Alcohol & Tobacco Awareness

Whether you indulge in the occasional drink or cigarette, or you smoke a pack a day and drink nightly, tobacco and alcohol can affect your body and your mind.

Alcohol and Your Appearance

• Alcohol can have many damaging effects on your appearance. Alcohol consumption, over time, aggrvates acne and rosacea and causes broken capillaries under the skin, leading to a general redness of the face. It can also deprive your body of nutrients, especially in those who drink heavily and daily, which can lead to dry skin and brittle hair and nails.

Smoking and Your Appearance

• Smoking is just as, if not more, damaging than alcohol to your outward appearance. Thanks to the nicotine in tobacco, smoking can yellow your teeth, nails and fingers. Smoking also dries out your skin, leaving it dull and more susceptible to premature aging and wrinkles.

Physical Effects of Alcohol

• The physical effects of alcohol are numerous, and over time they can cause permanent damage and even death. Immediate effect can include heartburn and acid reflux, since alcohol damages the lining of your stomach, as well as nausea and vomiting. Over time alcohol can cause permanent damage to your gastrointestinal tract, and even worse damage to your liver. As your liver tries to rid your body of alcohol's toxins, alcohol taxes the organ. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to cirrhosis, or scarring, of the liver, and its eventually failure. Other physical effects include raised blood pressure, lowered immune system capability and heart disease.

Physical Effects of Smoking

• The physical effects of smoking can be immediate, and over time smoking can lead to permanent damage and death. Smoking tobacco can lead to cancer of the lung, stomach, esophagus and kidney. Short-term effects of smoking include a productive cough, a greater chance for colds and flu, and a stuffy, runny nose. Prolonged smoking can lead to the lung disease emphysema.

Mental Effects of Alcohol

• Alcohol is a depressant that can lower brain function and lead to depression and anxiety issues. The more a person drinks, the greater their mental ailments and in most cases, the greater their need for alcohol to self-medicate. Long-term, heavy alcohol use can lead to permanent brain damage as it destroys brain cells that don't regenerate. This can cause dementia and other degenerative brain disorders later in life.

Mental Effects of Smoking

• The main mental effect tobacco carries is addiction, a heavy physical and mental dependency, due to nicotine's effect on your brain's pleasure centers. As nicotine enters your system, it causes a rush of adrenaline. It also leads to a release of dopamine in the brain, which increases feelings of pleasure. As time goes on the smoker will need the rush and release more and more, leading to heavy mental dependency.