why is alcohol bad essay

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Why alcohol is so dangerous for young adults' brains

From the myth of Europeans' "healthy drinking culture" to the surprising harm of some common family traditions, science is overturning old beliefs around alcohol and young people.

I turned 18 the day before I left home for university, conveniently passing the UK's age threshold for buying alcohol just in time to explore student pubs and bars. When I signed up with a doctor near my new home, she asked how many units of alcohol I drank each week – a common way to measure alcohol intake here in the UK, with 1.5 units roughly equalling a small glass of wine . "Around seven," I said, quickly totting up the few covert vodkas-and-orange that I'd enjoyed on nights out with my friends from school. I thought this was low, but I'd never been much of a rule-breaker.

"That's going to rise now you're here," the doctor replied with a dry chuckle. She wasn't wrong. Within a few weeks, I was happily knocking back a bottle of wine before lining up shots in the student bar. I knew heavy drinking could wreak its toll across the lifespan, but I hadn't considered that my youth would bring additional dangers, compared to someone of 30, 40 or 50. Surely the risks were the same for all adults?

If I'd heard what I now know about the unique ways that alcohol can affect the young adult brain, I might have been a bit more cautious. At 18, my brain was still metamorphosing , and would not reach maturity for at least seven years. This alters the way we respond to alcohol – and drinking during this critical period can have long-term consequences for our cognitive development.

Speaking to researchers about the impact of alcohol on young people, I was surprised by many other findings besides these. Research from around the world is beginning to overturn a range of common assumptions around age and alcohol, such as the idea that continental Europeans have a healthier drinking culture than the UK or US, and that allowing young people to drink at home with meals teaches them responsible alcohol use. Whether or not this new science should change our current drinking laws is a complex political issue, but greater awareness of the facts may at least allow future generations to make a more informed choice about the ways that they choose to party – and might help parents decide how to handle alcohol in their own home.

Small bodies, big brains

Let's be clear: alcohol is a toxin. Its dangers span fatal accidents, liver disease, and  many kinds of cancer . Even small quantities can be carcinogenic, leading  the World Health Organization to declare  that "when it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health".

Few activities are completely risk-free, though, and the dangers tend to be weighed against the pleasures that alcohol can bring. Our health policies are therefore guided by the principle of damage limitation with moderate drinking. In the US  this is defined  as having no more than two drinks a day for men, and no more than one drink a day for women – with many other countries offering similar guidance. Although beer and wine are commonly seen as safer drinks, as the US guidance states, the type of drink is not the important factor – instead, it's the  amount of alcohol consumed : "One 12-ounce beer has about the same amount of alcohol as one five-ounce glass of wine or 1.5-ounce shot of liquor." Legislation around the age of purchasing alcohol follows a similar logic of damage limitation: the laws protect children, while allowing young adults to make their own choices. In most European nations, the minimum age is 18 years – in the US it is 21.

There are, however, numerous reasons why alcohol may be more dangerous for younger people, even after they have passed the legal minimum drinking age. One is body size and shape: teenagers don't reach their adult height until 21, and even after they have stopped growing vertically, they may lack the bulk of someone in their 30s or 40s. "Drinking one glass of alcohol therefore results in a higher blood alcohol content for young people than for adults," says Ruud Roodbeen, a post-doctoral researcher at Maastricht University and the author of Beyond Legislation , which examines the impact of raising the minimum drinking age.

The adolescents' lean frame is also characterised by a higher head-to-body ratio. I certainly know that I looked a little like a "bobblehead" toy, and these relative proportions can also influence the intoxication that someone experiences. When you drink alcohol, it enters your bloodstream and spreads through your body. Within five minutes , it reaches your brain, easily crossing the blood-brain-barrier that generally protects your brain from harmful substances. "A relatively large part of the alcohol ends up in the brains of young people, and that is yet another reason why young people are more likely to get alcohol poisoning," Roodbeen says.

Shaping the brain

Equally important are the changes occurring within the skull . In the past, neural development was thought to stop in our early teens, but a swathe of recent research shows that the adolescent brain undergoes a complex rewiring that does not end until at least the age of 25.

The most important changes include a decline in "grey matter" as the brain prunes away the synapses that allow one cell to communicate with another. At the same time, white matter – long-distance connections known as axons covered with an insulating fatty sheath – tends to proliferate. "They are like the brain's super-highways," says Lindsay Squeglia, a neuropsychologist at the Medical University of South Carolina. The result is a more efficient neural network that can process information more quickly. 

The limbic system, involved with pleasure and reward, is the first to mature. "These areas are fully adult-like during adolescence," Squeglia explains. The prefrontal cortex, which is located behind the forehead, is slower to ripen. This region is responsible for higher-order thinking – which includes emotional regulation, decision-making, and self-control.

The relative imbalance of these two regions' development can explain why adolescents and young adults tend to be more risk-taking than adults. "A lot of people describe the adolescent brain as having a fully developed gas pedal without brakes," says Squeglia. And bathing our neurons in alcohol – which is known to release inhibition – may only amplify this thrill chasing. For particularly impetuous teenagers, alcohol can create a vicious cycle of bad behaviour and delinquency. "The more impulsive kids tend to drink more, and then drinking causes more impulsivity," says Squeglia.

At high enough frequencies and volumes, adolescent drinking could impair the brain's long-term development. Longitudinal studies show that early drinking is associated with a more rapid decline in grey matter, while the growth of the white matter is stunted. "Those super-highways aren't getting paved as much in kids who start drinking," says Squeglia.

The consequences may not be immediately evident in cognitive tests; in a young brain, the regions responsible for problem solving can work a little bit harder to make up for the deficits. It cannot keep this up forever, however. "After multiple years of drinking, we see less activation in the brain and poorer performance on these tests ," says Squeglia.

Early drinking can also take its toll on mental health, and heightens the risk of alcohol abuse later in life. This is particularly true for people who have a family history of alcoholism – the earlier they start, the greater their chances of developing a drinking problem themselves. The genes associated with an advanced risk of alcohol abuse seem to be most influential during this critical period of brain development. "And the longer that someone is able to wait, the less likely these genes are going to come into play," says Squeglia.

The European model?

How might these findings affect an adolescent's choices – and their parents' decisions around how and when to allow them to drink at home?

"Our message is delay as long as you can," says Squeglia, "because your brain is still developing, and let your brain develop and be as healthy as it can before you start engaging in things like alcohol and other substance use."

Whether this advice should be enshrined in law is another matter. Squeglia says that, in her public talks on alcohol consumption, members of the audience often raise the question of the "European model of drinking". In some countries such as France, minors are allowed to have a glass of wine or beer to accompany a family meal. Even outside of Europe many parents believe that slow introduction to alcohol in a controlled context teaches young people to drink safely and reduce binge-drinking later on, whereas restriction leads it to become a tempting "forbidden fruit".

This is a myth. "The research has shown that the more permissive a parent is with alcohol use, the more likely a kid is to have problems with alcohol later in life," says Squeglia. A comprehensive review suggests that contrary to the forbidden-fruit belief, "parents imposing strict rules related to adolescent alcohol use is overwhelmingly associated with less drinking and fewer alcohol-related risky behaviors".

Most evidence suggests that stricter drinking laws, with an older minimum age for purchase, also encourage more responsible consumption. Consider a study by Alexander Ahammer at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria, where anyone over 16 can legally purchase beer or wine. If stricter laws only increase the desire for booze, then you would expect Austria to have a healthier drinking culture than the US – where the minimum legal drinking age is 21. But this is not the case.

Both countries see an increase in binge drinking after someone has passed the minimum age. "But this jump was 25% higher in Austria at 16 than in USA at 21," Ahammer says.

Waiting, in other words, seemed to have encouraged more responsible behaviour when Americans were permitted to purchase drinks legally.

Questioning his participants about their behaviour, Ahammer found that the Austrians' perceptions of the dangers associated with drinking changed dramatically as they passed their sixteenth birthday. "When alcohol becomes legal, teenagers perceive it to be much less risky than before," Ahammer says. At 16, that false sense of security could be dangerous, whereas at 21, the more mature brain is somewhat better equipped to handle its drink.

Nor does the idea of a healthy European drinking culture hold true over a lifetime. According to the World Health Organization, data indicates that half of all alcohol-attributable cancers in the European region are caused by light and moderate alcohol consumption.

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Given the scientific evidence, should governments set the legal minimum age to 25 or over – once the brain has stopped developing? Experts point out that it's not that simple, since the public health benefits need to be balanced against people's perceptions of personal liberty.

"I think there's this very little public appetite for a drinking age of 25," says James MacKillop, who studies addictive behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "High minimum legal ages are perceived as paternalistic, and they can be seen as hypocritical if the legal age of majority for voting, or the legal age to serve in the military, is 18 or 19."

Ahammer agrees. "At some point that we should just allow people to make their own decisions."

Instead, MacKillop suggests adolescents could be provided with better education about alcohol's risks, and the ways that it can affect the maturing brain. "Just assuming that people will naturally develop responsible habits when it comes to these drugs is a fairly optimistic assumption," he says.

Looking back at my adolescence, I would have been intrigued to know about my brain's continued transformation, and the effects that my alcohol consumption could have on its wiring. I don't expect that I would have been teetotal – I still drink today, after all, despite knowing the long-term health risks – but I might have thought twice before buying an extra round.

*David Robson is an award-winning science writer. His next book is  The Laws of Connection: The Transformative Science of Being Social , to be published by Canongate (UK) and Pegasus Books (USA & Canada) in June 2024. He is  @d_a_robson  on Twitter, and  @davidarobson  on  Instagram and Threads.

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How Does Alcohol Affect Society?

Buddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website.

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

• Financial Cost
• Aggression and Violence
• Impact on the Family

Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among U.S. adults. Alcohol use is associated with a wide range of health risks and other problems for individuals. But the costs of alcohol don't just affect the person drinking. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol use costs the U.S. almost a quarter trillion dollars a year. Economic costs are one part of the toll, but there are also other societal issues that are tied to alcohol use.

At a Glance

The real-world impact of alcohol abuse reaches far beyond the financial costs. When a loved one has a problem with alcohol, it can affect their marriage and their extended family. There's also a larger impact on the community, schools, the workplace, the healthcare system, and society as a whole.

How Alcohol Affects Society

Alcohol use can affect society in terms of:

• Economic costs linked to increased healthcare expenses, lost productivity, and legal costs
• Health consequences caused by health problems caused by alcohol as well as accidents, injuries, and violence connected to alcohol use
• Legal consequences , including increased crime, drunk driving accidents, and other issues related to law enforcement and criminal justice
• Family effects , including child abuse, neglect, intimate partner violence, and substance use problems in children
• Educational costs associated with worse academic performance and achievement

Such costs are often linked to those who have alcohol use disorders. According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 29.5 million people over the age of 12 (10.6% of the population) had an alcohol use disorder in the past year. Estimates suggest that approximately 13.9% of people in the United States will meet the criteria for severe alcohol use disorder in their lifetimes.

However, it's not necessarily people with alcohol addiction having the biggest impact on these figures. It's estimated that 77% of the cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S. is due to binge drinking , and most binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that 140,000 people die each year due to alcohol-related causes. Alcohol is the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.

Financial Costs of Alcoholism

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cost of excessive alcohol use in the U.S. alone reaches $249 billion annually. Around 77% of that is attributed to binge drinking , defined as four or more alcoholic beverages per occasion for women or five or more drinks per occasion for men.

The CDC estimates that 40% of the cost of binge drinking is paid by federal, state, and local governments.

The CDC suggests that the most significant economic costs of alcohol use are due to the following:

• Lost workplace productivity (72% of the total cost)
• Healthcare expenses (11% of the total cost)
• Criminal justice expenses (10% of the total cost)
• Motor vehicle crash expenses (5% of the total cost)

The CDC estimates that these figures are all underestimated because alcohol's involvement in sickness, injury, and death is not always available or reported. These figures also do not include some medical and mental health conditions that are the result of alcohol abuse.

Also not included in these figures are the work days that family members miss due to the alcohol problems of a loved one.

Healthcare Expense of Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol consumption is a risk factor in numerous chronic diseases and conditions, and alcohol plays a significant role in certain cancers, psychiatric conditions, and numerous cardiovascular and digestive diseases. Additionally, alcohol consumption can increase the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

An estimated $28 billion is spent each year on alcohol-related health care.

Alcohol-Related Aggression and Violence

Along with unintentional injury, alcohol plays a significant role in intentional injuries as a result of aggression and violence. Alcohol has been linked to physical violence by a variety of research studies.

On top of the healthcare cost of alcohol-related intentional violence in the United States, the estimated annual cost to the criminal justice system is another $25 billion.

Impact of Alcoholism on the Family

The social impact of alcohol abuse is a separate issue from the financial costs involved, and that impact begins in the home, extends into the community, and often affects society as a whole, much like the financial impact does.

Research on the effects of alcohol abuse on families shows that alcohol abuse and addiction play a role in intimate partner violence, cause families' financial problems, impair decision-making skills, and play a role in child neglect and abuse.

Long-term alcohol use leads to changes in the brain that affect decision-making, emotional processing, and self-control, making people who drink more susceptible to aggression and violence. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, alcohol makes intimate partner violence more frequent and severe.

As with the financial costs of alcohol abuse, studies have found occasional binge drinking can also affect families. Research suggests that the risk of intimate partner violence rises not only in the context of frequent drinking but also when a partner has consumed a large volume of drinks in one sitting.

If you or a loved one are struggling with substance use or addiction, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database .

Alcohol Abuse and Children

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are one of the most common direct consequences of parental alcohol use in the United States, caused by alcohol consumption by the mother during pregnancy. Children with FAS display various symptoms, many of which are lifelong and permanent.

Children who grow up in a home with a loved one dealing with alcohol addiction may be affected as well; they are at significant risk of developing alcohol use disorders themselves.

Growing up in a home where at least one parent has a severe alcohol use disorder can increase a child's chances of developing psychological and emotional problems.

The Bottom Line

Alcohol's effects go beyond it's effects on individual health and well-being; it also has steep economic and societal costs. The excess use of alcohol leads to billions in lost productivity and healthcare costs. It also has a heavy strain on families, communities, and society as a whole. Increased violence, injuries, accidents, child abuse, and intimate partner violence are all linked to alcohol use.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Excessive drinking is draining the U.S. economy .

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the United States: Age groups and demographic characteristics .

Grant BF, Goldstein RB, Saha TD, et al. Epidemiology of DSM-5 Alcohol Use Disorder: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III . JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(8):757-766. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0584

Esser MB, Hedden SL, Kanny D, Brewer RD, Gfroerer JC, Naimi TS. Prevalence of Alcohol Dependence Among US Adult Drinkers, 2009-2011 . Prev Chronic Dis. 2014;11:E206. doi:10.5888/pcd11.140329

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol-related emergencies and deaths in the United States .

Rehm J. The Risks Associated With Alcohol Use and Alcoholism . Alcohol Res Health . 2011;34(2):135-143.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cost of excessive alcohol use .

Wilson IM, Graham K, Taft A. Alcohol interventions, alcohol policy and intimate partner violence: a systematic review .  BMC Public Health. 2014;14:881. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-881

Lander L, Howsare J, Byrne M. The impact of substance use disorders on families and children: From theory to practice . Soc Work Public Health . 2013;28(3-4):194-205. doi:10.1080/19371918.2013.759005

Sontate KV, Rahim Kamaluddin M, Naina Mohamed I, et al. Alcohol, aggression, and violence: From public health to neuroscience .  Front Psychol . 2021;12:699726. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699726

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Who facts on: Intimate partner violence and alcohol .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basics about FASDS .

Moss HB. The impact of alcohol on society: A brief overview . Soc Work Public Health. 2013;28(3-4):175-177. doi:10.1080/19371918.2013.758987

Sacks JJ, Gonzales KR, Bouchery EE, Tomedi LE, Brewer RD. 2010 National and State Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption . Am J Prev Med . 2015;49(5):e73-e79. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2015.05.031

By Buddy T Buddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website.

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Drinking Alcohol: The Dangers of Alcohol Abuse

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Effects of Alcohol Consumption Essay

Introduction, nursing intervention.

