How alcohol can affect your health
Alcoholic drinks can contain a lot of calories and have no additional nutritional benefits such as vitamins and minerals. This means that unless you're also taking plenty of exercise, you can put on weight
Alcohol is a diuretic (removes fluids from the body), so drinking excessively can lead to dehydration. Dehydration is what causes many of the symptoms of a hangover.
Alcohol can upset your stomach and give you a bad night’s sleep. You may still have some alcohol in your system the next morning.
Most people who drink too much don't see any symptoms at first, but later in life it can lead to serious problems. And if you're already ill with something else, drinking alcohol can make it worse. So drinking less now can reduce the risk of harming your health later on and reduce the risk of:
- cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus or larynx;
- breast cancer in women;
- heart disease or an irregular heartbeat, which can lead to heart attack;
- high blood pressure;
- stroke;
- liver damage such as cirrhosis and liver cancer;
- depression, memory loss, brain damage or dementia;
- sexual health problems;
- aggression.
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
This is common in very heavy drinkers, and if you have high blood pressure then reducing your drinking to the lower risk levels can bring your blood pressure down. If you've already had a heart attack, drinking could put you at greater risk of high blood pressure and further damage to your heart.
Diabetes
Alcohol contains a lot of calories, so if you're diabetic your doctor may advise you to drink less as part of a balanced, calorie-controlled diet. If you manage your diabetes with tablets or insulin then drinking alcohol could be more dangerous, so you need to talk to your doctor about how drinking could affect your diabetes treatment and any other medication you take.
Depression and anxiety
There's a strong link between feeling depressed or anxious and heavy drinking, because alcohol works as a depressant drug on your nervous system. A hangover will often include anxiety and feeling low.
