Harden Elkington
When you consume alcohol, it is not broken down. It goes rapidly into your circulation and travels to all corners of your body. Alcohol has a rapid impact on the brain, followed by the kidneys, lungs, and liver.
The condition of your body is determined by several factors, including age, gender, weight, and type of alcohol consumed.
This article looks at what happens to your body when you drink alcohol, particularly the effects on your body.
How alcohol travels through your body
Alcohol is consumed by the mouth and enters the bloodstream through the walls of the stomach and small intestine. The alcohol goes into your blood, spreads throughout your body, and is carried to all areas of tissues.
A half-filled bottle of wine contains around 100 calories. One pint of beer has more than 200 calories. Calories are not burned during alcohol consumption and this is why we tend to gain weight when we drink.
Alcohol affects your body most immediately in the brain, but it also targets the kidneys, lungs, liver and other organs throughout your body.
Alcohol affect the body
Effect on the brain
As soon as you begin drinking alcohol, there is a reduction in your memory and attention span. This initial effect also makes it difficult for people to judge what they do.
Contrary to common belief, alcohol does not have the opposite effect on the brain when you sober up after drinking too much.
Alcohol is a depressant and makes us feel less inhibited and relaxed. However, our movements are often hampered. Steady drinkers have a reduced ability to pay attention.
How much the brain is affected by alcohol depends on your age, gender, weight, and whether you are used to drinking.
Effect of alcohol on the kidney
Your kidneys lose their ability to function properly when small amounts of alcohol are consumed daily. As a result, toxins that accumulate in the body over time begin to affect the kidneys.
The kidneys filter more than one liter of blood every minute, removing harmful substances such as salt and waste materials. The kidneys also regulate the amount of water in your body.
Alcohol causes damage to both of these important functions of your kidneys.
Effect on liver
A healthy liver can only process an ounce (30 ml) of pure alcohol per hour, that’s about one drink. Some people cannot metabolize alcohol at all, because they lack the necessary enzymes.
A liver damaged by too much drinking can no longer function well and toxins start to accumulate in the body and cause infection and organ failure.
Effect on lungs
The effects of alcohol on your lungs include inflammation, reduced lung function, and pneumonia. Alcohol abuse can lead to inflammation of the lungs, called bronchitis.
The lungs are the primary site for alcohol metabolism. When you drink alcohol, your body first breaks it down into acetaldehyde, a toxic substance that is converted into carbon dioxide and water within hours after consumption.
Effect on organs
Drinking too much alcohol over time causes the liver, pancreas, brain, heart and other organs to work less well. This is the direct consequence of the toxic effects of alcohol on our bodies.
Alcohol consumption can cause cirrhosis of the liver. It also impairs blood flow to all parts of your body, including your skin and extremities such as your hands and feet.
People who consume excessive amounts of alcohol for a long time also have a higher risk of developing certain types of cancer, such as liver and breast cancer.
Drinking with an empty or full stomach
Consuming alcohol on an empty stomach is a bad idea. Most of the alcohol you drink will reach your small intestine and from there it goes directly to your liver, without being metabolized by the rest of the body as well as when you have eaten food containing carbohydrates or fats.
As a result, you’ll be more likely to develop health problems such as abdominal pain, vomiting and nausea.
Alcoholic drinks containing fruit or carbonated water are much more harmful than those that contain only alcohol because the sugars they contain can harm your liver even further.
Carbonated alcoholic drinks speed up the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream, causing an even greater rush of intoxication.
The combined effects of hyperthermia and dehydration caused by alcohol
Alcohol interferes with your body’s ability to regulate its temperature, causing more blood to flow into the vessels near the skin’s surface. As a result, you feel warmer or colder than normal and sweat less.
You also become dehydrated more quickly as alcohol impairs your kidney’s ability to retain water.
The resulting loss of fluid can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). When your body temperature drops too low, the result is hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature).
Both conditions are potentially fatal if not treated promptly by medical professionals.
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How long does it take alcohol to leave the body?
Alcohol leaves your body through urine and sweat. The liver can process only one alcoholic beverage per hour. Alcohol is eliminated from the body at an average rate of 0.014% each hour, or around 1 unit of alcohol for every 10 hours.
The amount of time required to process alcohol varies according to an individual’s body weight, gender, level of physical activity, other health conditions and genetic factors.
Women will take longer than men. Binge drinking is more harmful because the alcohol in the bloodstream remains elevated for longer periods of time.
A healthy liver can only process one drink per hour. This means that if you consume more than one drink per hour, the alcohol in your blood will still rise.
People who have a high body mass or are older may need two days or more to safely eliminate all traces of alcohol from their bodies.
Summary
Alcohol abuse has many side effects. The most important are listed below.
- Liver damage, cirrhosis
- Cancer, especially in the liver and pancreas
- Inflammation of the lungs, bronchitis
- “Booze belly” or abdominal bloating due to fluid retention
- Headaches
- Heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke
- Confusion leads to poor judgment and risk-taking behavior. Impaired coordination
Alcoholic drinks containing fruit or carbonated water are much more harmful than those that contain only alcohol because the sugars they contain can harm your liver even further.
Carbonated alcoholic drinks speed up the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream, causing an even greater rush of intoxication.
The resulting loss of fluid can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). When your body temperature drops too low, the result is hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature).
Both conditions are potentially fatal if not treated promptly by medical professionals.
