How Alcohol Affects Your Health
Important Details about How Alcohol Affects Your Health
A lot of us use wine as a social and relaxation tool. However, excessive alcohol use can have a negative impact on your behaviour, decision-making, and physical and mental well-being. Alcohol use has a variety of short- and long-term negative impacts.
Why is alcohol a health issue?
A lot of Indians consume alcohol. Alcohol consumption by certain individuals can be detrimental to their health. Drinking in this manner increases the risk of illness, damage, and death. This contributes significantly to India’s social harm and poor health.
An approximate amount of 285 millilitres of full-strength beer or cider, 375 millilitres of mid-strength beer, 425 millilitres of light-strength beer, 100 millilitres of wine, and one nip (30 millilitres) of spirits can be found in a regular drink. There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption. For healthy people, limit your weekly alcohol consumption to 10 standard drinks and your daily consumption to no more than 4 standard drinks to lower your risk of alcohol-related disease or injury.
However, some people require extra caution. If you are under the age of eighteen, above the age of sixty-five, using any other medications, or involved in any risky activity like operating machinery or driving a car, you are more likely to suffer negative effects from alcohol. There is no amount of alcohol that is thought to be safe for the unborn child to consume while pregnant or nursing. You run the chance of suffering a short-term illness or injury if you drink excessively. Alcohol’s harmful side effects can also compound over time, impairing your health. You should control your alcohol intake and practice safe drinking to prevent the harmful effects of alcohol.
What are the short-term health effects of alcohol?
One in three Indians overindulge in alcohol on a single occasion. When someone consumes more than four standard drinks in one sitting, it’s known as “binge drinking.” Short-term effects of excessive alcohol consumption include: lightheadedness, impaired judgment, impaired coordination, memory loss, vomiting, unintentional injury (to oneself or others), involvement in a car accident, intentional injury (to oneself or others), alcohol poisoning (which can be fatal), exhaustion (tiredness), headaches, and hangovers.
What are the long-term health effects of alcohol?
Throughout your life, consuming more than two standard drinks each day can have a negative impact on both your physical and mental well-being. Dependency and addiction are among the negative effects of alcohol, particularly in those with anxiety or depression. Additionally, it may make suicide more likely. Heavy drinking on a regular basis can also lead to unhealthful weight gain. Drinking alcohol raises your risk of cancer even in small doses. Alcohol’s harmful effects might have long-term impacts on your body. The following are some effects of heavy drinking on a regular basis on your physical health.
Brain: Excessive drinking can impair your memory, focus, judgment, and mood. It makes you more susceptible to dementia and strokes. Heart: Excessive drinking raises blood pressure, damages the heart, and increases the risk of heart attacks. Liver: The risk of liver cancer is increased by consuming three to four standard drinks daily. Additionally, chronic excessive drinking raises your risk of developing liver cirrhosis (scarring). Stomach: Consuming even one or two normal drinks daily raises your risk of developing stomach ulcers, bowel cancer, and stomach cancer. Fertility: Men’s testosterone levels, sperm count, and fertility are all decreased by regular heavy drinking. Drinking too much can interfere with a woman’s menstrual cycle. Overindulgence in alcohol also plays a significant role in violent crimes, traffic accidents, and other incidents.
In the previous 12 months, around 1 in 5 alcohol consumers aged 14 or older put themselves or others at risk of injury or harm due to alcohol consumption, according to the 2019 National Drug Household Survey. More than one in five Indians who are 14 years of age or older reported experiencing an incident connected to alcohol in 2019. This covered a wide range of maltreatment, such as physical and verbal abuse. Binge drinking was more common among adults (18–24 years old) than it was in the general population. Compared to women, men were more prone to binge drink.
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What is a hangover?
The unpleasant symptoms that one experiences after consuming alcohol are known as a hangover. The hangover will typically get worse the more you drink. A hangover might strike some people after just one drink. Some people may consume large amounts of alcohol and never get a hangover. The way your body handles alcohol will determine the outcome.
A hangover may cause the following symptoms: Headache: Drinking alcohol can cause your blood vessels to dilate. Dehydration: Because alcohol is a diuretic, which means it draws fluids out of the body, consuming too much of it can cause dehydration. Many of the symptoms of a hangover, such as thirst, light-headedness, and dizziness, are brought on by dehydration. Feeling under the weather: Drinking alcohol causes the immune system to release substances that lead to appetite loss, memory loss, and concentration issues.
Alcohol irritates the stomach lining and raises the stomach’s acidity, which can cause nausea, vomiting, and an aching stomach. Shakiness: Drinking alcohol can lower your blood sugar, which can leave you feeling lethargic, sluggish, and unsteady. Fatigue: Although drinking alcohol may make you fall asleep, it keeps your body from going into deeper sleep stages. After a big night’s drinking, you can wake up in the middle of the night. The next morning, you might even find that you still have some alcohol in your system. This may cause a hangover to not start until later in the day. This implies that operating machinery or driving may not be safe for you.
Can you ‘cure’ a hangover?
In general, hangover remedies are untrue. The hangover has no known remedy. All you can do is manage the symptoms as best you can and bide your time till they pass. To alleviate dehydration, sip water. Avoid consuming alcohol further as it will exacerbate your symptoms. To raise your blood sugar and soothe your tummy, try eating some easy foods. If you are experiencing headaches or other pains, take medication. Return to bed if you can to slumber through the hangover.
Advice for preventing a hangover: Don’t exceed the amount of alcohol your body can handle. Be cautious if you don’t know how much that is. Consume alcohol sparingly. It is mandatory in India for the label of alcoholic beverages to indicate the approximate number of standard drinks that they contain. This covers all cans, bottles, and barrels. You can monitor what you’re eating once you know how much alcohol is in a typical drink. You might be taken aback! A few glasses of wine might easily turn into far more than you had planned to consume.
Practice safe drinking by pacing yourself, eating before and during the drinking period, drinking water while consuming alcohol, and drinking before bed to lessen your chances of suffering from a hangover.
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