Brief overview
- Short-term positive effect: lifts the mood, relaxes, stimulating, anti-anxiety.
- Immediate negative effect: impaired perception, impaired coordination, memory lapses, slowed reactions, aggression, nausea, headaches, increased risk of accidents, alcohol intoxication, cardiac arrhythmia, coma
- Mental late effects: Depression, anxiety disorders
How alcohol works
Regardless of whether someone drinks a lot of alcohol on a regular basis or only indulges in a glass now and then – what happens in the body after drinking alcoholic beverages is the same for everyone.
Among other things, alcohol has an effect on
- Emotions
- Perception
- Concentration
- Judgment
- Reactivity
- Coordination
Positive effects of alcohol
On most humans alcohol unfolds first of all a positive effect. If this were not the case, nobody would consume it in voluntarily. It docks in the reward center in the brain. It has an effect
- mood-enhancing
- relaxing
- stimulating
- anxiety-relieving
- disinhibiting
Negative effect of alcohol
- Perceptual disturbances up to hallucinations
- Concentration problems
- Circulatory problems up to cardiac arrhythmias
- disturbances of consciousness up to coma
- memory disorders (film break)
- Dizziness
- Coordination disorders with speech disorders (slurring) and gait disorders (staggering)
- Nausea and vomiting
- Headaches
Acute alcohol poisoning
At very high blood alcohol levels, symptoms of poisoning eventually occur. They can lead to coma. Acute alcohol poisoning is a life-threatening condition. Possible symptoms are:
- rapidly falling blood sugar level
- epileptic seizures
- Cardiac arrhythmias
- coma
In an alcohol coma, vital reflexes such as coughing, vomiting or feeling cold are paralyzed. There is a risk of suffocation or freezing to death in winter.
What determines how strong the effect of alcohol is?
- Amount of alcohol consumed
- Drinking speed: If you empty three glasses of wine in half an hour, you will get drunk faster and more heavily than if you take several hours to drink the same amount.
- Stomach contents: drinking on an empty stomach can increase the intoxicating effects of alcohol. Eating a high-fat meal beforehand, on the other hand, can delay the absorption of alcohol into the body.
- Drinking habit: People who regularly consume alcoholic beverages can tolerate more and do not get drunk as quickly.
- Gender: The fluid content of the body is higher in men (approx. 70 percent) than in women (approx. 60 percent). This means that alcohol is distributed over less fluid in the female sex – the blood alcohol concentration (i.e. the per mille value) is thus higher than in men for the same amount of drinking.
Long-term effects of alcohol
Chronic physical alcohol consequences
The effects of alcohol unfold on the entire body. Those who regularly drink larger amounts damage the cells in virtually all organs. But even small amounts of alcohol can cause health problems. There is no such thing as an innocuous dose.
- Liver diseases (liver inflammation, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer)
- Cardiovascular diseases (including high blood pressure arteriosclerosis, stroke, heart attack)
- Nerve damage
- Inflammation of the entire digestive tract
- Varicose veins of the esophagus (esophageal varices)
- Muscle atrophy
- Cancers (including liver cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer)
Chronic psychological alcohol consequences
The brain also suffers massively. Declining mental abilities, dementia personality changes and mental symptoms and illnesses can result. These include.
- Mood swings
- Anxiety
- Depression @
- Suicidal thoughts
- Alcohol addiction
The effects of alcohol do not only affect health. In addition to the physical and mental consequences described, there are problems with the environment – especially when consumption leads to addiction. Abuse and addiction affect partners, family, friends, jobs.
You can find out more about the physical, psychological and social long-term consequences of alcohol in the text “Alcoholism”, in the section “Consequences of alcoholism”.
