Negative Effects of Alcohol Side Effects of Alcohol Can Hurt You
The negative effects of alcohol hurt your health from head to toe. What alcohol does is create havoc in your body. It has short term negative effects and there are also long term negative effects. Some side effects include weakening your immune functions and conniving with tobacco (if you smoke or if you drink around smokers) to alter your cells.
Alcohol is one of the proven carcinogens. What is sad is it is also a regulated drug...meaning, anyone can buy it anywhere as long as you are not a minor.
The Short Term Negative Effects of Alcohol
The short term side effects of drinking alcoholic beverages include...
1) Lower Folate Level
Decrease in folate is also one of the short term and negative effects of drinking too much alcohol.
Folate is an important vitamin that aids your cells to make DNA properly. Cancer is found to be more common among people who have low folate levels.
2) Impaired Senses and Reflexes
Impaired senses for hearing and seeing are short term effects of too much drinking. If you drink a lot of liquor or beer, it impairs your response reflexes as well. That's why when you drink, you are not supposed to drive. Many vehicular accidents happen because of drunk driving.
3) Impaired Sense of Judgment
When you frequently drink, you might find yourself addicted to alcohol. You think you can't function well without a drink.
Alcoholism is one of the negative health effects that may lead to a lot of behavioral problems such as aggression and depression.
An impaired sense of judgment is also one of the short term side effects of alcohol. You become uninhibited and even violent. There are crimes that have been committed because of drunkenness.
Long Term Negative Effects of Alcohol
1) Genetic Mutations
The membranes of your cells are easily penetrated by alcohol. Genetic mutations in the DNA of your gene occur with every intake of alcohol.
Prevention of DNA mutations is one of the abilities of your cells. They can fix those harmful mutations but too much liquor can inhibit their ability to repair.
Mutations are one of the long term negative effects because they may lead to uncontrollable cell division and growth leading to the common types of cancer.
2) Enhanced Carcinogenic Properties of Tobacco
One of the negative effects of drinking alcohol is that it can behave as a co-carcinogen to other chemicals particularly tobacco.
Too much drinking may intensify the harmful effects of tobacco smoking. Studies show that prevention of cancer cells in the esophagus, mouth and larynx is almost impossible if you smoke AND drink.
Drinking more than what is considered as moderate stimulates the liver cells to grow faster than normal.
It also causes liver cirrhosis, a disease which raises your risk for liver cancer. More often than not, liver cancer is the negative end-result of liver cirrhosis.
4) Hormone-Related Cancers
Hormone-related cancers are also long term negative effects of alcohol. Cancer cells in the breasts become worse when you drink more than what is recommended. Alcohol increases the level of estrogen.
A poor immune system is one of the negative effects of drinking too much. It weakens the immune activity of your body in a lot of negative ways. In fact, excessive drinking...
reduces the ability of macrophages to make tumor necrosis factors which are needed for cancer cells to die naturally,
takes away the nutrients needed by your immune system,
lowers the capacity of your white blood cells or lymphocytes to kill bacteria and cancer cells, and
hinders the production of healthy white blood cells.
If you like to drink a lot, here's something to sober you up: The number of bottles it takes to intoxicate you is the amount of alcohol that dampens your immune functions. This is just one of the terrible and negative effects of alcohol.
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