Drinking too much alcohol can take a serious toll on your health

Alcohol interferes with the brains communication pathways, and can affect the way the
brain looks and works. This can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think
clearly and move with coordination.

Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart,
causing problems including: stretching and drooping of heart muscle
(Cardiomyopathy ), irregulaar heart beat, stroke and high blood pressure.
Heavy drinking affects the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver
inflammations including steatosis, or fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis and
cirrhosis

Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to
pancreatitis, which is inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that
prevents proper digestion.

Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing cancer, including cancers
of the throat, oesophagus, liver and breasts.

Drinking too much can weaken your immune system, making your prone to
disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia.

Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood

cells to drop to a low level. This is known as anemia and is marked
by fatigue, shortness of breath, and lightheadedness.

As people age, their brains shrink, on average, at a rate of about 1.9%

per decade. That's considered normal. But heavy drinking speeds the
shrinkage of certain key regions in the brain, resulting in memory loss
and other symptoms of dementia.

Alcohol is also known to cause depression

Heavy drinking can cause epilepsy and can trigger seizures even in
people who don't have epilepsy. It can also interfere with the action of
the medications used to treat convulsions.

A painful condition, gout is caused by the formation of uric acid

crystals in the joints. Although some cases are largely hereditary,
alcohol and other dietary factors seem to play a role. Alcohol also
seems to aggravate existing cases of gout.

Heavy drinking can cause a form of nerve damage known as alcoholic

neuropathy, which can produce a painful pins-and-needles feeling or
numbness and also muscle weakness, incontinence,

constipation, erectile dysfunction, and other problems.

Alcohol irritates the stomach, so heavy drinking can cause sickness

and nausea and sometimes diarrhoea. In the longer term, alcohol is
associated with an increased risk of cancer of the stomach.

Alcohol is often linked with bowel conditions. It can trigger symptoms

of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS ) and recent studies have shown that
even small amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of bowel cancer.

alcohol is a diuretic it acts on the kidneys to make you pee out much
more than you take in

Alcohol can affect womens reproductive systems, and damage fertility.

Even small amounts can affect a womans menstrual cycle and reduce
the chance of conceiving. Alcohol can reduce a mans testosterone
levels, leading to loss of libido. It can also damage the quality,
structure and movement of sperm by stopping the liver from properly
metabolising vitamin A, which is needed for sperm development.

Alcohol causes drinkers to suffer damage in the very part of

the brain that governs self control.
Alcoholics damages the very parts of their brains involved in
controlling problem drinking, and the more alcohol
consumed the greater the damage is. Brain scans show that
alcoholics particularly damage the white matter tracts in the
frontal lobes of the brain.
The frontal lobes are the integration centre for all other parts
of the brain that are important for behaviours such as selfmonitoring, planning, judgement, reasoning and learning
new behaviours.

Damaging the white tracts in this area interferes with

impulse control, which is needed to achieve and maintain
self control over an addictive substance like alcohol.
Alcohol damages the frontal lobes (pictured in blue) of the
brain. These brain areas are critical to learning new
information, self-regulation and impulse control, so damage
makes alcoholics unable to stop drinking
Alcohol dulls the brain signal that warns people they are
making a mistake. While drinkers are aware of their error,
the alcohol causes them to care less about it, thus their self
control reduces.

Depressant: A drug reducing functional or nervous activity.

Alcohol has only a very temporary positive impact on one's mood, in the long
term it can cause big problems for one's mental health. Its linked to a range
of issues from depression and memory loss to suicide.
Alcohol alters the brain chemistry by disrupting the delicate balance of

chemicals and processes in the brain. Alcohol is a depressant, which means it

can , affecting one's thoughts, feelings and actions and sometimes, longterm mental health. This is partly due to effects on neurotransmitters
(chemicals that help to transmit signals from one nerve (or neuron) in the
brain to another).
The relaxed feeling alcohol generates is due to the chemical changes alcohol
has caused in the brain, making the person feel more confident and less
anxious. Thats because alcohol depresses the part of the brain associated
with inhibition.
Alcohol actually increases anxiety and stress rather than reducing it because
heavy drinking interferes with neurotransmitters in the brain which are
needed for good mental health. Regular drinking lowers the levels of
serotonin in your brain a chemical that helps to regulate a person's mood.
When drinking, the person narrows their perception of a situation and doenst
always respond to all the cues around them. If , for example, one is prone to
anxiety and notices something that could be interpreted as threatening,
they'll hone in on that and miss the other less threatening/ neutral
information.
Drinking heavily can also affects one's relationshipswith their partner, family
and friends due to the abovementioned reasons, therefore also contributing
to depression. Alcohol may also make people lose their inhibitions and
behave impulsively, so it can lead to actions they might not otherwise have
taken including self-harm and suicide.
Disturbed, sleepiness, feeling lethargic and tired all the time, low mood,
experiencing anxiety in situations where you would normally feel comfortable
are numerous symptoms that alcohol is behaving as a depressent.

