If you are a heavy drinker and consume excess alcohol, you may face severe consequences related to short-term and long-term health. Alcohol has several negative impacts and affects on your heart. Although occasional drinking does not cause much harm, excess drinking may lead to many heart complications. There are chances of the development of cardiovascular diseases in an alcoholic person.
Alcohol affects the heart in several ways. Binge drinkers are more prone to face these complications. A person who drinks alcohol regularly, drinks very fast and drinks much more than the recommended consumption limit during a single session is called a binge drinker.

Here the ways in which alcohol affects your heart:

Alcohol weakens the heart muscles: Heavy drinking for a long span of time tends to weaken the heart muscles. A condition known alcoholic cardiomyopathy may be caused. When the heart gets weakened, proper contraction gets disrupted and the heart is unable to pump sufficient amount of blood. Due to this, a person may experience certain symptoms such as tiredness, irregular heart rhythm, shortness of breath and swelling of the feet and legs. This can also lead to a heart failure.
Alcohol affects your heart beat rate: Binge drinking and regular drinking over a long period of time may affect the rate of the heart beat or how quickly the heart beats. Alcohol may cause the heart to beat too fast, and irregular beating is observed. This is a condition known as arrhythmias, which may have grave consequences on your health. If you are not a regular drinker but drink too much in a day, you could face this condition.
Alcohol can lead to high blood pressure and also cause a stroke: Binge drinking leads to increased blood pressure, also known as hypertension. The blood vessels become stiff, and this causes the pressure to rise in the arteries and veins. Heavy consumption of alcohol may also trigger several stress hormones to be released, which cause a constriction in the blood vessels. This leads to increased blood pressure. Hypertension may lead to a heart attack or stroke.
In order to reduce the negative impacts of alcohol on your heart and overall health, you must practice drinking in moderation. You must not drink more than fourteen units of alcohol in a single week. Consume these fourteen units in three to four parts instead of consuming it all at once. You should give gaps and avoid regular drinking.

Alcohol - How It Affects Your Health?

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is the name given to the symptoms seen in you if you consume heavy doses of alcohol frequently and then suddenly quit or reduce your alcohol intake considerably. These symptoms may surface anytime between six hours to a few days after you last drank.

Common symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome:

Hallucinations
Fever
Nausea
Tremors
Anxiety
Vomiting
Immense sweating
Insomnia
High blood pressure
Sweating

All these symptoms may worsen over a few days and may even last till a few weeks.

What is the root cause?

Alcohol arouses your nervous system. In case you are a heavy drinker, your body gradually gets dependent on alcohol, and cannot adapt too easily to the lack of alcohol after you have abruptly quit. This is the root cause of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS).

Who is at risk?

You are at the maximum risk of AWS if you are an alcohol addict, or you cannot gradually cut down on its intake.

How do doctors diagnose AWS?

Usually, doctors will search for a few symptoms in you, like irregular heart rate, dehydration, fever, and tremors or minor fits. A toxicology screen also helps your doctor finding out the levels of alcohol in your body.

How is AWS treated?

Treatment depends on the severity of the symptoms. Usually are:

1. Home Care-

Mild symptoms of AWS can be treated at your home. You need to go for your regular routine checkups and tests. You may also have to go to rehabilitation programs for recovering alcoholics.

2. Hospitalization-

If your symptoms are more severe, you may have to be treated in a hospital, where you will be monitored and kept on a fluid diet to help prevent dehydration.

3. Medications

You can also be treated with sedatives.

Do you recover fully?

Usually, chances are that you will fully recover from AWS. If you quit drinking, take your medicines on time, and lead a healthy life thereafter. However, sleep disturbances and fatigue may persist. But, if you have severe symptoms of AWS, you should seek medical care as soon as possible to prevent any further fatal complications.

All you need to know about Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS)

Have you ever noticed bar and clubs promoting energy drinks? You may have also bought energy drinks and alcohol, and tried mixing them. But what you don't probably know is consuming energy drinks with alcohol can be much riskier than drinking only alcohol. Since, very few people drink alcohol neat, a small shot of alcohol is usually mixed with juices, colas or more recently energy drinks to make a cocktail. While it is well-known fact that the sugar in these mixers is responsible for increasing the effect of alcohol on the body and weight gain associated with drinking, when energy drinks are mixed with alcohol, it can have an even more lethal effect on our bodies.

Studies show that this mix causes the brain to react in a similar way to how it behaves when in contact with cocaine. It can also cause permanent brain damage. This is because it stimulates the release of a protein cell known as FosB. This protein has the ability to permanently change the chemical connections inside the brain.

Some of the short-term effects of combining alcohol with energy drinks are:

Digestive troubles
Nausea
Loss of appetite
Depression
Hallucinations
Erratic sleep patterns
Violent behavior
Many of these effects can be a result of alcohol consumption as well and hence, it may not be attributed to the energy drinks being used as mixers. Regular consumption of such cocktails can increase your body s tolerance of this combination and make a person drink more. This can lead to long-term effects such as:

Malnutrition
Respiratory problems
Tooth decay and abcesses
Psychosis
Liver damage
Kidney troubles
Heart palpitations
Consuming alcohol tends to make a person feel sleepy and tired. However, when this alcohol is mixed with energy drinks, the caffeine in the energy drinks keep the person feeling energized and masks the effect of alcohol. This leads to a condition known as being  wide-awake drunk . In such a situation, the person begins to underestimate how much alcohol he or she is consuming. This creates a false sense of security and hampers with their judgement, balance and coordination. It also increases the risk of behaving erratically and getting into dangerous situations.

