Alcohol affects every major organ in your body.
It can harm your brain, liver, heart, kidneys, skin, and pancreas. Alcohol affects your digestive, immune and nervous systems, too.
Drinking alcohol can also increase your risk for cancer. In January,U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory linking alcohol to seven types of cancer: breast, colorectal, esophageal, liver, mouth, throat, and laryngeal.
The risks for these cancers exist whether you drink beer, wine or spirits, or drink moderately or heavily.
“The word ‘cancer’ gets people to pay attention,” says Luke J. Archibald, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction treatment at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). “Alcohol comes with so many potential negative effects on our organs and immune system, plus our digestive health, mental health and sleep.”
What alcohol does to the body
Brain: Alcohol interferes with your brain’s communication pathways and can affect how your brain works. The disruption can change your mood and behavior and make it difficult to think clearly and move with coordination.
Heart: Drinking over a long time or too much on one occasion can cause heart damage, causing arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, stroke or high blood pressure.
Kidneys: Heavy drinking doubles the risk of developing kidney disease, a long-lasting condition that does not improve over time. Binge drinking can lead to acute kidney injury (AKI), a sudden drop in kidney function.
Liver: Heavy drinking harms your liver and can lead to fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis and cirrhosis.
Pancreas: Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation in the pancreas that causes swelling and pain. Alcohol also weakens the pancreas’s ability to make enzymes and hormones for digestion.
Alcohol interferes with nutrition
"Alcohol contains empty calories and has little-to-no nutritional value,” says Beth A. Violette, RD, who specializes in oncology nutrition at DHMC.
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Alcohol can rob your body of its nutritional needs by limiting absorption of essential nutrients, leading to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.
It also acts as a diuretic and can cause dehydration by increasing urine production. Violette explains dehydration can lead to electrolyte imbalances of sodium, potassium, and chloride. Dehydration also hurts your skin.
Alcohol damages cells, changes hormone levels
"There's been this assumption that some level of alcohol consumption is actually healthy,” Archibald says. “Someone might say, ‘My doctor says having a drink or two every day is healthy.’ And that’s not the case.”
Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the nation behind tobacco and obesity.
Drinking alcohol can damage your cells, change estrogen and insulin hormone levels, and allow cells in your mouth and throat to absorb harmful chemicals and carcinogens.
Even moderate drinking—having one drink per day or less—can increase the likelihood of cancers, including breast, oral and throat cancers.
“Our message to patients is to not drink,” says S. Elise Cushman, MS, RD, who specializes in oncology nutrition at Dartmouth Cancer Center
Recent studies suggest that females are more susceptible than males to alcohol-induced liver inflammation, cardiovascular disease, memory blackouts, hangovers and certain cancers. For people in cancer treatment, regularly consuming a few beers or cocktails can make chemotherapy less effective and increase side effects from treatment. Evidence shows that regular alcohol use may increase the chances of their cancer returning.
How to cut back
To reduce or stop drinking, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests these tips to change your consumption habits.
Set Limits: Assess your current alcohol consumption to determine if it is excessive or harmful. Plan your drinking days and limit the number of drinks. For example, choose to drink only one evening a week and have just one drink. Add alcohol-free days into your weekly routine.
Count your drinks: Learn how a drink is defined to better monitor your intake. (Read the CDC’s guide on alcohol drink sizes.
Manage Triggers: Identify and avoid people, places or activities that encourage excessive drinking. Opt for alternatives like meeting for breakfast or taking a walk. Remove alcohol from your home.
Find support: Reach out to friends, family, healthcare providers or others who can support your decision to drink less.
How does drinking make you feel?
If you are concerned about your drinking habits or have an alcohol disorder, talk to your primary care provider about medication and counseling. If you are a light or moderate drinker, try cutting alcohol for a month. Pay attention to how you feel after a few weeks.
“Do you notice that your sleep improves? Is your anxiety lower? Do you have more energy and concentration?” Archibald says. “That would be a good piece of evidence to compare and help assess and answer the question: ‘Is this worth it or not?"
