyde. Accumulating in the liver, modifies the organ and interrupts its functioning.
The effects of alcohol on the liver are truly devastating. Liver cells die from alcohol, are replaced by scars or fatty tissue, so the organ cannot perform its function normally (toxins accumulate in the body and eventually poison it).
The most serious consequence of how alcohol is harmful to the human body with immeasurable consumption is cirrhosis of the liver. With this disease, the structure of the organ begins to change, the size decreases, the vessels suffer from this: they shrink, the pressure in them increases, the blood stagnates. The natural result of this situation is the rupture of the walls of the vessels and bleeding, which is the cause of many deaths.
The effects of alcohol on the brain.
The effect of alcohol on the body mainly affects the brain. In a state of intoxication, a person's cerebral cortex is destroyed, while gradually some of its parts go numb and die.
For those who like to drink alcohol, the brain changes: it fills with ulcers, scars and edema, blood vessels dilate, ruptures appear in places, cysts appear in dead areas. These consequences once again demonstrate the negative effect of alcohol at any dose on the human body.
The effect of alcohol on the nervous system and psyche.
People addicted to alcohol need to know how alcohol affects the psyche. Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially in excessive doses, leads to the destruction of the psyche. The personality and behavior of a person completely changes, mental and moral degradation begins. Alcohol and the nervous system interact to destroy the personality. The effects of alcohol on sleep can cause insomnia. There are other important consequences - mental disorders and violations of the proper perception of reality. Alcohol is detrimental to memory, concentration, and motor coordination. From this it follows that the influence of alcohol on the human psyche causes great damage to the whole body.
It is necessary to understand in more detail why alcohol is harmful to human mental health. The harmful effect of alcohol on the human body and the nervous system in particular is that nerve fibers are damaged and their conductivity worsens, in medicine such a violation is called polyneuritis. A person loses sensitivity to pain and temperature changes, there is numbness in the legs and arms, weakness and "milkweed". Other signs: swelling, increased sweating, "goose bumps" on the skin, itching and burning, sharp and severe pain, the muscles appear to be tense, as if they are pricked with needles.
The most common effects of alcohol consumption on the central nervous system are:
- Delirium tremens. It is worth knowing why such a condition is dangerous. It appears after the cessation of prolonged alcohol consumption, accompanied by hallucinations, delirium, fever and fever, suicidal tendencies;
- Encephalopathy - Caused by an acute shortage of B vitamins in chronic drinkers. Its symptoms are problems with vision and the vestibular apparatus, confusion;
- Alcohol dementia syndrome. Loss of elementary mental abilities, problems with counting, speaking, perception, concentration, memory;
- Alcoholic epilepsy. It manifests itself in seizures and seizures in a hangover state;
- Korsakov psychosis. Loss of sensation in the extremities is combined with significant memory impairment.
Undoubtedly, the mental consequences of alcoholism lead to the degradation of the personality, the psychology of its behavior is altered.
Cardiovascular problems
Alcohol is detrimental to the health and normal function of the heart muscle. Heart disease is one of the most common causes of numerous deaths among drinkers.
This muscular organ can increase in volume with regular exposure to alcohol. In addition, the consequences of high doses of alcohol are arrhythmia, an increased risk of developing hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, ischemic heart muscle damage, and atherosclerosis.
Kidneys and liquor
The kidneys are a very important organ. It works as follows: it removes fluids from the body, cleanses the blood of toxic substances and participates in metabolic processes. Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages forces the kidneys to work at their maximum intensity.
This threatens a whole set of pathological conditions: dehydration, metabolic disorders, intoxication, the appearance of stones, pyelonephritis, the development of kidney failure, inflammation of the urinary tract, the appearance of cancer.
How alcohol affects the digestive tract
Alcoholic beverages are poisonous to the digestive system. The walls of the esophagus are affected, heartburn appears, the gag reflex intensifies, the vessels in the esophagus become thinner and widened, and during vomiting, a rupture of the venous walls can occur, which will lead to bleeding.
In addition, alcohol causes irreparable damage to the protective membrane of the stomach. The result is premature aging of the organ, deterioration of its functions. The typical diseases of people who drink are gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer.
The effect of alcohol on immunity.
The information on how alcohol affects immunity is twofold. Drinking in moderation can help you cope better with colds. However, with more frequent alcohol consumption, a person's immunity is suppressed.
Reduced immunity manifests itself in a decrease in the amount of a special 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. Therefore, we can safely say that alcohol reduces immunity.
