Alcohol and Health

Good or Bad ? Thats the question!

Stefan Schmitt

August 1 2020

The Understanding of Alcohol to our Health is very complicated, but to make it simple the answer lies in Balance, knowledge and discipline.

The truth is that the health effects of alcohol vary between individuals and depend on the amount and type of alcohol consumed.

What is Alcohol?

The main psychoactive ingredient in alcoholic beverages is ethanol.

Generally referred to as "alcohol," ethanol is the substance that makes you drunk.

Alcohol is one of the most popular psychoactive substances in the world. It can have powerful effects on your mood and mental state.

Now that we know what alcohol is lets see where it can affect our Health before we review if there are any Benefits for our Health.

The Liver:

The Liver is a remarkable organ with hundreds of essential functions.

One of its main roles is to neutralize various toxic substances you consume. For this reason, your liver is particularly vulnerable to damage by alcohol intake.

Liver diseases caused by alcohol consumption are collectively known as alcoholic liver diseases.

Alcohol is metabolized by the liver, and frequent intake can lead to increased fat inside liver cells. Alcohol abuse can lead to cirrhosis, a very serious condition.

The Brain

Excessive alcohol consumption can have numerous adverse effects on your brain.

Ethanol reduces communication between brain cells — a short-term effect responsible for many of the symptoms of abuse of alcohol.

Drinking may even lead to a blackout, a phenomenon characterized by memory loss, or amnesia, during a heavy drinking episode. These effects are only temporary, but chronic alcohol abuse may cause permanent changes in your brain, often leading to impaired brain function. Because your brain is very sensitive to damage, chronic alcohol abuse may increase your risk of dementia and cause brain shrinkage in middle-aged and older adults.

The Heart

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in modern society.

It is a broad category of diseases, the most common of which are heart attacks and strokes.

The relationship between alcohol and heart disease is complex and depends on several factors.

Light to moderate drinking is linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, while heavy drinking appears to increase the risk

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes affects about 8% of the world's population.

Characterized by abnormally high blood sugar, type 2 diabetes is caused by a reduced uptake of glucose, or blood sugar, by your cells — a phenomenon known as insulin resistance.

Drinking alcohol in moderation appears to reduce insulin resistance, fighting the main symptoms of diabetes.

In fact, your overall diabetes risk tends to drop with moderate alcohol consumption. However, when it comes to heavy drinking and binge drinking, your risk rises.

Cancer

Cancer is a serious disease caused by abnormal growth of cells.

Alcohol consumption is a risk factor for cancers of the mouth, throat, colon, breast and liver.

The cells lining your mouth and throat are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol.

Even light alcohol consumption — up to one drink per day — is linked to a 20% increased risk of mouth and throat cancer.

Your risk increases the more you consume. More than four drinks daily appear to cause a fivefold increase in your risk of mouth and throat cancer, as well as an increase in your risk of breast, colon and liver cancer.

So we can see that alcohol is a Risk to our Health and special if we abuse it. We also have to mention that it has Affects as: May Cause Birth Defects, Risk of Death, Dangers of Addiction.

But!

There is evidence that if Alcohol is taking Moderate it can have health benefits, this is a very fine line. So if we wanna use alcohol for our benefit the question is what is Moderate?

Recommendations for alcohol intake are usually based on the number of standard drinks per day.

Moderate drinking is defined as one standard drink per day for women and two for men, while heavy drinking is defined as more than three drinks per day for women and four for men.

This image shows the standard drink amount for some popular alcoholic drinks:

At the end of the day, the effects of alcohol range from a positive impact on your wellbeing to a health catastrophe.

However, if you tend to drink excessively or notice that alcohol causes problems in your life, you should avoid it as much as possible.

It is safer to stay Clean.

Clean Body & Soul