Alcohol is a drug and that's the bottom line. It affects millions of people each day. Unfortunately, the person doing the drinking is not the only one who feels the impact of this abuse. It has a profound and direct impact on their families as well as their friends and acquaintances. Besides what it can do to hurt everyone in the immediate social circle, alcohol has strong and lasting impact on the human body.

When you are an alcoholic, even though you may not notice the changes, everyone else around you will. It may start with sudden changes in your behavior such as mood swings. Your judgment may be impaired and you can start to have problems with relationships, be it in your marriage or with your children. Down the line, you may start to have problems with your job that can lead to obvious financial problems and maybe even legal problems that stem from arrests due to bad judgment caused by alcohol. As far as your body is concerned, it can only take so much of a beating from alcohol before you start to notice what can become very serious problems.

You can develop problems such as anemia, which can be brought on by not taking care of yourself physically or nutritionally. Some other common problems can be ulcers, cirrhosis of the liver, hallucinations, dementia,"wet brain" and even death.


One major health problem due to alcohol abuse is cirrhosis of the liver.

Chronic alcoholism can have a profound affect on the human liver. Being the biggest organ inside the body, it is readily known that it plays a key role in the major functions of the human body. What happens when cirrhosis of the liver occurs is good, healthy organ tissue is replaced with bad scar tissue. This bad tissue then keeps the liver from having blood flow through, which in turn stops it from working properly. Some of the early warning signs of cirrhosis of the liver can be abdominal pain, nausea, exhaustion or fatigue, swelling of the ankles and redness of the palms.


Interestingly, cirrhosis is almost exclusively a disease of malnutrition in third world countries, only in developed countries is it associated with alcoholism, simply because most alcoholics do not eat when they drink.


If you are already a diabetic, though drinking in moderation can be safe, you could have serious problems if you abuse alcohol. Many alcoholic beverages, particularly some mixed drinks, contain sugar, thus having the potential to harm a person who has diabetes. Alcohol abuse can also increase serum triglycerides within a diabetic. Because of this and some of the other problems that could develop, diabetics must refrain from abusing alcohol and be careful to limit their intake.There have even been recent studies to show that alcohol abuse can even have the effect of shrinking the brain of alcoholics. It has proven that out of the alcoholics studied, they seem to have lighter, smaller brains almost shrunken in nature when compared to people who were not alcoholics.


Luckily, these effects on the brain seem to be reversible over time should drinking cease. Another frightening result of alcoholism can be the link to certain cancers. Some of the cancers that have been associated with excessive drinking are cancers of the mouth, larynx and the esophagus. People that drink very heavily tend to have a higher risk of getting esophageal cancer than people who do not drink, by what studies have shown to be about 75%. Obviously, if a person both drinks and smokes, their risk factor is much higher. Unfortunately, these two vices tend to go hand-in-hand with a lot of people, usually having an unhappy ending.


Of all of the effects that alcohol abuse can have on the human body, the effects on an unborn fetus have proven to be the most horrifying. Though many doctors may say that it can be okay to have a glass of wine or so while pregnant, you are still playing a dangerous game with the life and health of your baby at risk. Would you put alcohol into a baby bottle and have them drink it? Well, then it should be obvious that a pregnant woman should not drink, because whatever the mother eats and drinks, it also goes through the body of the unborn fetus. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a terrible and unfair defect to be placed on a baby but when a mother drinks heavily during her pregnancy, this syndrome can develop. The unborn child can have problems getting enough oxygen and nourishment, which in turn can lead to poor development of important organs. Babies who are born with this syndrome can be small at birth, have some facial malformations, have small eye openings, webbed or even missing fingers or toes, organ deformities, learning disabilities, mental retardation and much more.


Effects of alcohol on the body are tremendous and can be equally as deadly. Alcoholism is a progressive disease and eventually one aspect or another of an alcoholic's body will simply give out from the abuse. If you or someone that you know has a problem with alcohol, you should get help or seek treatment as soon as you can. Though some damage may already be done, there is still time to stop further damage and reclaim your life from alcohol.