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The Impact of Alcohol Abuse: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Categories: Alcohol Abuse Health Care Policy Social Justice

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

Words: 483 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Omar Mousa, M.B.B.S., M.D.

Gastroenterology & hepatology (digestive care).

Behavioral Health
Children's Health (Pediatrics)
Exercise and Fitness
Heart Health
Men's Health
Neurosurgery
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Orthopedic Health
Weight-loss (Bariatric) Surgery
Women's Health

What effect does alcohol have on your health — and your liver?

Gastrointestinal Health
Substance Abuse

Person holding wine glass, looking out window, large earrings, hair up

During the COVID-19 pandemic, national alcohol sales have increased 54%. A national survey in the September 2020 issue of JAMA revealed that people 18 and older were consuming alcohol more often. Another 2020 survey reported that people experiencing stress related to COVID-19 were drinking more alcohol and consuming it more often.

While the pandemic has increased alcohol use, this isn't a new concern. Alcohol use disorders are among the most common substance use disorders worldwide.

The 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reveals that in the U.S.:

Nearly 15 million people 12 and older had alcohol use disorder.
Of people 18 and up, 85.6% reported they consumed alcohol at some point in their life.
In adults, 25.8% reported binge drinking and 6.3% reported heavy alcohol use in the past month.
For those 12 to 20, 7 million people, or 18.5% of this age group, reported drinking alcohol in the past month.

Effect on overall health, well-being

Consuming alcohol can significantly affect your health, as well as your overall well-being and safety. Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., with 95,000 people dying each year from alcohol-related causes.

Between 2011 and 2015, the leading causes of death due to alcohol-related chronic conditions were:

Liver disease, including cirrhosis and cancer
Heart disease, abnormal heart rhythms, hypertension and stroke
Oral and upper digestive tract cancers
Breast cancer
Alcohol use disorder

Long term, alcohol use can increase the risk of developing certain cancers, including colon, liver, esophagus, mouth and breast. Also, drinking alcohol doesn't protect from COVID-19 infection, since alcohol weakens the immune system and makes it difficult for the body to fight infections.

Alcohol's affect extends beyond illness. People who consume alcohol at twice the binge drinking threshold ― that's five or more drinks for men and four or more for women in about two hours ― are 70 times more likely to have an alcohol-related emergency department visit. Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for one-third of all driving fatalities in 2019. The consequences of underage drinking include unintentional injuries; sexual assaults; alcohol overdose; and deaths, including motor vehicle crashes.

Effect on your liver

Excessive alcohol consumption can significantly affect the liver and contribute to three types of liver disease:.

Excessive buildup of fat in the liver, also known as fatty liver or hepatic steatosis
Inflammation of the liver or alcoholic hepatitis
Replacement of normal liver tissue by scared tissue or alcohol-related cirrhosis

Fatty liver

Almost all heavy drinkers develop fatty liver, which is the earliest stage of alcohol-related liver disease. Most people with fatty liver don't have symptoms, although they can have an enlarged liver or mild discomfort in the upper right side of the abdomen. This is a preventable disease, and it's reversible if treated early. The best treatment is for the patient to stop drinking.

Alcoholic hepatitis

About one-third of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, where the liver become inflamed and swollen, and liver cells are destroyed. This hepatitis varies in severity from mild to severe, and patients may have jaundice, fever, nausea and vomiting, and abdominal pain. The mild form can last for years and lead to more liver damage, unless the patient stops drinking. Severe alcoholic hepatitis occurs suddenly, usually after binge drinking, and it can be life-threatening. The only way to possibly prevent this hepatitis from worsening and improving life expectancy is to stop drinking.

Of heavy drinkers, 10%–20% develop cirrhosis, a serious condition that usually develops after 10 or more years of drinking. Because scar tissue builds up and replaces most of the liver cells, it's irreversible. While patients with early cirrhosis may not have any symptoms, this condition tends to progress and significantly damage the liver before it's detected.

Over time, patients develop:

Fatigue, weakness and muscle wasting
Increased pressure in the liver
Accumulation of fluids in the abdomen and legs
Bleeding from veins of the esophagus
Confusion, decreased concentration and changes in behavior
Enlarged spleen

Cirrhosis can lead to fatal liver failure or liver cancer. At this point, some patients may benefit from a liver transplant if they meet certain criteria. Complete abstinence from alcohol use is important.

Is there a safe level of drinking?

While moderation is key, it's a good idea for patients to review their alcohol use with their health care provider. How people react to the adverse effects of alcohol varies depending on age, gender, genetic background and other medical issues. Women tend to develop liver disease faster than men, despite consuming the same amount of alcohol over the same length of time.

Beer and wine are not safer than spirits. Alcohol is alcohol, regardless of the type. One standard drink is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of spirits. All have the same amount of alcohol.

For patients without liver disease:

Moderate drinking is two drinks per day for men and one per day for women.
Higher-risk drinking is three or more drinks per day for men and two or more drinks for women.
Binge drinking is defined as consumption of five or more drinks within two hours for males or at least four drinks for women.

If you're concerned about the effects of alcohol use on your health, contact your health care provider for help. Your provider also may refer you to a liver clinic, such as the one at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato or Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for further evaluation and management of alcohol-related liver disease.

Omar Mousa, M.B.B.S., M.D. , practices gastroenterology and hepatology (digestive and liver care) in Mankato , Minnesota. He is affiliated with the Liver Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester .

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Alcohol's Effects on Health

Research-based information on drinking and its impact.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Alcohol's effects on the body.

Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health. Here’s how alcohol can affect your body:

Brain: 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 .

Heart: Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing problems including:

Cardiomyopathy – Stretching and drooping of heart muscle
Arrhythmias – Irregular heart beat
High blood pressure

Liver: Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver inflammations including:

Steatosis, or fatty liver
Alcoholic hepatitis

Pancreas: Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis , a dangerous inflammation in the pancreas that causes its swelling and pain (which may spread) and impairs its ability to make enzymes and hormones for proper digestion .

Cancer: According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) : "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.

"The evidence 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 people who binge drink (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."

Clear patterns have emerged between alcohol consumption and increased risks of certain types of cancer:

Head and neck cancer, including oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx cancers.
Esophageal cancer, particularly esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, people who inherit a deficiency in an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol have been found to have substantially increased risks of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma if they consume alcohol.
Liver cancer.
Breast cancer: Research has shown an important association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer—even one drink per day can increase a woman's risk for breast cancer by 5% to 15% compared to women who do not drink at all.
Colorectal cancer.

For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute's webpage " Alcohol and Cancer Risk " (last accessed June 6, 2024).

Immune System: 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. Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows your body’s ability to ward off infections – even up to 24 hours after getting drunk.

For more information about alcohol's effects on the body, please visit the Interactive Body feature on NIAAA's College Drinking Prevention website .

niaaa.nih.gov

An official website of the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism