Alcohol… a social lubricant, vehicle for escape, something to take the edge off, or a poison disguised as your friend?
Just how bad is alcohol for our health? What does it really do? And what about ‘moderate’ drinking? Aren’t there some benefits to alcohol?
I’ve had my own personal battles with it, which inspired me to want to learn more and discover the true extent of what I was getting myself into. Here are some of the very real effects of alcohol…
Broken down to effects on the brain, body, fitness related goals, and other long-term effects, as well as how much is “safe”.
EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN
The effects that we experience from alcohol are caused by how it gradually impacts brain function. It might feel great (at first), but understanding why it feels the way it does might change your perspective..
Essentially, alcohol slowly shuts down parts of the brain as you drink, and decreases communication and function of neurons. In other words, it inhibits you from being you. The common symptoms:
- Slurred speech
- Slower reaction time
- Loss of balance & coordination
- Decreased ability to think rationally – increased risky or aggressive behavior
- Increased irritability
- Changes in vision
It continues to inhibit brain function to the point of “black out”. The scary part is, we can still remain awake and functioning while “blacked out”, it’s just that we won’t remember damn near anything that happened during that time, and our ability to make rational decisions is at an all-time low. This is why people can wake up sometimes in confusing places or situations with no recollection of how they ended up there.
Alcohol can also have a permanent damaging effect on neurons and various functions of the brain.
EFFECTS ON THE BODY
Straightforward, alcohol is a carcinogenic toxin to the entire body. It can damage every single cell it comes into contact with from our mouth, to the throat, to the digestive system, to the colon.
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Our digestive system is crucial. We need it to properly break down and absorb the food we eat. Alcohol is great at fucking this up. Let’s break it down more..
LIVER
One of the most popular organs when it comes to alcohol. The liver is amazing, and performs up to 500 functions! One of the liver’s main jobs is to remove toxins from the blood, including alcohol. The problem is, the liver itself takes a hit from the alcohol as it processes it.
Alcohol also leads to fat storage in the liver, which can then lead to insulin resistance and fatty liver. If this continues to progress, the liver struggles to function and can become scarred, known as cirrhosis. This eventually ends in liver disease.
PANCREAS
The pancreas is an organ that produces enzymes that help us break down and digest food. It’s also the organ responsible for producing insulin, the hormone that transports glucose into muscle cells.
Just like the liver, alcohol can have a damaging effect on the pancreas, making it hard to properly digest and absorb food. The damage can lead to pancreatitis, or pancreatic cancer.
COLON
The colon, or large intestine, can also be negatively impacted by alcohol. The colon is home to trillions of bacteria, or microbes, that absorb parts of the food we eat and then have an impact on our gut health.
Alcohol leads to the growth of harmful bacteria in the colon, which can negatively impact gut health and digestion. It can also lead to colon cancer.
CANCER
As mentioned before, alcohol is a carcinogen. Not only that, but it’s classified as a group 1 carcinogen, meaning it can directly cause cancer, independent of other factors.
This is because alcohol is broken down into acetaldehyde which is a carcinogenic compound. This compound damages DNA and can lead to abnormal cell growth, aka, cancer. This can happen in the liver, pancreas, colon, breast, esophagus, and other parts of the body.
EFFECTS ON FITNESS GOALS
Whether you’re aiming to lose weight, or build muscle and strength, alcohol can have certain impacts on fitness goals as well…
WEIGHT LOSS
First and foremost, alcohol contains calories. And similar to junk food, they’re often referred to as empty calories, because they don’t provide any real nutrients or feelings of satiety. This can lead to excess calorie consumption without realizing it, which can lead to unwanted weight gain. Not to mention the classic case of getting the “drunk munchies”.
Alcohol also affects weight loss by inhibiting fat burn. Since alcohol is a toxin, the body will prioritize eliminating it before focusing on some other bodily tasks. One of these is the burning of body fat.
Not that you can’t lose weight while consuming alcohol.. It’s just that the more you drink, not only is that resulting in more calories, but it’s also slowing down the process of burning fat.
BUILDING MUSCLE
Same as with weight loss, it is possible to build muscle and consume alcohol, there are still, however, effects to consider.
Alcohol has been shown to not only inhibit fat burn, but also muscle protein synthesis. This is an important part of the recovery and muscle-building process. So if optimizing muscle mass gains is your goal, it might be a good idea to avoid alcohol, or greatly minimize drinking.
OTHER EFFECTS….
Some other common effects of alcohol, especially with chronic use..
- Dependency – alcohol is highly addictive
- Hangovers that feel worse and worse, and can affect things like work or being consistent with health and fitness goals
- Irritability
- Weakened immune system
- Decreased drive and motivation
- Increased appetite for unhealthy foods
WHAT’S THE SAFE AMOUNT?
The thought has always been that moderate alcohol consumption – 1 or less drinks per day for women and 2 or less for men – is safe and can even provide some benefits. To get straight to the point, the benefits associated with alcohol consumption, like antioxidants in wine, have been largely exaggerated and overblown.
The antioxidant benefit you get from wine, for example, is minimal and less effective than simply eating actual fruit for antioxidants.
This has been an easy sales and marketing tactic by wine companies. Of course, they want you to buy their products. Take something that is already addicting and then add that there’s “health benefits” and people will throw their money at it. When in reality, the harmful effects of alcohol will always outweigh whatever perceived benefits there are.
But in terms of the negative health effects of alcohol, the recommended moderate drinking amounts for men and women appear to be safe except in one area.. Cancer.
That’s right, in terms of cancer risk, no amount of alcohol is safe. Just one drink can increase risk.
SUMMARY
On one hand, alcohol consumption is enjoyed, marketed, encouraged, and completely considered normal to the extent that anyone who opts out of it can sometimes be viewed as a bit odd.
On the other hand, alcohol kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, is highly addictive, promotes violent behavior, destroys families and relationships, and destroys our health and wellbeing.
That being said… drink responsibly.
Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in making your health and fitness goals a reality, check out my online coaching page below!