Alcohol consumption can have various effects on the people who consume it. The effects may be social, psychological, physiological and medical. Some alcoholic brands (like wine) may have positive effects on our health while others (like spirits) may have negative effects. The duration in which a person consumes alcohol determines the intensity of the negative effects of alcohol on the person. One negative effect of alcohol is the damage of body organs like the liver and the colon, when consumed for a long period of time (Cooper, 2000).

Alcohol is categorized as a depressant due to its ability to slow down the nervous system thereby reducing sensitivity to pain through inducement of sleep like feeling. Some of the immediate impacts of alcohol misuse include lack or loss of one’s awareness, distortion of reality, loss of coordination of the brain activities and one’s motor skills (Toppness, 2011). When used for a long time, it leads to addiction, as well as social and economic irresponsibilities by the addicted individuals (Toppness, 2011).

Research has shown that alcohol consumption is a risk factor to colon cancer. However, the type of alcohol brand matters. While wine may have positive impacts in preventing colon cancer, hard liquor like spirits have been found to increase the chances of alcoholics developing colon cancer. Prolonged alcohol consumption also leads to colon irritation, which in turn leads to diarrhoea and constipation (Toppness, 2011). This can make the individuals lose their appetite and become malnourished. Such individuals may end up being socially and economically irresponsible, which may further lead to depression. The depressed individuals become prone to suicide because their thinking and reasoning becomes impaired, and to them, life loses meaning.

Patients who are addicted to alcohol consumption need to be shown love and care not rebuke and contempt. This is one aspect of the nursing profession and other professions like social work. We should show them love and care through talking to them in a courteous manner, and showing them that they are able to come out of their situation.

Many alcohol addicts have their symptoms as adaptive. This means that they develop or acquire some behaviour which helps them cope with the problems they are facing; one such behaviour is alcohol consumption, which later develops into alcohol misuse or abuse. For example, some may assume or think that other people hate them because they are poor or are of low social status. This is an external pressure to them, and in order for them to safeguard their ego, they engage in alcohol consumption in order to cope in staying with the people who hate them. Our intervention should therefore be centred on behaviour and attitude change.

We should show them that alcohol consumption is not the solution to their problems and help them gain the courage to face life the way it is. We should help them acquire new behaviours which are not depended on alcohol. For instance, they could be helped to boost their people’s skills, their confidence as well as improve on their hygiene, which would boost their self-esteem. These interventions could be done in a community setting or at their homes. In severe cases of addiction, they should be taken to rehabilitation, where they could be helped to recover from withdrawal symptoms.

Even though alcohol can have many negative effects on our bodies, it is a good component of our diet when used properly in the right quantities and frequencies. For instance, it makes our meals complete apart from being used as a social drink. Alcohol consumption therefore becomes dangerous to us and our bodies when we misuse it. Alcohol consumption is regarded as a risk factor in causing colon cancer because it causes diarrhoea and inflammation of the colon. The link is however not clearly established and therefore the need for more research to establish the relationship between alcohol consumption and colon cancer (Hales, 2008).

Cooper, D.B. (2000). Alcohol Use. Abingdon OX14 1AA: Radcliffe Publishing.

Hales, D. (2008). An Invitation to Health. New York: Cengage Learning.

Toppness, H. (2011). Alcohol Effects on the Colon. Web.

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Alcohol’s health effects: What you need to know

Over the long term, alcohol can increase your risk of more than 200 different diseases, including in the liver and pancreas, and certain cancers.

Drinking alcohol is so common that people may not question how even one beer, cocktail, or glass of wine could impact their health. Alcohol is a part of cultural traditions all around the world…and it’s also a drug that chemically alters the body. People of all ages need to understand these effects.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has information on how alcohol impacts your health. It also has resources to help those looking to change their drinking habits.

What does alcohol do to your body?

Just one or two alcoholic drinks can impair your balance, coordination, impulse control, memory, and decision-making. This increases your risk of injuries. Too much alcohol can also shut down parts of your brain that are essential for keeping you alive. Over the long term, alcohol can increase your risk of more than 200 different diseases, including in the liver and pancreas, and certain cancers.

