Why is Alcohol Harmful?
Alcohol has been normalized today as a fun way to socialize and celebrate events, but it comes with a price that many people dismiss. In fact, 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 why is alcohol harmful.
10 answers to why is alcohol harmful:
1. INCREASED STRESS
Increased stress is one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. Alcohol consumption is shown to increase basal glucocorticoid secretion, which is a sign that the body is under stress. In addition, alcohol increases cortisol, our stress hormone, because our body is being put into a state of inflammation. Furthermore, those who are stressed in day-to-day life typically will drink more alcohol, but then they end up increasing stress in the long term. 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, 23729049
2. LIVER DAMAGE
The liver is probably the most impacted tissue in the body after a night of drinking. This is why liver damage is one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. 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
3. DYSBIOSIS
Dysbiosis is one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. The gut is made up of a variety of bacteria that aid in digestion. This bacteria is good, and we want a broad diversity of it in order to digest different foods. Although, there are also bad bacteria that can build up in the gut due to many different lifestyle factors, including alcohol consumption. Gut dysbiosis is when there is an imbalance in the ratio of good to bad bacteria in the intestines. Research in mice studies has found that alcohol consumption can shift this ratio and increase the bad bacteria population in the gut. Increasing this bad bacteria will result in indigestion, poor immune system, and increase inflammation.
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4. Leaky Gut
Leaky gut is another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. As a result of dysbiosis induced by alcohol consumption, the gut bacteria balance is thrown off and this causes the poor function of the gut microbiome. One of the jobs of the healthy bacteria in the gut is to protect the lumen, the thin wall of cells that separate the inside of the intestine from the bloodstream. When the bacteria can no longer do this due to dysbiosis, any pathogens and toxins can squeeze past and enter the bloodstream. This is called leaky gut because components from the gut ‘leak’ into the bloodstream and cause inflammation.
Source: 28778332, 28988571, 26528128, 15706765
5. LOWERED IMMUNITY
Lowered immunity is another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. 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
FREE HAPPY HORMONE GUIDE:
6. DISRUPTION OF SLEEP
Disruption of sleep is another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. 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
7. NAUSEA AND VOMITING
Nausea and vomiting are also one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. 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.
8. NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES
Nutrient deficiencies due to damage to the gastrointestinal tract are another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful is. The gastrointestinal tract 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
9. DEPRESSION
Depression is another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. This effect may be more obvious to people, but let's discuss how it really works. Alcohol can intensify the symptoms of people who have existing depression or alcohol can increase the risk of developing depression.10 - 15% of the population will struggle with depression at one point in their lifetime. Depression is characterized by extreme sadness, not finding joy in things that you once liked, fatigue, feelings of hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide. Interestingly enough, research has found that females are more likely to have a bidirectional relationship between alcohol and depression showing that they both can indirectly cause the other, while males have more of an independent relationship with depression and alcohol use. A mechanism behind depression caused by alcoholics has to do with the neurotransmitter serotonin which helps us feel good. Studies have found that alcoholics have decreased serotonin transporters in the brain which can explain the feelings of low happiness and therefore depression.
Source: 31649834, NIH, NIH, 28167374, 24959010
10. ANXIETY
Anxiety is another one of the answers to why is alcohol harmful. Similar to depression, having an anxiety disorder or alcohol abuse problem can increase the risk for developing the opposing problem. Symptoms of anxiety include feeling fatigued, irritable, muscle tension, feelings of worry, and difficulty falling asleep. Anxiety affects a lot of people, and statistics show that 19% of people overall in the US have had an anxiety disorder within the past year. Serotonin balance is also an important factor for the development of anxiety, and alcohol lowers serotonin levels. GABA is another neurotransmitter that affects this alcohol-anxiety relationship. GABA is one of the inhibitory neurotransmitters meaning that it has sedative effects. In terms of anxiety, GABA operates in the fear part of the brain called the amygdala allowing for control during stressful situations. Alcohol consumption increases GABA production in the brain, which in the short term is okay, but in the long term, this can cause high anxiety when you are sober and have normal GABA levels. Therefore the anxiety you feel while sober due to lower GABA levels will drive you to drink more, and thus, may result in alcohol addiction.
