Do you like a drink? You don’t even know what the consequences might be

For the purposes of the study, scientists from the European Union of Gastroenterology assumed that one drink equals about 12,5 grams of alcohol (this is the amount “fits” in a weak beer or a small glass of wine) and distinguished three ways of drinking: little: 0-1 drink a day; average: 2-3 drinks a day; lots: 4 or more drinks a day. Each of them translates into the probability of developing a specific cancer of the digestive system. When we rarely drink alcohol, we risk esophageal cancer. When we drink 2-3 drinks a day, we may develop colon cancer. If we drink a lot and often – we are at risk of cancer of the pancreas, stomach or liver. Why is this happening? Research shows that alcohol increases the risk of developing gastrointestinal cancer in two ways. First, it damages cells, making them more susceptible to external factors and more likely to mutate towards neoplastic changes. Second, the breakdown of alcohol in the liver produces acetaldehyde. This compound damages the liver and promotes the formation of dangerous changes in the esophagus, larynx and pharynx.

As shown in a study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, in people with alcohol problems, the severity of depression is often the result of drinking. Many people blame depression for their excessive drinking. However, research has not shown that those who have had it in the past are at greater risk of developing alcoholism in the future. Dr. Marc A. Schuckit, a psychiatrist associated with the University of California, who leads the study, says that while many people explain their drinking to depression, it is sometimes caused by excessive drinking. In his opinion, psychiatrists should pay special attention to such patients, because in their case, discontinuation of percentage drinks may be much more effective than pharmacological therapy.

When counting calories in the diet, we often ignore those from drinks. This is not a big mistake with tea, but with alcohol it gets worse. “Percentages” are almost as caloric as fat (fat: 9 kcal / gram, pure ethyl alcohol: 7 kcal / gram), and thus may be the reason for faster weight gain. As reported by the World Cancer Research Fund, for people who regularly consume alcohol, the calories supplied with alcohol can account for about 10 percent of total alcohol consumption. In addition, drinking alcohol is conducive to binge eating – drinking three large glasses of wine can make you binge and make you lazy. According to a UK study, people who drank this amount of alcohol also consumed an additional 6300 calories over the next 24 hours. And this can lead to a rapid weight gain (approx. 1 kg per week).

High blood pressure – a major risk factor for stroke and heart attack – can occur from long-term alcohol consumption. Frequent drinking can also lead to cardiomyopathy, a disease caused by a weakening of the contractility of the heart muscle. Its symptoms include enlargement of the heart, degenerative changes in the fibers of the heart muscle and a significant weakening of the strength of its contractions.

One of the best known and most drastic effects of alcohol on our body is its destructive effect on the liver. It must metabolize about 95 percent of its volume after each consumption. Too much alcohol can lead to steatosis, inflammation and cirrhosis. The liver, which has to break down alcohol, loses its ability to do its other important job – storing fatty acids. Disruption of this function leads to steatosis. It is manifested by enlargement and sometimes also pain associated with the pressure on the surrounding organs of the liver. This process, although very dangerous, is reversible up to a point. In order to restore the liver’s former properties, it is only necessary to stop drinking alcohol before its cirrhosis occurs.

As discovered by American scientists, drinking alcohol has a negative effect on the mechanisms responsible for bone regeneration after fracture. Researchers from Loyola University in Chicago, conducting experiments on mice, concluded that alcohol consumption is accompanied by low mineralization of the bone tissue formed at the fracture site, and thus the bone formed after the fracture is weaker than in abstainers. In addition, alcohol-drinking animals showed signs of oxidative stress that interfered with normal cell function, and had significantly lower levels of osteopontin – a protein involved in the process of obtaining stem cells and directing them to the site of damage so that they can transform into bone cells there. Scientists say the same applies to the effects of alcohol on bone fusion in humans.

Dr. Majid Afshar from the Loyola University Health System in Chicago conducted a study on the effects of alcohol on the immune system. Volunteers who took part in the research were to drink 20 to 4 glasses of vodka within 5 minutes, thus putting themselves in a state that made it impossible to drive a car legally. Their blood was sampled over the next few hours. Scientists, after isolating immune cells from them and examining their response to proteins characteristic of potentially harmful bacteria, found that a moment after drinking alcohol, the body’s resistance increases, but within a few hours it decreases. The immune system changes into the so-called the anti-inflammatory mode and its responses are then greatly diminished.

Drinking alcohol disturbs the balance of sleep and reduces the quality of rest. In addition, it can cause you to wake up frequently during the night, and withdrawal lead to insomnia. It is true that alcohol makes it easier to fall asleep, but it interferes with sleep and wake processes. Thus, it causes an increase in the level of adenosine in the blood (a chemical compound that inhibits the activity of areas of the brain responsible for maintaining wakefulness). This causes a feeling of drowsiness, but falling asleep too quickly leads to disrupting the rhythm of sleep, and thus to frequent waking up at night and getting up too early. Moreover, one researcher, Mahesh Thakkar, says that abrupt withdrawal from alcohol goes hand in hand with an increased likelihood of premature morning wake-ups and a shorter REM sleep phase duration.

Dr.Iain Lang of the University of Exeter Medical School in an interview with the BBC explained that alcohol is generally harmful to the brain. And I don’t think he surprised anyone. And the fact that we have a “hangover” memory does not need to be explained to anyone. Unfortunately, not everyone knows that forgetting and worse association of facts are also distant consequences of drinking alcohol. According to The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, people aged 50-60 who have a problem with alcohol later in life have twice as often memory problems than non-drinking peers.

Spanish researchers have hard evidence that sex and alcohol do not go hand in hand. It turns out that high-percentage drinks greatly impair the ability to achieve an erection. Moreover, deterioration of sexual performance in men addicted to alcohol or drugs persists long after quitting the addiction. Even after a year of abstinence, greater problems in the area of ​​sexual life were found in pre-drinkers than in non-drinkers.

Alcohol also affects a person before birth. Babies whose mothers drink during pregnancy may be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a disease that involves a range of congenital somatic and neurological defects that have lifelong implications. In addition, drinking mothers can contribute to the development of an alcohol problem for up to three generations. In addition, although more importance is attached to the mother’s lifestyle, recent studies show that the fathers are also responsible for possible disorders in a child resulting from alcohol exposure in utero. Scientists believe that alcohol consumption by men damages the DNA of their sperm. When a defective sperm fertilizes an egg, the developing embryo may have genetic defects.