How alcohol affects reaction time

Reaction time refers to the interval of time between the sensing of a

stimulus by the body and the initiation of the muscular response by the
effectors to that stimulus.
Alcohol is carried by the blood stream directly to the brain where it acts
to slow down or depress brain activity as it is a central nervous system
depressant. Alcohol gets into the blood stream so fastidiously that just

moments after it is consumed, it can be found in all the tissues, organs

and secretions of the body.
Alcohol depresses the brain activity so it takes the Central Nervous
System more amount of time to respond to a stimulus and send a
command to the effectors. This, as well as the fact that alcohol slows
down nerve impulses, increases a person's reaction time. Thus, high
blood alcohol levels depress brain activity to the point when memory
as well as muscular coordination and balance are temporarily impaired
and the person is left disoriented, and "slow".
If steady heavy drinking is carried out with no limit, the alcohol may
even penetrate the deepest levels of the brain and may result in coma
or death.

Alcohol and liver disease

The liver is the largest internal organ and one of the most important organs. Drinking
alcohol causes alcoholic liver disease.
When one drinks alcohol, it is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and
intestines. All blood from the stomach and intestines first goes through the liver before
circulating around the whole body. So, the highest concentration of alcohol is in the blood
flowing through the liver.
There are three types- heavy drinkers will progress from fatty liver disease to alcoholic
hepatitis to alcoholic cirrhosis over time:
1) Excessive drinking can make the liver get fat. The liver turns glucose into fat which it
sends round the body to store for use when we need it. Alcohol affects the way the liver
handles fat so the liver cells instead get stuffed full of it. Symptoms include a vague
feeling of discomfort in the abdomen as the liver is swollen. Sick feeling and a loss of
appetite may also be caused. A blood test may be used to identify a fatty liver.
2) Hepatitis or inflammation: This occurs due to effects such as "Oxidative stress" which
is when our liver tries to break down alcohol, and the resulting chemical reaction damage
its cells. This damage leads to inflammation as the liver tries to repair itself. Alcohol can
also damage our intestine which lets toxins from our gut bacteria get into the liver. These
toxins can also lead to inflammation. Severe alcoholic hepatitis can lead to liver failure.
This can cause deep jaundice, blood clotting problems, confusion, coma and bleeding
into the guts. It is often fatal.
3) Alcoholic cirrhosis, the most advanced type of liver disease caused by alcohol, is
characterized by severe scarring and damage to the structure of the liver because hard
scar tissue replaces soft healthy tissue. Symptoms of cirrhosis are mostly similar to those

of severe alcoholic hepatitis . At this stage if alcohol use is not curbed completely, the
person may die from liver failure. In the most serious cases of cirrhosis, a liver transplant
may only be considered if the person does not drink alcohol for at least three months
Jaundice, vomiting blood, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, swelling of the legs ankles,
or abdomen, bleeding in the gutin, creased sensitivity to alcohol and drugs, both medical
and recreational (because the liver cannot process them) are some of the late symptoms of
liver disease, when the disease is in its serious, final stages.

Social implication means: how does what a person do effect the society/
people in the area, and how does the society treat the person for their action.

Alcohol is a part of various different cultures world over. Alcohol use such as drinking
champagne is associated with celebration and formal occasions in many societies. It is
also considered to be a constructor of intapersonal relationships. It is however a
dangerous substance and leads to various negative effects on society.
Wider society:
Because alcohol impairs good judgment, clouds a person's thinking skills and self
control, it leads to irrational or dangerous behaviour which is risky and hurtful for the
society at large. Alcohol abuse is connected to risky sexual activity such as rapes, and
violent crime also. Alcohol is also one of the main causes of automobile accidents as the
driver is disoriented and cannot react quickly to traffic changes. These happenings lead to
a disturbed, unhealthy society.
Social Circle:
People use alcohol to help them relax and deal with stressful social situations such as
tense family matters or overcome nervousness when they need to attend social events,
work or dating. Alcohol use leads to psychological problems like anxiety and depression,
as alcohol is a depressant, thus, people may initially over-drink in order to overcome their
depression, but the more they drink, the more depressed they become. People who abuse
alcohol, often behave in ways (alcohol damages the brain and impairs sense and
sensibility) that cause others to ostracize them from them society. The alcoholics
themselves withdraw from society as a result of depression. This not only disturbs the
social structure but also their own social lives are destroyed.
Personal social life (family, close friends):
Over usage of alcohol negatively effects the user's personality. Increased irritability,
irrationality, poor judgment and reasoning being some of the effects. This sort of
behaviour ruins the person's relationships with others. It leads to serious domestic

violence - verbal and physical abuse of the spouse and the children and is also
responsible for the breaking up of marriages. Children living with an alcoholic have
lower grades, higher rates of depression and frequently feel socially isolated as a result of
poor treatment, possible abuse and living in fear of the alcoholic's behaviour at home