Alcohol has become one of the most available substances to anyone within the states. It’s often used for celebratory situations like weddings, parties, and even becoming the legal age to drink, 21. Although alcohol can be used in healthy ways and can be good for you in moderation, its usage is often abused. It can be used as an unhealthy coping mechanism and addiction can form very quickly, negatively affecting one’s body, mentality and relationships. Alcohol is one of the leading substances that are strongly related to death and other negative effects on your body.. This paper will focus on the threats alcohol imposes on your body, brain, and others. The study will prove that alcohol imposes a threat to people as abuse of the substance leads to damage and changes to the brain, damage to the liver, and poses a threat to others around the user.

The brain is the most important organ of the human body and it has been proven that alcohol abuse can cause changes to your brain. It’s the command center for the human nervous system. Without it, humans aren’t able to function, as everything we do on a day to day basis is controlled by messages from the brain to other locations of the body in the form of neurons. A body cannot regulate itself without a brain and even damaged, can cause some serious issues for the abuser. Characteristics, thought processes and memories are all created and stored in the brain.

What happens when there are changes made to the brain, then? Would it function the same? According to Wong, Maini, Roussett, and Brasic (2003), chronic alcohol consumption can impact the brain directly as it affects the brain cells and their functions. Autopsy studies on Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a severe brain disease resulting from a deficiency in the vitamin thiamine, shows that it is greatly related to excessive alcohol consumption. Throughout these studies, finding show that there has also been a reduction of neurons in the outer layer of the upper surface of the front of the brain particularly in patients with liver cirrhosis…Additional autopsy studies of alcoholics with Wernicke’s encephalopathy have detected reduced numbers of neurons in the cerebellum…”. Wernicke’s encephalopathy, also known as WE, is a life threatening illness caused by thiamine deficiency which primarily affects the peripheral and central nervous systems. The main symptom of this illness is its degenerative affect it has on the brain resulting in rapidly progressive dementia. Neurons act as messengers for the whole body. Through electrical impulses and chemical signals, neurons make it possible to send messages to other locations of the brain and from the brain to the rest of the body. The daily functions of a human depends on these neurons. Everything we think and feel wouldn’t be possible without them as they are responsible for sending vital information throughout the body and controlling voluntary muscle activity like speaking. The neurons are being reduced in areas such as the front lobe and the cerebellum. The frontal lobe controls voluntary movement and expressive language and the cerebellum ​coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance, coordination, and speech. These destroyed functions only aid in the progression of dementia. ​Through excessive alcohol consumptions, something as crucial as neurons are being reduced. ​When these neurons die, people lose their capacity to remember and their ability to do everyday tasks​. This becomes one of the many ways that alcohol may negatively affect your life
Alcohol abuse also imposes a threat to the health of your liver. The liver is an essential organ that has many functions in the body. Its main job is to filter the blood before distributing it to the rest of the body. When you drink alcohol, the liver processes it and a small percentage of the alcohol leaves the body through urine or sweat. The liver can become susceptible to alcohol related illness as it processes alcohol in large amounts. According to Shan (2010), ALD or alcohol liver damage is classified into 3 stages. The first stage that results in a fatty liver, also known as steatosis, can be the result of a heavy alcohol intake for as little as a few days. The excessive alcohol intake causes fat to build up in the liver and causes inflammation, hindering the liver from carrying out its important functions. Although fat begins to build up in the liver, the condition is still reversible. The second stage is very similar to the first with a new criteria of instead of a short period of drinking, it’s caused by a longer period of high alcohol intake. This leads to the condition of alcoholic hepatitis, which sometimes may have mild symptoms but can still be life threatening. Symptoms include vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, etc. This stage is also reversible but if the user fails to change their habits it will ultimately lead to the final stage, cirrhosis.
One of the most interesting things about the liver is its ability “…of natural regeneration of lost tissue–as little as 25 percent of remaining liver can regenerate into a whole liver again”, (Shan, 2010). A downfall of this ability is that it will ultimately lead to scarring of the organ’s tissue as it continues to heal and regenerate itself. As the liver becomes damaged from things like excessive alcohol consumption, it repairs itself, leading to more scarring. A scarred liver is referred to as cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is simply liver damage by excess scarring from a variety of illnesses imposed on the liver caused by things such as alcohol substance abuse and happens to be a common case in the US. Cirrhosis happens to be a lifelong illness. It is irreversible and patients usually develop jaundice (yellowing of the skin), abdominal swelling and may even lead to death. According to Szabo and Mandrekar, “Alcoholic liver disease (ALD)–and particularly cirrhosis–has long been one of the most prevalent and devastating conditions caused by alcohol consumption and is one of the leading causes of alcohol-related ​death​. ​Liver cirrhosis​ is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States.”. Here it shows that cirrhosis is an illness that has yet to be cured. It’s an extremely common case and it’s devastating that once it’s developed, it isn’t curable. That patient will unfortunately have to live with the illness for the rest of their life. When the liver reaches a point of excessive scarring it may stop functioning as there aren’t enough healthy liver cells to maintain its functions. This is defined as liver failure. The liver cannot handle excess alcohol intake. Too much alcohol causes the liver to develop illnesses that will eventually become irreversible. As the liver suffers from too many scars it will cease to be a functioning organ, diminishing the patients quality of life. This is one of the ways that alcohol negatively affects the body.