Effects 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 atrophy, become flabby, alcohol can even destroy them completely. This can increase body fat stores. Alcohol and joints are not compatible concepts. The effect of alcohol on the health of the skeletal system is very significant, as it destroys bone tissue, removes calcium from the body, bones age rapidly, become brittle, and fractures often occur. After drinking alcohol, the joints often hurt.
Joint problems are common in the life of alcoholics. People who drink often develop arthritis, an inflammation of joint formations. Signs of arthritis: The joints begin to ache, especially the knees. After another binge, the pain intensifies.
Alcohol retains fluid in the body, edema appears, uric acid stops being excreted normally and accumulates in the form of salts that are deposited in the joints, which causes the appearance of gout. Excess fluid enters the joint, presses on the walls of the joint cavity, touches the nerve fibers, pain in various joints appears after alcohol. Over time, due to the action of alcoholic beverages, the complete deformation and destruction of joint formations occurs.
How alcohol affects your appearance
A person addicted to alcohol is easily recognizable in the crowd. Typical appearance of the drinker:
- bluish color of the nose;
- reddened and swollen face;
- bags under the eyes;
- bruising from bruising or falls;
- sloppy clothes;
- disheveled hair.
The effect of alcohol on the skin is also negative. A red tint appears, which is explained by increased blood flow under the influence of alcohol. A large load on the vessels causes their damage, small capillaries burst, this causes bruises in the form of blue and red dots on the face. A bluish tint is the result of severe vascular damage, 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, a person who has consumed a lot of alcohol feels a strong thirst, tries to quench it. Fluid builds up and is slowly removed, because the body seeks to protect itself from repeated dehydration and produces water reserves, from which the face and other parts of the body swell.
The effect of alcohol on the endocrine system.
Alcohol and its effect on human health are also associated with the work of the hormonal system. Its main organs:
- Thyroid gland (regulates metabolism);
- Pituitary gland and hypothalamus (controls the work of the entire system);
- The pancreas (responsible for the production of insulin);
- The pineal gland (produces hormones that affect sleep, blood circulation and the nervous system);
- Adrenal glands (produce adrenaline);
- Thymus (regulates the growth and development of immune cells);
- Gonads (produces male and female hormones).
The effect of alcohol on the thyroid gland and other organs of the endocrine system is such that it decreases the production of some hormones and increases the production of others. For example, in men there is a predominance of female hormones and a decrease in the level of male hormones. For women who drink, the opposite is true. Hormonal disorders negatively affect the state of the whole organism. Some endocrine pathologies are associated with congenital genetic mutations, and these mutations also often arise from drinking too much alcohol. The normal interaction of alcohol and the thyroid gland, as well as with other endocrine organs, is impossible.
How alcohol can affect the spleen
The spleen often hurts from frequent alcohol consumption. This organ plays the role of a user of aged and damaged blood cells in the body. It is a "store" of blood reserve that, if necessary, supplies the vessels of the circulatory system. In addition, this organ cleanses the blood of pathogenic microorganisms.
Left upper quadrant pain may indicate spleen problems caused by heavy drinking. It is easy to explain why alcohol consumption is dangerous and why the spleen hurts. Most often, this organ is enlarged, an infarction of the spleen, an abscess is also possible, in severe cases that require the removal of this organ. The consequences of excessive consumption of any type of alcohol can seriously alter the function of the spleen and lead to death.
Effects on the respiratory system
Drinkers should know how alcohol affects lung health. Alcohol vapors affect the respiratory mucosa, contributing to the development of pneumonia, bronchitis, chronic pharyngitis, and laryngitis (hence drunken hoarseness). Furthermore, these diseases are difficult and long-lasting. Pneumonia can lead to pneumosclerosis (the lung tissue hardens). Alcohol in the blood causes the destruction of lung tissue and its pathological expansion (emphysema).
In the example of the lungs, you can see the irreparable damage that alcohol causes to the human body. Large 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 a link between alcohol and the development of lung cancer.
The effect of alcohol on human vision.
Not everyone knows for sure if alcohol is bad for vision and why alcoholics have eye pain. Under the influence of alcohol, intracranial pressure increases. This causes damage to the vessels of the eyes and numerous small hemorrhages, the oxygen supply to the muscles is interrupted, they are in a state of permanent tension. The consequence of this condition can be the atrophy of the muscles of the eyeball and the deterioration of the quality of vision.
In addition, alcohol can affect the nerve fibers in the fundus, altering the function of the optic nerve. The most serious effect of alcohol on the visual system is blindness.
Alcoholism and its consequences have a destructive effect on the body, and the psyche can also change significantly. Only by stopping drinking can you stop the process of destroying your body.