When we talk of the effects of alcoholism, we got to divide them into physical and mental or psychological effects. Both these effects of alcohol are equally important, if one is leading to physical handicap the other is leading to a mental handicap. Effects of alcohol manifest at different times in different individuals, for example if one is affected after thirty years of alcohol abuse the other person may start getting affected only after three years. This is because every human body is different; some of us are more sensitive than others.
When analysing all the psychotic effects of alcohol we must understand at all times that the person is gravely ill, in the sense addiction of any kind is an illness in itself. The beginning of the mental illness will start with increased aggressiveness and agitation at any and all small things, which at one time did not bother the person that much. Then comes the abusive and violent part where in addition to the aggression there is violence, this is the reason many crimes are conducted under the influence of alcohol. There are other effects of alcoholism on the nervous system, depleting it of thiamine or b complex giving tingling and numbness of the extremities. Stroke is one of the extreme effects of alcoholism brought on by a combination of many different effects on the body like delayed clotting time and hypertension.
The effects of alcohol on the gastrointestinal track are manifold, beginning with gastric acidity and ending with bleeding piles. The gastric mucosa or covering gets eroded causing gastritis and ulcerations. The liver gets damaged and it cannot metabolism all the digestive material brought to it, bile production and excretion is affected. All this causes alcoholic hepatitis followed by fatty liver and finally cirrhosis or permanent scarring of liver.
When alcoholic pancreatitis begins, it manifests as severe pain in abdomen and affects the protein digestion of food. The pancrease makes enzymes essential for protein digestion, since no proteins can be digested this eventually leads to loss of muscle mass and protein energy malnutrition. This malnutrition is enhanced by the nausea and loss of appetite caused by the alcoholic hepatitis.
When all these effects are gripping the body simultaneously there are mental changes in the person, so the combined effect gives you a person with an altered appearance and sensitivity. Effects may occur singularly of as a combination, some people may have only liver involvement while others may have multi-systemic involvement. Again which organ is first to get affected will depend on the individual, each body is different and responds differently.
The heart is not spared and alcoholics have enlarged hearts with weak cardiac muscles and raised blood pressure. The lipid levels are also raised in these individuals, thus acting like a trigger for the heart disease. All this pressure on the heart can cause anything thing from angina to cardiac failure. As we can see the effects of alcoholism are many but the best part is, if detected on time the cure is simple and that is abstinence.
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