Alcohol is a blessing and a curse, a poison, and food, a ‘pick-me-up’ and a ‘lay me down’, both an appetite simulator and a destroyer; it is truly a mass of contradictions. The very name whiskey originates from the ancient Gaelic word “USQUEBRUGH” (water of life). Over 65% of people drink alcoholic beverages. Of these, 85% are men and 15% are women.
The occasional drinkers are around 48%. There are over 25% heavy, constant drinkers, and addicts of “hard liquor”. Billions of dollars are spent each year on alcohol in the world, more than is spent on their own health and medical care. All figures show the growing increase in drinking habits as part of life and social custom.
Let’s see how Alcohol Addiction affects your Health
Alcohol is not a stimulant but a depressant. The most important chemical effect of alcohol is on the brain and the nervous system. Although it is called by the public a “Stimulant,” it is actually a depressant that tends to lower inhibitions and results in impulsive behavior.
Alcoholic beverages have been advised in moderate amounts for many years by physicians to relax nervous or high-strung patients, calm their anxieties, and generally sedate them. Very often just the psychological idea of a glass of wine, beer, or whiskey is enough to suggest or induce relaxation in many people, particularly at a social function. Alcohol is often used as an out-and-out sedative, narcotic, or analgesic to relieve pain or distress, or fatigue. But in order to avoid toxic effects, the amount must be kept small to moderate.
The temporary release from the nervous and physical strains of daily living, which most people get by taking one or two drinks before dinner, is well-known to all. And as for that relaxant drink before bedtime. It can be useful as a “tonic.” Alcohol is used excellent solvent and preserving agent, but it stimulates the appetite by increasing the gastric juices, relaxing the stomach muscles, and enabling greater quantities of food and drink to be taken.
In older patients, the prescriptions containing alcohol serve additionally as dilators of the blood vessels and seem to be helpful to the circulation. Alcohol in small or moderate amounts is a mild stimulant to the kidneys, causing an increase in the output of urine. Alcohol also tends to increase the heart rate and metabolic rate. As is universally known, alcohol is an excellent antiseptic and exerts a cooling effect on the skin.
One can readily gain weight by indulging in those extra drinks daily. But these are “empty calories” being burned up or oxidized in the form of heat and are not developed into useful, healthy bodily tissue. Alcohol is sometimes given intravenously, especially following surgical operations, to supply a concentrated form of calories and energy. Alcohol has been used extensively for opening up and increasing the flow of circulation by widening the peripheral blood vessels on the body surfaces and extremities such as in the face, the hands, the legs, and the feet.
The Effects of Alcohol on the Body
- Addiction to alcohol can be harmful to emotions and the mind.
- The habitual, even moderate, use of alcohol (not even to the point of intoxication) induces relaxation. Small use can also ease strain (tension), maladjustment, excessive inhibitions, and indeed beneficial euphoria.
- But it also leads to diminished efficiency, especially in accuracy, impaired judgment, increased liability to auto accidents, loss of self-reliance, perhaps diminished resistance to disease, the danger of excesses, higher incidence of venereal disease, and general disrespect for law and order.
- In the psychic sphere, there is first lost the finer grades of attention, judgment, reflection, and ability to comprehend. This serves to explain the typical behavior of persons under the influence of alcoholic drinks.
- The soldier becomes more courageous and dangerless and reflects upon it less. The speaker is not tormented and influenced by the proximity of the public; he, therefore, speaks freer and with more animation.
- Excessive effects of alcohol in causing poor or double vision, the unsteady and clumsy gait. It also causes impairment of muscular coordination, delayed reaction time, and the loss of normal judgment with loss of self-control.
- Hemorrhages frequently are found throughout the cerebral tissue in chronic alcoholism. The brain is particularly susceptible to injuries, such as a blow to the head. Rupture of the blood.
- An alcoholic complication that is very frequent, is characterized by confusion, anxiety or terror, auditory and visual hallucinations, and delusions.
- This most frequent complication of chronic alcoholism is caused specifically by changes or destruction in the peripheral nerves of the body due to a lack of vitamin B. The feet are usually numb, tender, or painful and frequently paralyzed so that walking may become impossible.
- Drinking too much on a single occasion or over time can take a serious toll on your health. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.
- These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. It can damage the heart. It can cause problems including stretching and drooping of the heart muscle, irregular heartbeat, stroke, and high blood pressure.
- Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver and can lead to a variety of problems. And liver inflammations including fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
- Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis. It is a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion.
- Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers, including cancers of the: mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and breast.
- Drinking too much can weaken your immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink too much.
- Also, drinking a lot on a single occasion slows your body’s ability to ward off infections, even up to 24 hours after getting drunk. Must check this Permanently cure Addictions within 3 months.