We all get it – drinking too much is bad, very bad, for you. But just getting tired of the NYT preachyness on this…
Dry January has come and gone, but Americans’ relationship with drinking is undergoing a more lasting change. According to one recent poll, just 54 percent of U.S. adults said they consume alcohol, the smallest percentage in nearly 90 years of data collection. That may be because more people are taking alcohol’s negative health consequences seriously.
Drinking alcohol can have profound effects on the brain and body. In the moment, some of those effects can be pleasurable. But in the long term, especially when it’s consumed in large quantities, alcohol can cause serious health harms.
on the one hand –
Alcohol has a rapid effect in the brain, causing people to feel more relaxed and sociable.
on the other hand –
Over the long term, alcohol use is associated with changes in brain structure. Some studies have found that middle-aged and older adults who average even one drink a day tend to have slightly less brain volume than people who don’t drink. And the more alcohol someone consumes, the more the brain shrinks. Experts don’t know exactly why that is, but one theory is that alcohol alters the brain’s immune system, ramping up inflammation, which can damage neurons.
And of course there’s much more – just hit the link above, or right here –
Drinking alcohol increases the risk of four types of cancer in the mouth and upper digestive tract: oral, pharyngeal (throat), laryngeal (voice box) and esophageal. The mouth, throat and esophagus are particularly vulnerable since those tissues have some of the greatest exposure to acetaldehyde. According to one analysis, the risk of mouth and throat cancers increases by 13 percent and the risk of esophageal cancer by 26 percent with just one drink per day. For people who have five or more drinks a day, the risk of all three cancers is roughly four times higher.
Leave a Reply to Maria Cancel reply