There are ten negative impacts of alcohol on health that you need to know today, as the consumption of drinks with a high alcohol content generates a series of diseases that affect your quality of life. In fact, the effects are different for each individual, even if consumption is in equal amounts.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no safe and risk-free amount of alcohol. However, some health institutions advise that consumption be 3 doses a day at most, not being recommended to exceed 7 doses per week.

In any case, it is worth paying attention to the negative impacts of alcohol on health and below we list 10 of them. Check out!

 

1 – Interferes with blood sugar levels

 

The pancreas is the organ responsible for regulating insulin and glucose in the body. When it and the liver don’t work as expected, a drop in sugar levels occurs, called hypoglycemia.

The body’s metabolic responses during a hypoglycemia crisis provide symptoms to alert the person to the issue. “Common symptoms” include trembling, dizziness, sweating, feeling nauseous and hungry, being moody or irritable, anxiety, and headaches.

As a result, the person who consumed alcohol may experience symptoms related to diabetes. For this reason, those suffering from diabetes and hypoglycemia should avoid drinking too much alcohol.

 

2 – Problems in the circulatory system

 

One of the negative impacts of alcohol on health is that it can cause problems in the circulatory system, affecting the heart and blood vessels.

Just to give you an idea, alcoholics tend to have a much higher risk of suffering from heart disease than people who do not consume alcohol.

So, when talking about respiratory problems, several diseases arise, such as:

• Hypertension;
• Stroke;
• Heart disease and more.

 

3 – Loss of muscle and gain of fat

 

Alcohol is high in sugar and has so-called empty calories. This causes it to inhibit fat burning by more than 70%. Not to mention that it compromises muscle gain, decreasing the hormone responsible for muscle mass gain by more than 30%.

As if all these negative effects weren’t enough, alcohol also uses up the body’s calcium and decreases protein synthesis.

Therefore, everything culminates in fat gain, inefficient performance in training, loss of muscle mass and inadequate recovery after physical activity.

 

4 – Reduces testosterone

 

One of the negative health impacts of alcohol is that it lowers testosterone, and both men and women need this hormone for motivation and sexual desire.

So, in women, for example, low testosterone leads to fat gain and depression. Already in men, the low of this hormone led to reduced libido and erectile dysfunction.

One study measured testosterone levels before and after drinking alcohol. The discovery was that there was a drop of more than 24% of testosterone in the fall of the hormone in that alcoholic.

So when blood alcohol levels are too high, testosterone naturally goes down.

 

5 – Damage to the brain

 

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which directly interferes with brain mechanisms.

Connections between the areas controlling movement and vision can be broken by alcohol.

According to research, drinking alcohol impairs the connections between the part of the brain responsible for movement planning and the part of the brain that controls vision, making it challenging to synchronize the eyes and hands.

Therefore, its excessive consumption causes difficulty in reasoning, in addition to promoting changes in sleep and causing the feeling of “fragmented”.

Thus, if the use is made chronically, for example, it can cause various damages, such as difficulty in balancing, problems with dementia, serious and irreversible condition, and many other health damages.

 

6 – Anemia

 

One of the negative impacts of alcohol on health is anemia. This is because it is very common malnutrition that is directly related to alcohol consumption for a long time.

After all, its intake makes it difficult to absorb nutrients, causing vitamin B12 deficiency. So, the picture can become macrocytic anemia, where the formation of red blood cells is altered, compromising the oxygen to reach the cells.

 

7 – Premature aging

 

In addition to everything you’ve already seen here, alcohol also destroys collagen fibers in the skin, causing joint problems and decreasing skin fat.

Therefore, these inflammatory processes end up causing you to suffer from premature aging. In fact, aging that happens from the inside out.

 

8 – Higher chances of developing cancer

 

Exaggerated intake of alcohol is related to a number of cancers, among them we can mention mouth, esophagus, colon, rectum and much more.

The causes are not yet known, but scholars point out that acetaldehyde, produced by alcohol, may have carcinogenic effects.

 

9 – Potentiates osteoporosis

 

Lifelong alcohol consumption disrupts bone health, especially the process related to bone mineralization, thus increasing the chances of you developing osteoporosis.

After all, alcohol interferes with metabolism, compromising the production of vitamin D, which generates the most diverse bone complications.

 

10 – Diseases of the liver

 

Finally, one of the negative impacts of alcohol l in health is that it can cause liver disease.

According to some surveys, about 90% of people who continuously drink alcohol tend to suffer from fat accumulation in the liver.

If alcohol continues to be ingested chronically, it can still cause the so-called alcoholic hepatitis.

 

Conclusion

 

There are many negative impacts of alcohol on health. Therefore, it is important consuming alcoholic beverages in a moderate way, avoiding it’s intake whenever possible.