Alcohol and your health

Alcohol poisoning occurs when you drink large amounts of alcohol, usually over a short period of time. Drinking too much too quickly can slow or even shut down automatic functions such as breathing, heartbeat and gag reflex (which prevents choking). Without emergency medical treatment, alcohol poisoning can be fatal.

Drinking at heavy levels can cause a range of problems for the liver. Drinking a lot of alcohol can cause a build-up of fats in the liver. This in itself is not harmful and quickly reverses when alcohol consumption is stopped, but it is an indication of liver damage.

Alcoholic hepatitis is more serious liver damage and occurs when drinking heavily over a longer period of time causes the tissues of the liver to become inflamed. While this damage is reversible, severe alcoholic hepatitis is a life-threatening illness.

Liver cirrhosis occurs as a result of continuous damage; the liver becomes permanently scarred and stops functioning normally.

Find out more

You can find out much more about alcohol related liver disease on the British Liver Trust website, where you can also find an online screening tool to find out whether you are at risk of alcohol related liver disease and what to do about it.

Alcohol is classified as a group 1 carcinogen, meaning it can cause cancer in humans. Tobacco and asbestos are other substances in this group.

Alcohol is a recognised risk factor for cancers of the breast, liver, bowel, mouth, throat, larynx (voice box) and oesophagus (gullet).

Around a quarter of deaths caused by alcohol in Scotland are from cancer.

Regularly drinking too much can raise blood pressure over time. This in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Alcoholic drinks are high in calories. A large glass of wine and pint of lager both contain around 200 calories. Being overweight carries a number of health risks including high blood pressure and diabetes.

Short, heavy bouts of drinking as well as heavy drinking over the longer term, may result in the development of gastritis (where the lining of your stomach becomes inflamed), causing nausea, vomiting and stomach pain. Too much alcohol also makes it more difficult for the body to absorb valuable nutrients.

The pancreas produces digestive enzymes and the hormones which aid digestion and regulate blood sugar levels. Heavy drinking can result in the development of acute and chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).

Regularly drinking too much can affect fertility for both men and women. It can also be a cause of miscarriage and stillbirth. Alcohol should be avoided when pregnant or trying to conceive.

Heavy drinking has been found to be one of the biggest risk factors for developing dementia. Despite some recent claims, there is no reliable evidence that moderate drinking protects against dementia. You should not start drinking alcohol as a way of reducing dementia risk.

People with a history of drinking at very high levels may have symptoms including confusion and memory loss. This occurs as the result of the damage that alcohol does to brain tissue, and nutritional deficiencies from heavy drinking. If alcohol consumption is stopped it may, in milder cases, be reversible. More severe alcohol-related brain damage, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, may present like dementia, with people struggling with day-to-day activities.

Research shows that the earlier someone starts to drink alcohol, the higher the risk of developing alcohol dependence. This is why the Chief Medical Officer’s guidance recommends that it is best to have an alcohol-free childhood. Despite some claims, it is not a good idea to introduce children to alcohol. There is no evidence that this results in safer drinking patterns in adulthood.

Drinking regularly or heavily can also increase your risk for alcohol dependence. Over time you may build up tolerance to alcohol and have to keep drinking more to get the same effect.

You may also be at higher risk of developing a form of alcohol dependence if you regularly use alcohol to cope with events in life like stress or social situations. This can cause changes in the brain, creating neural pathways that mean you may feel the impulse or trigger to drink alcohol every time you experience a certain situation.

What people mean when they talk about ‘alcohol dependence’ can vary widely and can be potentially problematic, unclear or unhelpful.

The term ‘alcoholic’ can be particularly controversial because it can be stigmatising (or self-stigmatising) – applying a permanent label to a person that often has highly negative associations. Labels like these can change how we view a person, or how they view themselves, often not for the better. People may also end up not seeking help for fear of being labelled and stigmatised as an ‘alcoholic’.

Stereotypical views of how people with alcohol problems look or behave may stop us from identifying that our own drinking is causing us harm, or harm to the people around us . For example, even if people don’t drink every day they make still have an unhealthy or dependent relationship with alcohol.

Notwithstanding this, many people find it helpful to self-identify as ‘alcoholic’ as a way of accepting that their alcohol use has become problematic, finding peer support and connection through mutual aid groups (such as Alcoholics Anonymous) and protecting themselves against relapse.