Effects on the body

Alcohol can make some health issues worse, including:

• any infections, as alcohol can impair the immune system
• any disease of the liver
• weight problems
• sleep disorders such as insomnia, as alcohol can disrupt a sleep cycle
• diabetes, as alcohol can be risky for anyone with low blood sugar
• mental health conditions

It is always best to:

• reduce or stop drinking
• discuss your alcohol use with a health professional

Talking about your condition with a health professional can help you to develop a plan that is achievable, safe, and suits your lifestyle. People with diabetes for example, may monitor their blood sugars with alert bracelets or apps.

Alcohol is a carcinogen, which means it can increase the risk of different cancers, including:

• mouth, throat and voice box
• oesophagus (food pipe)
• large bowel and rectum
• breast
• liver

Understanding this risk is important because a lot of people in Aotearoa are not aware of the link between alcohol and cancer.

The reality is that the more you drink, the higher your risk of developing cancer. Alcohol accounted for 6.6% of cancer deaths in people under 80 in Aotearoa. The risk for breast cancer increases by 7-10% for every standard drink per day. This means that alcohol can cause breast cancer even at low doses. 

Strokes are a sudden paralysis, loss of sensation, or inability to talk because the blood supply to the brain is interrupted.

Alcohol increases the risk of haemorrhagic stroke, caused by bleeding in the brain. Heavy drinking can also increase the risk of ischaemic stroke, caused by the blockage of blood vessels in the brain.

Heavy drinking can have short-term effects:

• less capable of decision-making, concentration and memory recall
• drowsiness 
• blackouts
• comas

Some long-term effects of alcohol use include:

• possible mild to severe damage to the brain because of vitamin B1 deficiency. This can lead to abnormal or paralysed eye movements, difficulty with walking, and confusion.
• chronic memory loss, where old memories become lost and new memories become hard to lay down.
• damage to the brain’s cerebellum, which is responsible for balance and coordination. This leads to issues with instability and walking.
• damage to peripheral nerves in the body, leading to pain, weakness, numbness, and being unable to sense touch.
• developing epilepsy, which are chronic fits.
• sleep disturbances

Chronic and heavy drinking can cause abnormalities in your blood, which can lead to

• anaemia: this is a low number or quality of red blood cells. These cells contain haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around your body.
• low platelets: this can cause a lot of bruising and bleeding. Platelets help with blood clotting which stops you from bleeding.

Your immune system can also be affected by chronic heavy drinking in many ways. Alcohol affects your white blood cells, which fight viral and bacterial infections. 

Drinking heavily also increases potential infections from:

• surgery
• burns
• Hepatitis C
• HIV/AIDS
• meningitis
• Tuberculosis
• pneumonia 

Some people can feel these effects after any drinking at all:

• skin flushing 
• worsening of skin conditions such as rosacea, a chronic facial skin rash

Long-term effects of heavy drinking include:

• yellowing of skin, decreased body hair, and spider veins from liver disease
• being malnourished, because alcohol replaces nutritional food in some people’s diets

Drinking heavily can put you at risk for different injuries, on the road, by assaults, or by falling. This is because a high alcohol level in your blood can stop your brain’s thought processes and coordination. You’ll feel clumsier and find it harder to walk.

Long-term heavy drinking can cause:

• osteoporosis, the thinning of bones. This happens because alcohol gets in the way of calcium being absorbed in your body so bones can form properly
• osteonecrosis, a painful condition caused by bone tissue dying
• gout, a type of inflammation of joints
• muscle weakness and thinning

Hangovers can happen to anyone after drinking too much in one go. The severity of a hangover depends on your body and how much you’ve had to drink.

Some common symptoms are:

• headaches
• nausea
• vomiting 
• stomach pain
• sweating
• fatigue
• shakiness
• sensitivity to lights and sounds
• being irritable
• unable to sleep properly

The only cure for a hangover is time, although you can make yourself feel better by drinking water, juice, or eating something to make up for the dehydration and low blood sugar.

Avoid taking medication that can:

• be toxic for your liver, such as Paracetamol
• aggravate acute gastritis, such as aspirin

Heavy drinking can cause blurred or double vision. Long-term heavy drinking can lead to decreased vision when someone’s diet is low in vitamins B1 and B12. 

Drinking can quickly lead to people seeming friendlier and more talkative. It can also lead to slurred speech, aggression, antisocial, and confused speech.

Heavy drinking also increases your risks of mouth, throat and voice box cancers.

Alcohol can be sedating, and relaxes the mouth and throat. It suppresses the gag and cough reflexes, and stops the lungs from clearing mucus and other matter. Vomit, saliva, and other substances can then enter your lungs. This causes inflammation and infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia. 

Heavy drinking can also put you at risk of:

• tuberculosis, an infectious disease that affects lungs and any other part of the body
• ARDS, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This is a life-threatening condition where the lungs fill with fluids.

There are plenty of myths about drinking to ‘protect the heart’. This is not advisable, because alcohol is an addictive drug that causes cancer and puts us at risk of injuries. 

Long-term heavy drinking can increase your risk of:

• coronary artery disease
• high blood pressure
• sudden death from heart failure
• irregular heartbeats
• dilated cardiomyopathy, chronic disease of the heart muscle. This leads to heart failure, because the heart can no longer pump blood around the body properly.

If you are already at risk of heart disease, make sure you’re looking out for other parts of your health that can make things worse when combined with alcohol. These include high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, diet and being overweight, and high cholesterol.

Long-term drinking increases your risk of breast cancer. This risk is elevated for people who have even just one or two drinks a day.