Facts About Excessive Drinking Drink Less Campaign

Steatotic liver disease used to go by the name fatty liver disease. Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation. When your liver finishes that process, alcohol gets turned into water and carbon dioxide. More information about alcohol and cancer risk is available in the Surgeon General’s advisory. These effects can also impact the safety and well-being of people around you. The support of friends and family is important in the journey to recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Your gut microbiome is a hotbed of bacteria that help keep your digestive system happy and healthy. The trillions of microbes in your colon and large and small intestines are critical to proper digestion. They also help fend off inflammation and support healthy metabolism. But there’s plenty of research to back up the notion that alcohol does lead to weight gain in general. You probably already know that excessive drinking can affect you in more ways than one.

It also has resources to help those looking to change their drinking habits. During pregnancy, drinking may cause the unborn baby to have brain damage and other problems. Heavy drinking also may result in alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Risks of moderate alcohol use

The pancreas is an organ that makes substances that support bodily functions including digestion and metabolism. Alcohol misuse over time can lead to pancreatitis, which can impair the production of digestive enzymes and can affect hormones that regulate blood sugar level. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.

Alcohol’s Effects on the Body

For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute’s webpage “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” (last accessed June 6, 2024). Clinical Review BoardAll Ignite Healthwise, LLC education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals. Information and shareable resources to help others choose to drink less alcohol and be their best.

• Current research points to health risks even at low amounts of alcohol consumption, regardless of beverage type.
• As of 2021,  29.5 million people aged 12 and older had an alcohol use disorder in the past year.
• The alcohol you consume resides mostly in the body’s water.
• Pancreatitis can be a short-term (acute) condition that clears up in a few days.
• Binge drinking—and heavy drinking—is a type of alcohol misuse (a spectrum of risky alcohol-related behaviors).

Alcohol use: Weighing risks and benefits

As consumption goes up, the risk goes up for these cancers. The evidence for moderate alcohol use in healthy adults is still being studied. But good evidence shows that drinking high amounts of alcohol are clearly linked to health problems.

Alcohol and cancer: A growing concern

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The cost of excessive alcohol use impacts everyone, whether they drink or not. Knowing what counts as one standard drink can help you figure out how much alcohol you drink and whether it would be considered excessive. As of 2021,  29.5 million people aged 12 and older had an alcohol use disorder in the past year. In the United States, people younger than age 21 are not legally able to drink alcohol.

Drinking alcohol is so common that people may not question how even one beer, cocktail, or glass of wine could impact their health. Alcohol is a part of cultural traditions all around the world…and it’s also a drug that chemically alters the body. Drinking moderately if you’re otherwise healthy may be a risk you’re willing to take. But heavy drinking carries a much higher risk even for those without other health concerns. Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about what’s right for your health and safety. For example, any amount of drinking increases the risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer.

That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. Heavy drinking, including binge drinking, is a high-risk activity. The bottom line is that alcohol is potentially addictive, can cause intoxication, and contributes to health problems and preventable deaths. If you already drink at low levels and continue to drink, risks for these issues appear to be low.

Having a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a party here and there isn’t going to destroy your gut. But even low amounts of daily drinking and prolonged and heavy use of alcohol can lead to significant problems for your digestive system. Alcohol can affect behaviors that increase the likelihood of acquiring or transmitting HIV to others. If you choose to drink alcohol, the key is to keep your drinking at low to moderate levels. NIAAA Director George F. Koob, Ph.D., said that as of May 2023, the institute is not aware of specific health guidelines on alcohol consumption for transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has information on how alcohol impacts your health.

Research has demonstrated that long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing cardiomyopathy. Alcohol misuse can also lead to high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), or increased heart rate. Chronic, heavy drinking raises the risk for ischemic heart disease (heart problems caused by narrowed arteries) and myocardial infarction (heart attack). Just one or two alcoholic drinks can impair your balance, coordination, impulse control, memory, and decision-making. Too much alcohol can also shut down parts of your brain that are essential for keeping you alive.

Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder. Like a clog in a drain, those thickened fluids can jam up your ducts. That can lead to pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas. When you drink too much alcohol, it can throw off the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut.

In the United States, moderate drinking for healthy adults is different for men and women. It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks. The definitions for a drink in the US are the common serving sizes for beer (12 ounces), wine (5 ounces), or distilled spirits/hard liquor (1.5 ounces). Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set off a chain reaction that affects your drinking too much alcohol can harm your health learn the facts well-being. Lowered inhibitions can lead to poor choices with lasting repercussions — like the end of a relationship, an accident or legal woes.

• Knowing what counts as one standard drink can help you figure out how much alcohol you drink and whether it would be considered excessive.
• Heavy drinking, including binge drinking, is a high-risk activity.
• So, your system prioritizes getting rid of alcohol before it can turn its attention to its other work.
• Drinking has a greater effect on women because they typically weigh less.
• Research has demonstrated that long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing cardiomyopathy.

So alcohol is more concentrated and more “powerful” in women than in men. Think of putting a drop of red food coloring in both a small and a large cup of water. Heavy alcohol use also can cause stomach problems, interactions between medicines and alcohol, and sexual problems. It can lead to violence, accidents, social isolation, and problems at work, school, or home. You also may have legal problems, such as traffic tickets or car crashes, as a result of drinking. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic brain disorder that makes it difficult to control alcohol use, even when it’s causing problems.