What is the harm of alcohol: negative effects on the body and consumption rates

Alcoholic beverages are the most common product on the shelves of almost all grocery stores. Certain doses of alcohol lead to serious changes and disorders in the human body. Awareness of the harm of alcohol can help to completely reject it or limit alcohol intake to acceptable levels.

What harm does alcohol do to humans?

Abusers do not think about the consequences of intoxication and these are:

• mental degradation;
• deterioration of physical and mental health;
• problems in society;
• bad inheritance;
• financial problems;
• immoral behavior.

According to statistics, men are more likely to drink. This happens for many reasons, for example, due to bad company or deception that alcohol can relieve stress. But it also affects women and, worst of all, teenagers.

Harmful substances contained in alcohol

By knowing which harmful substances the most common types of alcohol contain, you can understand how it affects our quality of life.

Known intoxicating liquids contain substances dangerous to health and life:

1. Ethanol. With regular and excessive use leads to addiction. In small amounts, it does not harm the body, but an overdose can lead to a sudden loss of consciousness or even death.
2. Phytoestrogens. The female hormone (found in beer) leads to disruption of the male and female reproductive system.
3. Fusel oil. In large quantities they are toxic. With constant intake in the body, they increase the risk of stomach ulcer, cause blindness, impotence and liver disease.
4. Cobalt. In small amounts, it is a beneficial trace element, but if it accumulates in the body, it becomes dangerous to the normal functioning of the heart and gastrointestinal tract.
5. N-nitrosodimethylamine. Very toxic substance, especially destructive effect on the liver.
6. Biogenic amines. Toxic chemical compound. In a small amount it can be helpful, but if abused, it leads to convulsions, vomiting and diarrhea.
7. Sodium benzoate (E-211). Once in the stomach, it causes a sharp oxidation of epithelial cells. This leads to gastritis, stomach ulcers, pancreatitis. Contributes to the aggravation of chronic allergic diseases: asthma, urticaria, psoriasis.
8. Phosphoric acid (E-338). Destructively affects bone tissue and tooth enamel. It provokes gastrointestinal disorders, leads to weight loss. A high concentration of the substance causes burns of the respiratory tract.

Harmful effect on the body of adolescents

Alcohol has a detrimental effect on a teenager's growth and development processes:

1. Intellectual and emotional decline.
2. Beneficial vitamins and microelements that enter the body are poorly absorbed and this negatively affects the condition of teeth, nails, hair and skin.
3. Increases the risk of problems with the heart, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, the occurrence of diseases that, as a rule, for people of older age (for example, pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus).
4. Growth of bone and muscle tissue stops.
5. Liver, kidneys, reproductive system suffer.

Female alcoholism

The difference between the development of male and female addiction:

1. In women, addiction occurs more quickly, and treatment of this disease is ineffective. This is because of the characteristics of the female body: it has fewer enzymes that help break down products that contain alcohol. Therefore, toxins are not excreted from the body for a long time and quickly lead to harmful effects on the organs.
2. Women prefer low-alcohol drinks (wine, champagne, cocktails). Because of this, it is more difficult to control the level of intoxication and the transition to strong drinks occurs, as a rule, already in the final stages of alcoholism.
3. Ashamed of addiction, women are more likely to drink alone and seek help when it is quite difficult to hide the changes. The rehabilitation process is more difficult and longer than in men.

Due to the effect of alcohol on eggs, conceiving, holding and giving birth to a baby can be a difficult or even impossible task.

Conception at the moment of intoxication affects the genetic information from the egg. After holding such a fetus, there is a fundamental threat of the birth of an heir with cerebral palsy syndrome (infantile cerebral palsy) or with other disorders of external and internal organs. And there is also the possibility that during pregnancy the placenta will bloom and the fetus will die.

Social harm

Wife / husband, children, relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors and passers-by can become victims of a drunken's misconduct:

1. work. Employers do not want to immediately accept or dismiss a person who drinks alcohol, as he misses shifts for no good reason or performs the task poorly.
2. driving. Half of the accidents are due to a drunk driver.
3. Violation of the law. Most crimes are committed by those who are drunk or quite drunk, as they are more prone to aggression and even murder.
4. immoral behavior. First sexual experience, unplanned pregnancy and rape cases occur most often when one or both partners are drunk.
5. Unhealthy atmosphere at home. Children grow up in an unfavorable environment and can inherit the negative example of their parents.
6. DIVORCE. All innocent family members suffer. Mothers or fathers raise only children, who are affected by the upbringing in an incomplete family.

How does alcohol affect health?

The table shows the popular alcoholic beverages, their composition, as well as the organs they affect.

beverages	Composition	Organ damage and possible consequences
beers	Carbohydrates, ethyl alcohol, nitrogenous substances	kidney stones; heart problems; liver disease; brain damage; atherosclerosis; intestinal and stomach diseases; fat deposition; impotence
Vodka	Purified water, ethyl alcohol. The composition may include chemical additives and spices	poor orientation in space; mental degradation; cerebral hemorrhage; heart attack; infrakt; violation of the liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract
Cognac	Alcohols, organic acids, ethyl esters, tannins and tannins	cirrhosis of the liver; cardiovascular diseases; asthma attacks; destruction of tooth enamel; stomach walls are eroded; poor blood clotting
Cocktails with a little alcohol	Ethanol, synthetic additives and chemical additives	stroke; varicose veins; mental decline; memory impairment; gastritis, stomach ulcer; hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver; asthma attacks occur; there is a deterioration of the skin structure; hormonal disruptions; development of infertility

Liver and digestive system

Liver destruction is associated with a violation of protein metabolism and in the first stage is usually not associated with subjective sensations and changes in laboratory parameters.

