The harm that alcohol does to the human body can be impressive. A person who drinks is endangering physical and mental health - internal organs suffer, the work of the main systems that control the human body is disorganized (the influence of alcohol on the immune system is especially dangerous), there is a deterioration in personality due to itis intended to affect the human nervous system.
The effects of alcohol on the body include:
- 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;
- Organs of vision;
- Outward appearance.
First of all, in order to avoid negative consequences, you need to know how alcohol affects the human body.
The harmful effects of alcohol on the liver
To find out how alcohol affects the liver, it is worthwhile to find out what its purpose is. The liver is an organ responsible for excreting toxic substances from the body, various metabolic processes require its participation. For people who drink alcohol frequently, it is important to understand why alcohol is dangerous for the liver and how it works. Talking about the dangers of alcohol, one can point out that it gradually destroys the liver. Penetrating ethyl alcohol is oxidized and forms a very powerful toxin - acetaldehyde. It accumulates in the liver, changes the organ and disrupts its work.
The effects of alcohol on the liver are really devastating. Liver cells die from alcohol, they are replaced by scar tissue or fat tissue, so that the organ cannot function normally (toxins accumulate in the body and eventually poison it).
The most serious consequence of how harmful alcohol is to the human body with immeasurable consumption is cirrhosis of the liver. With this disease, the structure of the organ begins to change, its size decreases, the vessels suffer as a result: they shrink, the pressure in them increases, the blood stagnates. The natural consequence in this situation is a rupture of the vessel walls and bleeding, which are the cause of many deaths.
The effects of alcohol on the brain
The effects of alcohol on the body primarily affect the brain. When intoxicated, a person's cerebral cortex is destroyed while some of its parts gradually become numb and die.
Anyone who likes to drink alcohol changes the brain - it is pervaded by ulcers, scars and edema, blood vessels expand, cracks appear in some places, cysts appear in the dead places. These consequences prove once more the negative effects of alcohol in any dose on the human body.
The effect of alcohol on the nervous system and the psyche
People who are addicted to alcohol need to know how alcohol affects the psyche. Regular drinking of alcoholic beverages, especially in overdose, leads to the destruction of the psyche. The personality and behavior of a person changes completely, the mental and moral degradation begins. Alcohol and the nervous system interact to destroy personality. The effects of alcohol on sleep can lead to insomnia. There are other significant consequences - mental disorders and violations of adequate perception of reality. Alcohol is harmful to memory, concentration, and motor coordination. It follows that the influence of alcohol on the human psyche causes great harm to the entire 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 especially the nervous system, is that the nerve fibers are damaged and their conductivity deteriorates, in medicine such an injury is called polyneuritis. A person loses sensitivity to pain and temperature changes, there is numbness in the legs and arms, weakness and "cottoniness". Other signs: swelling, increased sweating, "goose bumps" on the skin, itching and burning, sharp stabbing pain, the muscles seem tense, as if they had been 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 occurs after the end of prolonged consumption of alcohol, accompanied by hallucinations, delirium, fever and fever, suicidal tendencies;
- Encephalopathy. Caused by an acute deficiency in B vitamins in people who drink chronically. Your symptoms are impaired vision, balance, confusion;
- Alcohol dementia syndrome. Loss of elementary mental abilities, problems with counting, speaking, perception, concentration, memory;
- Alcoholic epilepsy. It manifests itself in convulsions and seizures in the state of a hangover;
- Korsakov's psychosis. The loss of sensitivity in the limbs is associated with a significant impairment of memory.
Undoubtedly, the psychological consequences of alcoholism lead to a deterioration in personality, the psychology of its behavior is disturbed.
Cardiovascular problems
Alcohol is harmful to the health and normal function of the heart muscle. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in drinkers.
This muscle organ can expand in volume with regular alcohol exposure. In addition, the consequences of high doses of alcohol are cardiac arrhythmias, an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, ischemic damage to the heart muscle and atherosclerosis.
Kidneys and brandy
The kidneys are a very important organ. It works as follows: it removes fluids from the body, cleanses the blood of toxic substances and takes part in metabolic processes. Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages forces the kidneys to work at maximum intensity.
This threatens a whole range 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 poison for the digestive system. The walls of the esophagus are affected, heartburn occurs, the gag reflex intensifies, the vessels in the esophagus thin and widen, and vomiting can rupture the walls of the veins, causing bleeding.
In addition, alcohol irreparably damages the protective membrane of the stomach. The result is premature aging of the organ and impairment of its functions. Typical diseases of people who drink are gastritis, ulcers, and even stomach cancer.
