Introduction
Alcohol is legal in most countries after reaching a certain age. Some governments, however, have tried to limit alcohol use by putting in place measures like age limit, introducing sin tax for alcohol, and penalizing drunk driving.
Drinking alcohol is associated with many risks including addiction, illnesses, accidents, breaking families, and relationships. Many people refuse to admit that they have an alcohol problem and therefore fail to seek treatment. If alcohol is giving you problems, you can seek treatment from Ashwin Reddy, MD before it gets out of hand.
How Does Alcohol Cause Harm to Your Body?
Alcohol causes inflammation of the pancreas, a condition known as pancreatitis, by altering the functioning of the pancreatic enzymes. The pancreas helps with regulating blood sugar and, therefore, pancreatitis can increase the risk of high blood sugar. This occurs in chronic use of alcohol.
Alcohol also causes inflammation of the liver causing scarring in a condition called liver cirrhosis. This disrupts the essential functions of the liver like detoxification, blood sugar regulation, and production of clotting factors. Alcohol also affects the brain causing addiction, impaired judgment, decreased coordination, depression, and speech abnormality.
Alcohol increases the risk of hypertension, stroke, and other heart diseases. It also lowers the body’s immunity, increasing the risk of getting pneumonia, TB, and other diseases. Alcohol also increases the risk of obesity and death due to accidents and diseases.
People claim that alcohol helps them to reduce shyness but this comes with the risk of being uninhibited, thus engaging in risky behaviors like unprotected sex and drunk driving. Alcohol raises sex drive but also causes poor performance.
Women who drink alcohol when pregnant risk giving birth to babies with learning, emotional, and physical defects; all symptoms of suffering a condition called fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol also inhibits the antidiuretic hormone thus increasing urination and causing dehydration.
It is advisable to drink with moderation while also eating healthy and doing exercises.
How Can You Treat a Hangover?
Hangovers may be caused by inflammation and present through headaches, nausea, and appetite problems. The headaches are related to dehydration.
You can prevent hangovers by reducing the alcohol taken, avoid drinking on an empty stomach, drink slower, and drink water while drinking alcohol. Below are some tips on how to treat hangovers;
1. Drink a lot of water before sleeping and also the following day
2. Get enough sleep
3. Take painkillers for the headaches
4. Take a healthy breakfast the next morning with vegetable soup which replenishes the nutrients that were lost, also allowing the stomach to easily digest them
5. You can take antacids in case you have gastritis
6. Do not drink more alcohol to treat a hangover
7. Avoid fatty foods because they can increase nausea
8. Some people advise the intake of sugary foods
9. Wait for at least 48 hours before drinking again to allow time for recovery to take place.
Summary
Alcohol intake comes with much adverse health and social effects. It is important to seek treatment early enough before the effects cost you your family or life.