Alcohol not only poses a threat to the users body, but others around the users. An example of this is through pregnancy. When someone is pregnant, what they do reflects on their unborn child. Things such as excess stress, or even injury to the body will affect the baby. This also pertains to alcohol intake while pregnant. Mothers are strictly told to veer away from alcohol as it will have many negative effects on the baby. According to a study by ​Lekettey​, Dako-Gyeke​, ​Agyemang​, and ​Aikins​ (2017), “The consumption of alcohol during ​pregnancy​ is recognized as harmful and a global health problem. This practice is known to predispose the unborn child to premature ​delivery​, low birth weight and ​fetal alcohol syndrome​”. Studies show that drinking alcohol while pregnant creates an impending danger for the child.
As explained, alcohol consumption while pregnant can result in a variety of defects. Many children die before they are born because of their mothers alcohol consumption and its common for the child to have a premature birth, imposing more of a risk on them. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition in a child that causes brain damage and growth issues. Each case varies from child to child and these defects are irreversible so unfortunately, many babies die young or will have to live with the birth defects for the rest of their lives. In the same study by ​Lekettey​, Dako-Gyeke​, ​Agyemang​, and ​Aikins​ (2017), their cross sectional data was analyzed. They found that in their sample of 250 pregnant women, 68.4 percent were unmarried and 60.4 percent were petty workers. Approximately over half of them revealed that they were women who consumed alcohol during their pregnancy. They often practiced this habit when out with friends and majority of the sample knew the risk of prenatal alcohol consumption. These risk inludes spontaneous abortions, still births, low birth weight, and mental disablity. The studies show that a great majority of the pregnant women knew the risks that were being taken while drinking when pregnant. It may be that they don’t care but it can also stem from another deeply rooted issue. Some women actually aren’t completely educated on the effects of drinking while pregnant will have on their child. That’s just one way alcohol can ruin others peoples lives around the abuser.

Alcohol abuse can result in a broad horizon of incidents towards other people. Keep in mind that abuse can also be defined as improper use or carelessly using it and taking action without thinking about the possible repercussions. For example, a really common case within the United States is accidents caused by drunk drivers. Most of these accidents can cause fatalities for pedestrians, drivers and passengers because the drivers aren’t cognizant of the mistakes they make on the road further risking a slew of unexpecting lives. According to Alonso, Pastor, Montoro, and Esteban (2015)“…​traffic accidents​ are one of the main causes of ​mortality​ in people between 15 and 29 years old, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) is a major risk factor in most crashes [1,2]. In the year 2001 in Spain, 40,174 people were treated in public hospitals for traffic ​injuries​. Some 28% of these injuries were serious or very serious and drinking​ was involved in a high percentage of cases. According to the Spanish Directorate General of Traffic (DGT), alcohol is involved in 30-50% of fatal accidents and in 15 to 35% of crashes causing serious injury, constituting a major risk factor in traffic accidents. This problem is especially important among young people and worsens on weekend nights​”. ​This furthers the idea on how abuse of alcohol can destroy the lives of other unexpecting people. As stated earlier, drinking causes the brain to function differently. While under the influences of alcohol, things such as reflexes, motion and a clear thought process are all impaired. It’s very easy to think you’re fine driving while drunk, but it’s actually the alcohol causing these poor judgements. A “quick and simple” car ride is all it takes to kill someone on the road while driving under the influence and those who drink should take proper precaution before taking action on the road. Especially with the lack of reflexes it’s very easy to be in a situation where an accident may happen, but because of slower reflexes it causes the person to not properly react in time leading to an injury.

In conclusion, alcohol imposes a threat to people as abuse of the substance leads to damage and changes to the brain, damage to the liver, and poses a threat to others around the user. As shown, the effects of alcohol abuse are detrimental to one’s life, leaving livers in a crutch and altering certain systems within the brain. Alcohol abuse can also be the driving force of birth defects and deaths when used irresponsibly. It is a burden on relationships, from friends, family and spouses and can create turmoil within them. It has long lasting effects on your body as it can eventually lead to liver failure then to death. Alcohol is heavily associated with dementia and other brain related illnesses. Its heavy usage is destroying neurons and are causing these illnesses. Anyone is susceptible to addiction which can start the process of the long lasting deterioration of your body and its functions. With proper moderation and breaks between sessions where you’re drinking, you can prevent one’s body and others around the user from devastating events and promote a safer environment for everyone.