The effect of alcohol on immunity
The information about how alcohol affects immunity is twofold. Drinking in moderation will help you cope with colds. However, with more frequent alcohol consumption, a person's immunity is inhibited.
Decreased immunity is manifested by 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 get into the body and prevents the development of various infectious diseases. Hence, we can safely say that alcohol reduces immunity.
Effects of alcohol on joints and muscles
The muscle tissue suffers from any dose of alcohol, which is very harmful to muscle health. It slows down or stops the growth of muscles, they wither, become flaccid, alcohol can even destroy them completely. This can increase body fat stores. Alcohol and joints are not compatible concepts. The effect of alcohol on skeletal system health is very significant as it destroys bone tissue, flushes calcium out of the body, bones age rapidly, become brittle and fractures are common. Often, joints ache after drinking alcohol.
Joint problems are common in the lives of alcoholics. People who drink often develop arthritis, which is inflammation of the formations of the joints. Signs of arthritis: Joints start to hurt, especially knees. After another binge, the pain intensifies.
Alcohol keeps fluid in the body, edema appears, uric acid is no longer excreted normally and accumulates in the form of salts that settle in the joints, which provokes the appearance of gout. Excess fluid penetrates the joint, presses on the walls of the joint cavity, touches nerve fibers, pain occurs in various joints after alcohol. Over time, due to the action of alcoholic beverages, deformations and complete destruction of the joint formations appear.
How alcohol affects the way you look
An alcohol addict is easy to spot in a crowd. Typical appearance of a drinker:
- bluish color of the nose;
- reddened and swollen face;
- Bags under the eyes;
- Bruising from bruising or falling;
- sloppy clothes;
- disheveled hair.
The effect of alcohol on the skin is also negative. A red tinge develops, which is explained by the 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 spots 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 requires a large amount of fluids, dehydration sets in, a person who has consumed a lot of alcohol feels a strong thirst, tries to quench it. Fluid accumulates and is slowly removed as the body tries to protect itself from repeated dehydration and builds water reserves from which the face and other parts of the body swell.
The effect of alcohol on the endocrine system
Alcohol and its effects on human health are also linked to the work of the endocrine system. Its main organs:
- Thyroid (regulates metabolism);
- Pituitary gland and hypothalamus (controls the work of the entire system);
- The pancreas (responsible for producing 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 and other organs of the endocrine system is such that it decreases the production of some hormones and increases the production of others. In men, for example, there is a dominance of female hormones and a decrease in male hormone levels. The opposite is true for women who drink. Hormonal disorders have a negative effect on the condition of the entire organism. Some endocrine pathologies are associated with congenital gene mutations, and these mutations are often caused by too much alcohol. Normal interaction between alcohol and thyroid and other endocrine organs is impossible.
How alcohol can affect the spleen
Often the spleen 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 reserve "storehouse" of blood that supplies the vessels of the circulatory system when needed. In addition, this organ cleanses the blood of pathogenic microorganisms.
Pain in the left hypochondrium may indicate spleen problems caused by excessive drinking. It's easy to explain why drinking alcohol is dangerous and why the spleen hurts. Most often this organ is enlarged, splenic infarction, abscess, in severe cases that require the removal of this organ, are also possible. The consequences of excessive consumption of alcohol of any kind can seriously impair the functioning of the spleen and lead to death.
Effects on the respiratory system
Drinkers should be aware of how alcohol affects lung health. Alcohol vapors act on the lining of the respiratory tract, which contributes to the development of pneumonia, bronchitis, chronic pharyngitis and laryngitis (hence the hoarseness of drunk people). In addition, these diseases are difficult and long-term. Pneumonia can turn into pneumosclerosis (lung tissue hardens). The alcohol in the blood causes the destruction of lung tissue and its pathological expansion (emphysema).
The example of the lungs shows the irreparable damage that alcohol causes to the human body. High doses of alcohol affect the breathability 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 incidence of lung cancer.
The effect of alcohol on human eyesight
Not everyone knows exactly if alcohol is bad for eyesight and why alcoholics have eye pain. Cranial pressure increases under the influence of alcohol. As a result, the vessels of the eyes are damaged and there is numerous small bleeding, the oxygen supply to the muscles is disturbed, they are in a state of permanent tension. The consequence of this condition can be atrophy of the muscles of the eyeball and deterioration in the quality of vision.
In addition, alcohol can affect the nerve fibers of the fundus and disrupt 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 dramatically. Only when you stop drinking can you stop the process of destroying your body.