Many people turn to alcohol because of the feeling, the exhilaration, and the adrenaline and escape it provides for a short while from reality. Alcohol also works best for an emotional day/night and dumping everything out when not possible when sober. While alcohol is tempting, it brings out the consequences in a person’s actions, especially to the body.

Most of the effects affect the brain and liver. The changes affects mood and behavior, also making it difficult for a person to concentrate on certain aspects, and affect body movement.  Another part of the body that will be affected will be the heart which could cause:

-Cardiomyopathy- stretch and drooping of the heart muscle

-Arrhythmias- an irregular heartbeat

-Stroke

-High blood pressure

Liver

-Steatosis

-alcoholic hepatitis

-Fibrosis

-Cirrhosis

Consuming too much alcohol can cause the immune system to weaken and make it easier for diseases to go into the body. Alcohol slows down the immune system and have the ability to ward off infections even up to 24 hours after getting drunk.

Alcohol can also cause cancer. According to the national cancer institute, “There is a strong scientific consensus that alcohol drinking can cause several types of cancer. In its Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services lists consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen.”

Evidence against alcohol indicates that the more alcohol a person drinks—particularly the more alcohol a person drinks regularly over time—the higher his or her risk of developing an alcohol-associated cancer. Even those who have no more than one drink per day and binge drinkers (those who consume 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more drinks for men in one sitting) have a modestly increased risk of some cancers. Based on data from 2009, an estimated 3.5% of cancer deaths in the United States (about 19,500 deaths) were alcohol related.” www.niaaa.nih.gov