Dr. Jim Surrell, Journal columnist

There is ongoing research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and elsewhere to determine the impact of drinking alcohol on the human body.

We all need to be aware of the significant impact alcohol has on our body and make proper decisions regarding our personal consumption of alcohol. Following is a brief summary of just some of the health impact items from alcohol, as reported by the NIH.

The consumption of alcohol can have a significant impact on multiple organ systems within our human body. Drinking too much, either on a single occasion or over time, can take a serious toll on your health.  Here’s how alcohol can affect our brain function and various critical organ systems including our heart, our liver, and our pancreas.

Brain — Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. The effect of this alcohol consumption will often also have a dramatic impact on our personal decision making process. These decisions may be made with regard to driving, interactions with family and friends, and poor decisions may well have a dramatic life-long negative impact.

Heart — Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing very significant heart problems that may include the following. Alcohol can cause cardiomyopathy, and this condition involves stretching and drooping of the heart muscle so it does not function properly. Alcohol may also cause cardiac arrhythmias that are defined as an irregular heart beat, and these irregular heart beats can lead to poor heart function. Excess consumption of alcohol can also lead to an increased risk of having a stroke, and often will also increase the risk of having high blood pressure.   

Liver — Heavy drinking of alcohol will often take a toll on the liver, and can lead to liver inflammation and a variety of chronic liver problems, including developing a fatty liver (called steatosis), alcoholic hepatitis, liver scar tissue (fibrosis), and cirrhosis. Of course, all of these potential liver problems can impact our liver function, and this can lead to potential life-threatening complications.

Pancreas — Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion. Long term alcohol use can also impact the ability of our pancreas to function normally, and this can also lead to Pre-diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes that may require oral diabetic medications and/or insulin use.

Further medical research now also tells us that drinking too much alcohol can weaken our immune system, making our body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia than people who do not drink too much. We all need to be aware that drinking a lot on a single occasion slows our body’s ability to ward off infections, and this will make us more likely to get various infections even up to 24 hours after a person has consumed alcohol to excess.

So, how does a person know if they are drinking alcohol to excess? Here is a suggestion I have often made to friends and patients when I have been asked this question. A good way for a person to determine if they have an alcohol consumption problem is to do the following. Make a personal decision, starting today, to not consume any alcohol at all for a period of 30 days.

If this makes a person become somewhat concerned about their ability to do this, they may have a true alcohol consumption problem, or even perhaps be on their way to alcoholism. We all live by choice, and one very significant choice we all need to make is to choose to only consume alcohol wisely, and periodically go without any alcohol, to prove to ourselves that we can indeed do this. If one has a personal concern about their alcohol consumption, I strongly recommend you talk to your health care provider without delay.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books. Requests for health topics for this column are encouraged. Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.