The alcohol you consume resides mostly in the body’s water. Because women tend to have less water in their bodies than men, if a woman and a man of the same weight drank the same amount of alcohol, the woman’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) would likely be higher. This could help explain why women are more likely to have negative effects from alcohol.

NIAAA Director George F. Koob, Ph.D. , said that as of May 2023, the institute is not aware of specific health guidelines on alcohol consumption for transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals.

How much alcohol is safe to drink?

No amount of alcohol is "safe" or beneficial for your health. In fact, alcohol’s harmful effects (such as risk of developing certain cancers) start at fewer than one drink per day. Some people should not drink at all, including:

• People under the legal drinking age of 21
• People with certain medical conditions
• People who are pregnant or who may become pregnant

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to symptoms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). FASD can cause a range of neurodevelopmental and physical effects in the child after birth.

Mixing alcohol and medicines can be harmful. If you are on any medications, talk to your health care provider about how alcohol may affect them.

What is moderate alcohol use?

According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans , moderate alcohol use is consuming two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less a day for women. But what is a standard drink?

  Credit: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

What is binge drinking?

Binge drinking is drinking enough alcohol to raise one's BAC to 0.08% or above. Women typically reach this level after about four drinks and men after about five drinks in two hours. Binge drinking—and heavy drinking—is a type of alcohol misuse (a spectrum of risky alcohol-related behaviors).

What is alcohol use disorder?

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic brain disorder that makes it difficult to control alcohol use, even when it’s causing problems. AUD can be mild, moderate, or severe.

Alcohol misuse at an early age increases the risk of developing AUD. Genetics or a family history of alcohol misuse increases that risk as well. Childhood trauma, mental health issues, and stress can also lead people to begin drinking or drink more than usual.

But there is good news! No matter how severe the problem may seem, evidence-based treatment can help people with AUD recover.

Where can someone find treatment for AUD?

While there is no one-size-fits-all method for recovering from AUD, there are lots of effective treatment options. Some examples include behavioral treatments, support groups, and FDA-approved medications. NIAAA can help people find information and resources about AUD and treatments that might work best for them.

• Rethinking Drinking is a series of self-guided questions to help you understand your relationship with alcohol and change your drinking habits.
• The NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator is an online tool to help you understand AUD and how to treat it. It can also find treatment options by health care provider, location, and method—both virtual and in-person.

Alternative accessible version (pdf)

August 10, 2023

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Sorting out the health effects of alcohol

When it comes to your beverage of choice, alcoholic beverages are unique. For millions, they are a regular part of the dining experience. They're often an important component of social events, celebrations, and milestones; we toast people, events, and memories with alcohol. They play a key role in many religious traditions. And, of course, the alcoholic beverage industry is a major economic force, responsible for more than $250 billion in sales annually in the US.

And all of this is true despite the well-known and well-publicized risks of drinking too much alcohol.

The negative effects of alcohol

It should be a surprise to no one that drinking too much alcohol can be bad for you — of course, the definition of "too much" can vary. More on that in a moment.

Here are some of the more common negative health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption — and good reasons to moderate your intake of alcohol:

• liver disease, including cirrhosis and life-threatening liver failure requiring a liver transplant
• a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart failure, and dementia
• a higher risk of certain cancers, including those of the digestive tract (including colon cancer), breast, and liver
• a higher risk of injury, especially from drunk driving and falls — homicides and suicides are also often alcohol-related
• lapses in judgement — For example, people who are drunk may engage in risky sexual behavior or use other drugs
• a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and addiction which may, in turn, affect one's ability to establish and maintain social relationships and employment
• alcohol poisoning — many people don't realize that if you drink enough alcohol over a short period of time, it can be fatal
• fetal alcohol syndrome — alcohol can damage a baby's developing brain and cause other developmental abnormalities.

Excessive alcohol consumption can cause health problems not only for the drinker, but also for their family, friends, coworkers, and employers.

Are there benefits of alcohol?

While the list of health risks related to excessive alcohol consumption is long, there may also be health benefits associated with moderate drinking. There's the psychological or social impact of alcohol. Having a drink while getting together with family or friends can be helpful to relieve stress and promote a sense of well-being. Alcohol has long been considered a "social lubricant" because drinking may encourage social interaction. These benefits are hard to measure.