There are five stages of liver destruction:

• adaptive hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver);
• alcoholic fatty steatosis;
• alcoholic hepatitis;
• alcoholic liver fibrosis;
• cirrhosis.

Common signs of these diseases:

• persistent weakness;
• yellow skin and pimples;
• the temperature is above normal;
• pain in the right hypochondrium.

The alcohol that enters the gut, in fact, leaves a chemical burn of its mucosa. Regular intoxication leads to problems with defecation (loose stools or constipation, fecal stones), which are most often solved exclusively by surgery.

More possible:

• angioedema;
• diarrhea;
• koshere;
• gastritis;
• Ulcerative dyspepsia;
• pancreatitis;
• necrosis of pancreatic tissue;
• bowel cancer.

Heart and blood vessels

After drinking alcohol, ethyl alcohol enters the bloodstream and stays in the vessels for about 7 hours, which causes them to dilate, disrupting the normal heart rhythm. Frequent intake of alcohol, even in a modest amount, inevitably leads to blockage of the vessels of the brain, which, with increasing blood pressure, break down. At best, a person survives but remains incapacitated, and at worst, a fatal outcome.

Minimal but constant doses of alcohol are dangerous and provoke the following painful conditions:

• oxygen starvation;
• vessels thicken, shrink, explode;
• atrial fibrillation;
• extrasystole;
• cardiomyopathy;
• hypertension;
• hypertension;
• heart attack;
• atherosclerosis.

The pulse increases from 95 to 100 beats per minute. Fat accumulates in the heart muscle, respectively, grows and becomes weak.

Brain and nervous system

The entry of ethyl alcohol into the bloodstream causes a destructive effect on red blood cells, which are responsible for transporting air to the brain. Oxygen stops entering the brain cells and, as a result, they die one by one.

This leads to poor performance:

• vestibular apparatus;
• the "moral" center (the feeling of shame disappears, jokes appear);
• memory;
• attention.

The processes of excitation and inhibition in the nervous system are disturbed, which leads to the following signs of antisocial and painful behavior:

• manifestation of aggression;
• inability to control oneself;
• illogicality in the presentation of thought;
• suicidal tendencies;
• violation of the dynamics of movements;
• occurrence of seizures;
• the appearance of hallucinations.

Respiratory system

A harsh voice, hoarse with a special timbre is aptly called "drunk" bass. People who want to abuse are more likely to get TB.

Addiction affects the following areas of the respiratory system:

• pharynx;
• the entire nasopharynx;
• larynx.

People who drink regularly experience such chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract as:

• laryngitis;
• tracheobronchitis;
• atrophic pharyngitis.

Breathing occurs both during moderate physical exercise and during rest. There is also a characteristic unpleasant odor of fumes from drinking, which is the cause of the breakdown of ethanol, which is excreted through the lungs.

sexual dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction and even impotence are consequences of alcoholism. Regular intake of strong drinks negatively affects the ability to reproduce. Erection problems can lead to prolonged depression.

The myth is the claim that small doses of alcohol have a positive effect on male strength. Accumulated ethanol disrupts the normal functioning of nerve endings, so intimacy does not bring the expected satisfaction.

Alcoholism negatively affects the quality of women's sex life. It is this disease that is one of the main causes of frigidity and in its most severe manifestations. This leads to emotional problems for both partners, and often to family breakdown.

Immunity

The benefits of high quality wine (preferably red) from natural juice, in limited volumes, really do happen: it removes toxins, strengthens the immune system. But a large amount, even the most expensive alcoholic beverage, will negatively affect health.

The thing is that at the moment the following defenders of the immune system are suppressed:

• lymphocytes;
• macrophages;
• granulocytes.

Consequences of lack of immunity:

• wounds do not heal for a long time;
• the bones are not properly formed;
• greater likelihood of HIV transmission;
• poorly restored skin from burns and injuries.

Change in appearance

The reason for the purple color of the skin is ethyl alcohol, which acts in such a way that the pulse speeds up and blood pressure rises. Over time, the vessels do not resist constant stress and blue and red bruises form.

The bloating is explained by the fact that the body is trying with all its might to restore the water balance as the toxins contained in vodka, beer and other intoxicating drinks enter it. And the female body makes it more active. An alcoholic suffers from constant thirst, however, water is absorbed very slowly. He drinks, and the fluid accumulates, resulting in swelling of the hands, feet and also the face.

In addition to an unattractive appearance, there may be "obvious" complications after quarrels (scratching, bruising, scratching, fractures), which often involve chronic drinkers.

During the development of chronic alcoholism, narcologists observe external symptoms in patients, such as:

• physical fatigue;
• swollen face;
• reddish tongue;
• elevated temperature;
• dry, cracked or oily skin;
• heavy sweating;
• tachycardia, arrhythmia.

Photo Gallery

The effects of alcohol on various organs can be seen in the photos below.

Rates of use

It would be better to categorically refuse the regular use of a product containing alcohol. However, if a person has only decided to reduce its amount, then it will be interesting to know that there are acceptable consumption rates.

The weekly rate (with two days of complete rejection) of alcohol with a low risk of harm to the stronger sex is less than 5 liters of beer with a strength of 4, 5 degrees or 50 grams of vodka or cognac at lunch and dinner (days), or three glasses of dry wine. For women, this rate is 3 liters of beer per week, or 80 grams of vodka at dinner, or two glasses of wine.

It is worth considering that if you abstained from strong drinks on certain days, it does not mean that on another day you can drink more without negative consequences.

However, calculations for the consumer must be made individually, taking into account:

• weight;
• growth;
• age;
• metabolism;
• inheritance;
• first experience of drinking alcohol.

Careful!The information is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guide to action. Do not self-medicate, consult your doctor first.