Is alcohol good or bad for you? Yes Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Overhydration sometimes occurs among athletes and outdoor laborers, but it can also be a sign of disease or damage to the hypothalamus. Some desert insects, such as Onymacris unguicularis, have evolved to drink substantially from nighttime fog. An exception is the common pigeon, which can suck in water directly by inhalation. Cats drink at a significantly slower pace than ruminants, who face greater natural predation hazards. Ruminants and most other herbivores partially submerge the tip of the mouth in order to draw in water by means of a plunging action with the tongue held straight.

Heart health

Observational studies can still yield useful information, but they also require researchers to gather data about when and how the alcohol is consumed, since alcohol’s effect on health depends heavily on drinking patterns. And heavy drinking is unequivocally harmful to health. Steatotic liver disease develops in about 90% of people who drink more than 1.5 to 2 ounces of alcohol per day. Binge drinking is behavior that raises blood alcohol levels to 0.08%. For men, heavy drinking means more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks a week. For women, more than three drinks on any day or more than seven drinks a week is heavy drinking.

Other chronic diseases

In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, alcohol in moderation, and especially red wine, was touted as healthful. To date, federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health have shown no interest in exclusively funding these studies on alcohol. Medicine and public health would benefit greatly if better data were available to offer more conclusive guidance about alcohol. Instead, much alcohol research is observational, meaning it follows large groups of drinkers and abstainers over time. Information and shareable resources to help others choose to drink less alcohol and be their best. The cost of excessive alcohol use impacts everyone, whether they drink or not.

Some people attain their goal only to find that old habits crop up again later. But many people may benefit simply by cutting back. Higher fitness levels may protect against atrial fibrillation Eggs have less effect than saturated fats on cholesterol levels

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• So, your system prioritizes getting rid of alcohol before it can turn its attention to its other work.
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Effects of short-term alcohol use

• A decline in total body water is called dehydration and will eventually lead to death by hypernatremia.
• With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis.
• Heavy drinking, including binge drinking, is a high-risk activity.
• Research shows drinking when thirsty will maintain hydration to within about 2% of the needed level.
• As these examples illustrate, drinking alcohol may raise the risk of some conditions but not others.
• Drinking too much alcohol can weaken the immune system, making the body a much easier target for disease.

Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis. When your liver finishes that process, alcohol gets turned into water and carbon dioxide.

U.S. Standard Drink Sizes

Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set off a chain reaction that affects your well-being. And prolonged alcohol use can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. That’s because alcohol can weaken your immune system, slow healing and make your body more susceptible to infection.

Alcohol may also speed HIV progression in people living with the disease, influence their engagement and retention in HIV treatment, and increase their susceptibility to organ damage and coinfections. Alcohol misuse can also lead to high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), or increased heart rate. There is also evidence that alcohol can disrupt or delay puberty. For example, alcohol misuse is linked to peripheral neuropathy, a condition that commonly occurs in people with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) and can cause numbness in the arms and legs and painful burning in the feet.

Effects of long-term alcohol use

Some of these strategies — such as watching for peer pressure, keeping busy, asking for support, being aware of temptation, and being persistent — can also be helpful for people who want to give up alcohol completely. Maybe you feel that you’re drinking too much or too often. You can take steps to lower your risk of alcohol-related harms. Excessive drinking can also be deadly. About 178,000 people die from excessive alcohol use each year in the United States.1 Alcohol abuse and the addiction of alcoholism are common maladies in developed countries worldwide.

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Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health. Stay on top of latest health news from Harvard Medical School. 25 Gut Health Hacks is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive health information from Harvard Medical School.

Yet we continue to see reductive narratives, in the media and even in science journals, that alcohol in any amount is dangerous. It’s hard to escape the message these days that every sip of wine, every swig of beer is bad for your health. This story drinking out of boredom was previously published in Harvard Public Health magazine, which featured independent journalism about public health challenges and solutions outside Harvard Chan School.

Alcohol use: Weighing risks and benefits

Each of those consequences can cause turmoil that can negatively affect your long-term emotional health. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. The morning after a night of over-imbibing can cause some temporary effects on your brain. “That can leave them more vulnerable to infectious diseases.”

Mayo Clinic Press

But even moderate alcohol use changes the way your body functions. Alcohol affects your whole body, from your liver and immune system to your brain and mental health Drinking moderately if you’re otherwise healthy may be a risk you’re willing to take. When it comes to alcohol, if you don’t drink, don’t start for health reasons. In the United States, people younger than age 21 are not legally able to drink alcohol.

Heavy drinking also has been linked to intentional injuries, such as suicide, as well as accidental injury and death. That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks. Here’s a closer look at alcohol and health. For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute’s webpage “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” (last accessed June 6, 2024). Chronic pancreatitis is a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer and diabetes.

Current research points to health risks even at low amounts of alcohol consumption, regardless of beverage type. The term “drinking” is often used metonymically for the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Evidence-based hydration experts say that the amount of drinking water needed depends on ambient temperature, activity level, body size, and sweat rate. Lack of hydration causes thirst, a desire to drink which is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body’s electrolyte levels and blood volume. It’s tempting to assume that because heavy alcohol consumption is very bad, lesser amounts must be at least a little bad. As these examples illustrate, drinking alcohol may raise the risk of some conditions but not others.

“When your liver is overwhelmed by oxidizing alcohol, it generates molecules that inhibit fat oxidation,” Dr. Sengupta explains. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver. You probably already know that excessive drinking can affect you in more ways than one. During pregnancy, drinking may cause the unborn baby to have brain damage and other problems.