Heart diseases
"Heavy alcohol consumption or alcohol binging may increase risk of platelet clumps, forming blood clots in arteries and vein. This makes person more susceptible to heart attack and brain stroke resulting in death or permanent disabilities. A published study suggests that binge drinking doubled the risk of death among people who initially survived a heart attack.
Heavy drinking could be a reason for shoot up of blood pressure in chronic drinkers. Alcohol can affect the body’s sympathetic nervous system resulting in rise in blood pressure, over time this can became chronic making person hypertensive and vulnerable to its long term complications such as kidney diseases, heart disease and stroke.
Anaemia
Alcohol abuse (regular consumption of more than 80 grams of alcohol/day) can lead to folate deficiency which ultimately affects the production of red blood cells, the cells responsible for oxygen transport in blood. Moreover, cirrhosis of liver can also lead to anaemia.
Symptoms of anaemia include fatigue, shortness of breath etc
Liver disease
Alcohol is detrimental to liver cells. Cirrhosis of liver is a slowly progressing disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue, eventually that prevent normal liver functioning, and sometimes can cost a life.
Dementia
In general as people grow older their brain tends to shrink at a rate of about 1.9% per decade on average, which is normal. However, heavy drinking hastens the process of shrinkage in particular regions of brain that can lead to memory loss and other symptoms of dementia, suggest experts from WebMD.
Alcohol abuse damages brain, also affects analytical and the cognitive skills.
Alcohol neuropathy and Depression
Damages caused to nerve due to heavy alcohol drinking is called as alcohol neuropathy, characterised by crawling sensation, muscle weakness, incontinence, etc.
Depression and alcohol consumption mostly goes hand in hand, however, whether depression leads to binge drinking or vice versa is still debatable. Some experts believe that depressed people find relief in alcohol; however, a large study from New Zealand showed that it was heavy drinking that led to depression.
Gout
Deposition of uric acid crystals in joints leads to this painful condition. Although, it’s mainly hereditary diseases, alcohol consumption and dietary factors had been linked to gout, in many studies. Alcohol consumption may aggravate the existing diseased condition.
Less immunity
Excessive drinking suppresses the immunity making person susceptible to variety of diseases including tuberculosis, pneumonia, and sexually transmitted diseases.
It’s now clear that alcohol is not the solution of any problem instead they will add up. It has been observed that people suffering from psychological distress rely and depend on alcohol to relieve their stress, however, such person are likely to become victim of alcohol abuse, binge drinking.
Be aware of the health problems associated with chronic alcohol drinking and stay healthy by avoiding abuse of alcohol.