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The Effects of Consuming Alcohol

Alcohol, as a depressant, has short- and long-term effects on you mentally and physically. Not all of alcohol's effects can harm you, but alcohol does have potentially damaging attributes. Any amount of alcohol can cause these effects, but the more alcohol you drink, the more influence these effects will have.

  1. Short--term Effects

    • Alcohol has short-term effects because the bloodstream absorbs it easily from the stomach. Alcohol has cognitive effects such as dizziness and lowering of inhibitions, says drugfree.org. Because of the lower inhibitions, it impairs judgment, causing individuals to engage in behaviors they would not otherwise do.

      Because alcohol acts as a nervous system depressant, it will distort your vision and hearing as well as your ability to perceive reality and sort through your emotions. In some people, this causes increased sociability, and in others it causes increased aggressiveness. Physical short-term effects of alcohol include nausea, vomiting, insomnia, bad breath, headaches, thirst and fatigue, says drugfree.org. You can minimize the short-term effects of alcohol by consuming it slowly and with food.

    Long-term Effects

    • One of the primary long-term effects of consuming alcohol on a regular basis is an alcohol addiction. Symptoms of withdrawing from a long-term alcohol addiction include anxiety, hallucinations and nervous tremors, according to drugfree.org. Other long-term effects of of consuming alcohol include liver damage, or cirrhosis, vitamin deficiencies, brain damage, stomach disease, impotence and some forms of cancer such as breast, mouth and esophageal cancer.

      Excessive alcohol consumption also can cause fetal alcohol syndrome in pregnant women, leading to miscarriage or significant birth defects. Children born with fetal alcohol syndrome can suffer from mental and physical abnormalities. Also, researchers have linked the potential to abuse alcohol from parents to children, although they do not know whether this has a genetic component or whether children learned from alcoholic parents, according to drugfree.org.

    Effects on Health Conditions

    • Regular, moderate consumption of alcohol has positive effects in preventing and reducing the symptoms of heart disease, according to WebMD.com. Moderate consumption means one drink per day for women and two drinks for men. The definition of one drink is 1.5 oz. of hard alcohol, 12 oz. of beer or 5 oz. of wine. Moderate alcohol consumption has protective effects against dementia, diabetes and Barrett's esophagus. Heavy consumption of alcohol negates these effects and causes additional damage to the heart, high blood pressure, obesity and strokes.

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