What are the effects of drinking on the body

In our daily lives, whether it’s family reunions, friends gatherings, or classmate dinners, no matter where we go or what form the activity takes, alcohol seems to be indispensable. At the dinner table, everyone toasts and urges each other to drink, and wine has become a bond that maintains people's relationships. Some people say that drinking has many benefits and can prolong life. Some people say that drinking can give you courage. But do you understand the impact of drinking on your body? Let’s take a look together.

A small amount of alcohol can make people excited, make the brain active, and have a certain sedative effect. However, excessive alcohol intake can reduce a person's concentration and judgment, and may even cause slurred speech, blurred vision, and loss of balance. More seriously, it can affect a person's memory. Elderly people often say that drinking alcohol harms the liver. It seems that the harm of drinking alcohol to the liver is probably the most well-known. Alcohol is mainly metabolized and detoxified by the liver. Once it enters the human body, it will increase the burden on the liver, seriously affecting the normal function of the liver and causing liver damage. In addition, alcohol produces a carcinogenic substance - acetaldehyde - during the metabolism and detoxification process in the liver. Under normal circumstances, acetaldehyde will be broken down by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the human body and excreted from the body. However, drinking large amounts of alcohol for a long time will cause acetaldehyde to not be completely broken down and remain in the body, which poses a time-limited hidden danger to the body.

Drinking large amounts of alcohol can cause gastric bleeding or damage the stomach and intestinal mucosa, resulting in symptoms such as gastritis, gastric ulcers, and enteritis. Long-term drinking can reduce the stomach's digestive function and the intestine's absorption of nutrients, causing metabolic changes and loss of appetite. Alcohol and its metabolites - acetaldehyde and acetate - can directly poison the myocardium. People who drink large amounts of alcohol for a long period of time may experience heart enlargement and heart failure, with symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, and arrhythmias, and even cardiac arrest.

After reading the above introduction, we can understand the effects of drinking on the body. It has to be said that wine culture is an indispensable part of Chinese traditional customs and living habits. However, in our lives today, there are countless examples of life-threatening situations caused by drunkenness. Drinking a small amount of alcohol has certain benefits to the body, but drinking a large amount of alcohol can cause many kinds of harm to the body. When it comes to alcohol, everyone should take better care of their bodies and remember not to drink too much to avoid harming their bodies.