Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol is a poison that affects your body inside and out. Although moderate and occasional drinking is a low-risk activity but drinking heavily and regularly can have both lasting and immediate health effects. Slurred speech and loss of coordination are the short term effects of alcohol traveling through the bloodstream. Long term and heavy drinking of alcohol can cause serious damage to the liver, heart, pancreas, and many other organs and even increase the risk of several types of cancer. Much of this damage can be ceased or reversed by moderating or completely stopping alcohol consumption. Anyone you struggles to give up alcohol addiction may require alcohol detox treatment by addiction professionals who suggest treatments for long term sobriety.

Although you are unable to see the internal damage that alcohol causes but you should not ignore the side effects of alcoholism. Here are the ways how alcohol affects your body organs.

It Affects the Brain:

Effects of alcohol can be felt immediately. Alcohol causes not only temporary complications such as loss of coordination or memory but also long term side effects that are sometimes irreversible. Excessive and prolonged alcohol abuse can interfere with how brain functions as well as how it is structured. Alcoholism can cause damage to different regions of the brain, especially the limbic system, cerebellum, cerebral cortex. Damage to these regions can significantly impact the communication pathways of the body. For example, when alcohol affects the cerebellum that handles your motor skills, you would experience a loss of balance, emotional response issue, and memory issues.

It Affects the Heart:

The heart is extremely susceptible to the harmful effects of alcohol addiction. Heavy drinking can weaken the heart, impacting its efficiency to deliver the oxygen and nutrients to other vital organs in the body. Excessive alcohol intake can increase the triglyceride levels – a type of fat in the blood. High triglycerides levels in the blood put you at higher risks of dangerous health conditions such as blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. The early cardiovascular effects like irregular heartbeat or high blood pressure can lead to a host of issues down the road. Long term consequences of alcohol abuse include stroke, cardiomyopathy, or heart failure.

It Affects the Liver:

Alcohol addicts are at a high risk of liver problems that can be life-threatening. When you drink alcohol, your liver breaks it down and removes it from the blood. Too much alcohol consumption over a short time period can overwhelm the process of metabolism which leads to fatty liver. Fatty liver a chronic condition caused by a buildup of bad fats in the liver. Obesity one of the biggest cause of fatty liver. It can also cause type 2 diabetes and even liver failure. Other liver complications associated with alcoholism are alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and fibrosis. Although all of them are curable but they require proper diagnosis and intensive treatment.

It Affects the Pancreas:

The pancreas is a part of the digestive system that regulates the blood sugar levels of the body. Drinking alcohol over many years can negatively affect the function of your pancreas. Early stages of pancreatic disorders are left untreated because they are unfelt. Prolonged use of alcohol leads to pancreatitis which is caused by swelling of blood vessels around the pancreas. Pancreatitis increases the risk of pancreatic cancer that multiplies rapidly. The pancreatic attack occurs with symptoms including abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, fever, and fast heartbeat.