How Alcohol Affects the Body
Alcohol can be a fun way to socialize with friends and family, but it comes with a price. It isn’t a surprise that alcohol is not the healthiest beverage to consume. The third most preventable cause of death is from alcohol-related causes coming in at 95,000 deaths per year. Drinking more than 4 alcoholic beverages for men and 3 for women per day is considered heavy drinking and can put high levels of harm on your body. Here we will discuss how alcohol affects the body.
Here are 8 ways how alcohol affects the body:
1. Imbalanced Gut Microbiota
Imbalanced gut microbiota is one of the ways explaining how alcohol affects the body. Our gut microbiota is the system of all the good bacteria that reside in our small and large intestines. Alcohol, depending on the kind, can either create an overgrowth of bacteria, or it can wipe out the bacteria. When the bacteria is not balanced this creates a host of gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, and malabsorption of nutrients.
Source: 31540133
2. Nutrient Deficiencies
Another way how alcohol affects the body is by causing nutrient deficiencies due to damage to the gastrointestinal tract. This is the tube where our food enters and leaves the body. Alcohol can impair the smooth muscle movement in the stomach that helps churn and break down the food. Therefore, with little breakdown of the food, the small intestine will have a harder time extracting the nutrients from our food. In addition, undigested food in the intestines can promote inflammation because the intestinal cells can not fit the large food particle through them. Folic acid is one of the most common deficiencies among chronic alcohol consumers. Additionally, the macronutrients carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids were also poorly absorbed in alcoholics. As a result, the poor digestion and absorption of these nutrients can lead to diarrhea or constipation after chronic alcohol use.
Source: 15706765
3. Nausea and Vomiting
Nausea and vomiting are also outcomes of how alcohol affects the body. Alcohol can increase the production of gastric acid which irritates the stomach lining, the barrier that keeps the harmful acid away from the rest of the body. Furthermore, alcohol also slows down food from entering your small intestine, which can lead to nausea when the food continues to hang out in the stomach.
Vomiting is the result of lowered activity from the esophageal sphincter. This sphincter is the door between the esophagus and the stomach. When food is consumed, it will open to let the food enter the stomach, and then it will close after the food is in the stomach to prevent the food from coming back up the throat. Alcohol impairs the sensitivity of the sphincter resulting in the food and stomach acid coming back up the esophagus.
4. Liver
The liver is probably the most impacted tissue in the body after a night of drinking. This is why liver damage is a way of how alcohol affects the body. The consumption of alcohol damages cells in the liver because of the overwhelming amount of oxidative stress that the alcohol produces. Oxidative stress occurs when either the body has too many reactive oxygen species (free radicals) or when we do not have enough antioxidants to fight off the reactive oxygen species. The damage to our liver cells will inhibit glucose and lipid metabolism and a build-up of lipids in the liver will form and lead to fatty liver disease.
Source: 23579939
FREE 5-DAY HAPPY HORMONE MEAL PLAN:
5. Leaky Gut
Another way of how alcohol affects the body is that it causing a leaky gut. The inner intestinal wall has the job of letting in nutrients but not letting in toxins, bacteria, or pathogens. These intestinal cells are tightly packed next to each other to make sure that the barrier is strong enough to keep all of the bad particles out. Unfortunately, alcohol can loosen up this wall of cells creating gaps inbetween them and leading to a leaky gut where pathogens and bad bacteria can enter and flow into our blood, resulting in inflammation.
Source: 23579939
6. Lowered Immunity
Lowered immunity is another way for how alcohol affects the body. Immunity is our ability to fight off pathogens to keep us healthy. This lowered immunity originates from the leaky gut caused by alcohol. Since a leaky gut leads to increased circulation of bacteria and toxins in the body, the liver will overproduce cytokines, anti-inflammatory chemicals, to cleanse the blood and filter out the pathogens. Over time, if the cytokines are produced in excess, this can actually create a counterintuitive role and actually further increase inflammation in the body. Inflammation will decrease our immunity because the body will become exhausted with constantly needing to fight off oxidative stress.
Source: 23579939
7. Disruption of sleep
Disruption of sleep is another way how alcohol affects the body. Though alcohol may put you to sleep, it does a poor job at maintaining good quality sleep. This is because after you fall asleep, blood alcohol concentration will fall back to zero resulting in a rebound of excitation throughout the night. This is because alcohol will change the pattern of your sleep cycles by increasing the time spent in light sleep and decrease time spent in REM sleep or also known as dream sleep. This is disadvantageous because REM sleep is very important for memory building, stable stress levels, and muscle recovery. When you wake up in the morning after a night of drinking, you may feel the ‘jet lag’ effect where the whole next day you feel like you changed time zones and are constantly exhausted. This is the result of alcohol increasing our cortisol levels during the night which offsets our circadian rhythm.
Source: 15706734
8. Increased stress
Lastly, increased stress is another way for how alcohol affects the body. All the factors mentioned here have an effect on our cortisol levels because our body is being put into a state of inflammation. Additionally, those who are stressed in day-to-day life typically will drink more alcohol. As you can see, it becomes a never-ending cycle of daily stress resulting in more alcohol consumption, but then alcohol puts the body under stress too and the cycle continues.
Source: 23729049