In addition, studies suggest that moderate drinking (as discussed below) may be linked with a lower risk of:

• heart attack
• the most common type of stroke
• death due to cardiovascular disease
• gallstones.

Despite these potential health benefits, most doctors don't recommend that someone who doesn't drink start drinking, or for a moderate drinker to drink more. That's because these are only correlations (which does not necessarily mean causation). Many of these benefits are quite small, and it's hard to predict who will actually benefit and who may be harmed more than helped by alcohol consumption.

How much alcohol consumption is too much?

The answer has varied over time, but a widely accepted definition of moderate alcohol consumption — as endorsed by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture — is one drink or less per day for women or two drinks or less per day for men. The lower recommendation for women isn't just because they are, on average, smaller than men. It turns out alcohol affects women differently. They produce less of the enzyme (called alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH) that breaks down alcohol. In addition, women tend to have more body fat, which tends to retain alcohol.

The definitions for "a drink" in the US are the common serving sizes for beer (12 ounces), wine (5 ounces), or hard liquor (1.5 ounces).

Meanwhile, "high risk" drinking is considered:

• four or more drinks in one day or eight or more drinks per week for women
• five or more drinks in one day or 15 or more drinks per week for men
• Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks over two hours for women and five or more drinks over two hours for men.

A new study could change what's considered moderate drinking

A new study analyzed data from nearly 600,000 people who drank at least some alcohol, and monitored their health over time. They found that regardless of gender, higher alcohol consumption was associated with a higher rate of stroke, fatal aneurysms, heart failure, and death. When compared with people who drank less than seven drinks per week:

• Adults drinking seven to 14 drinks per week could expect, on average, a six-month shorter life expectancy as of age 40
• Those drinking 14 to 25 drinks per week could expect a shorter life expectancy by one to two years
• Those drinking more than 25 drinks per week could expect a shorter life expectancy by four to five years

Depending on the country, current guidelines (including those in the US) could allow levels of drinking high enough to shorten life expectancy.

Is drinking some alcohol better than not drinking it at all?

The study described above examined how much alcohol consumption might be too much. But is there a health advantage to at least some drinking? Another recent study says yes. Light drinkers (those consuming one to three drinks per week) had the lowest rates of cancer or death compared to those drinking less than 1 drink per week.

The bottom line on the health effects of alcohol

There are important limitations to research on alcohol consumption. Most rely on self-reporting, do not analyze binge drinking, do not assess alcohol consumption over a lifetime, or do not account for the fact that some study subjects may reduce their alcohol consumption due to alcohol-related health problems. Still, this new research is among the best we have linking what is commonly considered moderate drinking to negative health consequences.

These findings may lead to a revision in guidelines. Do people pay attention to these guidelines? And even more importantly: how can the social and physical benefits of light drinking be maintained while minimizing risk? Stay tuned. The next big study on alcohol could answer these questions.

About the Author

Robert H. Shmerling, MD , Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Disclaimer:

As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.

No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

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What damage does alcohol do to our bodies?

• Published 2 October 2011

We know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for us. It gives us hangovers, makes us feel tired and does little for our appearance - and that is just the morning afterwards.

Long term, it increases the risk of developing a long list of health conditions including breast cancer, oral cancers, heart disease, strokes and cirrhosis of the liver.

Research shows that a high alcohol intake can also damage our mental health, impair memory skills and reduce fertility.

The direct link between alcohol and the liver is well understood - but what about the impact of alcohol on other organs?

Numerous heart studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption helps protect against heart disease by raising good cholesterol and stopping the formation of blood clots in the arteries.

However, drinking more than three drinks a day has been found to have a direct and damaging effect on the heart. Heavy drinking, particularly over time, can lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure and stroke. Heavy drinking also puts more fat into the circulation of the body.

The link between alcohol and cancer is well established , external , says Cancer Research UK. A study published in the BMJ this year estimated that alcohol consumption causes at least 13,000 cancer cases in the UK each year - about 9,000 cases in men and 4,000 in women.

