Many people use alcohol to escape from their problems, or to change their personalities and many people both young and older adults enjoy consuming a couple of drinks or a glass of wine once in a while. But, going way too overboard could lead to alcohol abuse which can result to several serious health-related consequences. Not only it can destroy your health, but it can also damage your relationships with others in terms of physical abuse, petty crimes and accident mishaps.
Some of the negative effects alcohol has on the body and heart are:

1.When a person takes a drink of alcohol, ethanol (the chemical name for drinkable alcohol) irritates the stomach lining, releasing acids. A small amount is broken down chemically, but most of the alcohol heads toward the small intestine through an opening called the pyloric valve. Drinking too much alcohol too quickly can cause the valve to swell and close, causing vomiting.

2. Drinking alcohol continuously or in a daily basis can have a huge effect on your CNS or central nervous system. Long term effects of alcoholism may include memory loss, lower pain threshold, alcohol dependency and brain damage.

3. Excessive and prolonged use of alcohol can severely damage the liver causing it atrophy which can result to liver damage.

4. Alcohol is fattening. A pint of 4% beer or two double gin and tonics equals around one burger. Alcohol is also very rich in energy, packing 7 calories per gram. But like pure sugar or fat, the calories are void of nutrients. The more calories an individual consumes in alcohol, the less likely it is that they will eat enough food to obtain adequate nutrients. To make matters worse, chronic alcohol abuse not only displaces calories from needed nutrients, but also interferes with the body?s metabolism of nutrients, leading to damage of the liver, digestive system, and nearly every bodily organ.

5. Excessive drinking increases your risk of intestinal damage which greatly affects the lining of the body's small and large intestine. Thus, the body's capability to absorb necessary nutrients is compromised.

6. Alcohol dehydrates your body generally, including the skin – your body's largest organ. This happens every time you drink. Drinking too much is also thought to deprive the skin of vital vitamins and nutrients. Over time, drinking heavily can have other, more permanent, detrimental effects on your skin. Rosacea, a skin disorder that starts with a tendency to blush and flush easily and can eventually lead to facial disfigurement, is linked to alcohol.

7. Hungover people don't smell too good. The liver processes most of the alcohol you drink, but some of it leaves the body straight through your breath, sweat and urine and changes the natural body smells.

8.Over time, heavy drinking interferes with the neurotransmitters in the brain that are needed for good mental health. So while alcohol may help deal with stress in the short term, in the long run it can contribute to feeling of depression and anxiety and make stress harder to deal with.

9. Alcohol depresses the production of antidiuretic hormone (ADH), which helps keep you hydrated. Dehydration can lead to electrolyte imbalances (characterized by nausea, dizziness and diarrhea) and headaches.

10. As little as one alcoholic drink a day can increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a 2009 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers believe alcohol boosts risk of breast cancer by increasing estrogen levels, a known risk factor for breast cancer. Other theories: alcohol reduces the liver’s ability to clear cell-damaging toxins and depletes the body of cancer-protective antioxidants, such as folate and vitamin C.

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Truth, but what else...if one does not kill you another will kill you. I have noticed that 80% of those who suffer heart attack and kidney stones are non alcoholics.

mecussey: Truth, but what else...if one does not kill you another will kill you. I have noticed that 80% of those who suffer heart attack and kidney stones are non alcoholics.

Hmmmm....interesting.