Alcohol effects – The potential effects of alcohol misuse
January 18, 2010 by AMA
Filed under Drug Abuse
Alcohol abuse affects us in many ways and our social skills; After one or two drinks you often feel more at ease and more loud as the alcohol gets into the brain and affects your thinking.
Consuming alcohol causes your heart rate to quicken and you may experience a warm glow. This is caused by alcohol making the little Veins in the skin widen, allowing blood to flow closer to the surface and lowers blood pressure.
Alcohol Effects -how can alcohol affect your health?
The problems with drinking too much alcohol can be extreme. The effects of alcohol abuse on Health include slowed breathing and heartbeat, loss of consciousness, impaired judgment leading to accidents and injuries, anxiety, suffocation through choking on your own vomit and potentially fatal alcohol poisoning. Drinking too much alcohol can also effect you mentally (generally temporarily), inducing guilt, anger and even paranoia, for no real reason. Your words may slurr, often don’t recognise your surroundings and drinking too much alcohol can result in memory loss.
Drinking alcohol increases your calorie intake, showing why alcohol is a large part of adult obesity. In a medium-sized (175ml) glass of wine there are 125 calories and in a bottle there are over 500 calories. So thats about one quarter of your guidline daily calorie allowance!
Hangovers – Headaches could be the least of your worries
Drinking alcohol can cause you to have a hangover the next day, often being undesirable to experience. You may get stomach ache, sometimes diarrhea, sickness and nausea, Alcohol also dehydrates you. Alcohol consumption can also make you feel depressed, guilty
.
If you drink over the guideline levels often you are putting your health at risk. Consuming larger amounts of alcohol increases blood pressure.
Alcohol consumption is often related with mental health problems. A recent British survey found that people with depression and anxiety were twice as likely to be problem drinkers.
Large levels of drinking may sometimes lead to ‘psychosis’, a harsh mental illness where the person beleives others are out to get them. Heavy drinking could lead to isolation and hopelessness.