Cancer experts say that for every additional 10g per day of alcohol drunk, the risk of breast cancer increases by approximately 7-12%.

For bowel cancer, previous studies show that increasing alcohol intake by 100g per week increases the cancer risk by 19%.

A recent report in BioMed Central's Immunology journal found that alcohol impairs the body's ability to fight off viral infections.

And studies on fertility suggest that even light drinking can make women less likely to conceive while heavy drinking in men can lower sperm quality and quantity.

Why alcohol has this negative effect on all elements of our health could be down to acetaldehyde - the product alcohol is broken down into in the body.

Acetaldehyde is toxic and has been shown to damage DNA.

Dr KJ Patel, from the Medical Research Council's laboratory of molecular biology in Cambridge, recently completed a study into the toxic effects of alcohol on mice , external .

His research implies that a single binge-drinking dose of alcohol during pregnancy may be sufficient to cause permanent damage to a baby's genome.

Foetal alcohol syndrome, he says, "can give rise to children who are seriously damaged, born with head and facial abnormalities and mental disabilities".

'Clear dose relationship'

Alcohol is a well-established cancer causing agent, he says.

"You cannot get a cancer cell occurring unless DNA is altered. When you drink, the acetaldehyde is corrupting the DNA of life and puts you on the road to cancer.

"One of most common genetic defects in man is our inability to counteract the toxicity of alcohol."

Dr Nick Sheron, who runs the liver unit at Southampton General Hospital, says the mechanisms by which alcohol does damage are not quite so clear cut.

"The toxicity of alcohol is complex, but we do know there is a clear dose relationship."

With alcoholic liver disease, the greater the alcohol intake per week the greater the liver damage and that increases exponentially for someone drinking six to eight bottles or more of wine in that period, for example.

Over the past 20 to 30 years, Dr Sheron says, deaths from liver disease have increased by 500%, with 85% of those due to alcohol. Only in the last few years has that rise slowed down.

"Alcohol has a bigger impact than smoking on our health because alcohol kills at a younger age. The average age of death for someone with alcoholic liver disease is their 40s."

'More harmful than heroin or crack'

Alcohol is undoubtedly a public health issue too.

Earlier this year, NHS figures showed that alcohol-related hospital admissions has reached record levels in 2010 . Over a million people were admitted in 2009-10, compared with 945,500 in 2008-09 and 510,800 in 2002-03. Nearly two in three of those cases were men.

At the same time the charity Alcohol Concern predicted the number of admissions would reach 1.5m a year by 2015 and cost the NHS £3.7bn a year.

Last year, a study in The Lancet concluded that alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack when the overall dangers to the individual and society are considered.

The study by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs , external also ranked alcohol as three times more harmful than cocaine or tobacco because it is so widely used.

So how much alcohol is too much? What can we safely drink?

Did you know? There are 16g of alcohol in a 175ml glass of red or white wine.

The government guidelines on drinking are being reviewed at present. They currently say that a women should not drink more than two to three units of alcohol per day and a man three to four units a day.

But Paul Wallace, a GP and chief medical adviser of Drinkaware, says people are just not aware of the alcohol content of a large glass of wine.

"Most of us don't realise what we're drinking and you can very easily slip beyond acceptable limits."

Katherine Brown, head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, says the current guidelines and how they are communicated may be giving the public misleading information.

"We need to be very careful when suggesting there is a 'safe' level of drinking for the population. Rather, we need to explain that there are risks associated with alcohol consumption, and that the less you drink the lower your risk is of developing health problems.

"We hope the government use this as an opportunity to help change perceptions about regular drinking being a normal, risk-free practice."

Dr Wallace wants the government to do a better job on the message it sends out by explaining the alcohol guidelines in units per week, rather than per day - no more than 21 units for men, 14 units for women per week.

Dr Sheron agrees: "There is no such thing as a safe level, but the government has got to draw a line somewhere. It's a balance.

"People like having a drink, but they have to accept there's a risk-benefit ratio."

More on this story

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• Published 12 June 2011

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• Published 7 September 2011

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• Published 8 April 2011

Around the BBC

BBC Health: Alcohol

Related internet links

Alcohol Concern

Institute of Alcohol Studies

Cancer Research UK