In addition to caffeine, energy drinks also have a high sugar content. A small can of energy drink can contain up to 30 grams of sugar. This is equivalent to about half the ideal amount of sugar one should consume in a day. The effect of consuming so much sugar is a fluctuation in blood sugar levels. If this fluctuation persists for a long time, it could lead to conditions such as diabetes and insulin resistance. Thus, along with understanding the ill effects of alcohol, it is also necessary to keep the effects of mixers in mind while concocting cocktails for your next weekend bash. 

Alcohol With Energy Drinks - Why It Should Never Be Mixed?

Alchol can it affect your intimacy level with your partner, yes! But with this you might be wondering how can that be possible when you actually sustain yourself for long, maybe longer than you should be. It is probably the  whiskey penis . Alcohol may give you a sense of elation at one point of time, but it is essentially a nervous depressant. The over consumption of alcohol mainly has a reduced effect on sensitivity for both men and women.

How alcohol affects sex life in men: The effect of alcohol on the sex life of men is immense. In most cases, chronic and acute cases of alcohol consumption have shown to reduce the production of testosterone in men. Since testosterone is the hormone that results in the increase in libido in men, the effects of alcohol really reduce the performance in men. It has shown to reduce pleasurability and it can also reduce the intensity of orgasms. Sometimes, it can cause difficulty in ejaculation or delayed ejaculation.

How alcohol affects sex life in women: Alcohol can have a very mixed effect on women in general. While it can increase sexual arousal and desire, it can also result in low sensitivity. Women have a higher percentage of fat as compared to water in their bodies, this means that alcohol has a more profound effect on their bodies as compared to that in men. Their bodies also take longer to process and eliminate the alcohol. While some women report a heightened sense of sexual arousal and an increase in the duration of the orgasm, a large number of women also complain of lesser lubrication.

Alcohol also has a psychological effect; that is the loss of inhibition that may help in developing carnal instincts when intoxicated. This psychological effect may have a more profound effect than the physiological effects as a result of which women might claim that alcohol does indeed help in better sex.

Alcohol - How it Affects Your Sex Life?

Ayurveda is a renowned life science that has been credited with changing lives since ancient times. Not only can it prevent diseases and ailments, but it can also cure them with its combination of herbal medication, everyday routine and yogic poses. Weight management is a field that also enjoys various Ayurvedic remedies. Some of them are as follows.

Herbs: Herbs are a way of healing used by Ayurveda, and the use of various herbs can help in hastening the metabolism for healthy weight management.

Taste: Ayurveda recognizes six distinct tastes that should be incorporated into one's daily diet. These tastes include salty, pungent, sour, sweet, bitter and finally, astringent. Each of these tastes has several properties that balance the various hormones and health factors in one's body. These tastes form the various counterpoints to alleviate all kinds of health problems, which finally help in effective weight management. Also, one must eat all the seasonal fruits and vegetables to keep the body and hormones in good balance.
 
Exercise: While a daily routine of exercise is a must in any life science, Ayurveda too propagates the devotion of at least 45 minutes to one hour towards some form of exercise. Walking is said to be the most important and effective forms of exercise, followed by several yoga poses that can help in better weight management. Also, as per Ayurveda, it is important to move after each and every meal, so that a routine of eating and activity is built into the system. 

Sleep: Ayurveda recognizes sleep or rest as one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle. While good eating habits and exercise form one side of it, sleep or rest completes the triangle. One can also practice the Savasana or resting pose for a period of rest. And at least six to seven hours of sleep is a must as per Ayurveda.

Meditation: This practice helps in focusing on awareness which can instil the desired function like weight management in the body. Being mindful of what your body needs can also help in eating and exercising right.

Weight management is a lifelong process in Ayurveda.

Weight Management and Ayurveda

Effects of Alcohol on Mental Health

Alcohol consumption is a common tool which is generally used by people in order to relax, calm down or temporarily change the way they think. People often use it also to hide their depression or anxiety or other such mental conditions. Alcohol can temporarily boost your mood, but along with that, it can also give you long term mental problems. Some of the common effects of alcohol on your mental state are enlisted below.

Has an impact on your brain chemistry - The human brain functions on the basis of the balance of various kinds of chemicals excreted by the brain. Alcohol, if consumed in large amounts frequently can turn out to be a depressant and can change the signals that your brain transmits, hence causing undesirable mental effects like anxiousness, depression or aggressiveness.

Anxiety and stress - People usually tend to take a drink after a hectic day so that they can relax and calm down their minds. But if you are frequently becoming dependent on alcohol to relax your mind, then it can be extremely dangerous. This happens because alcohol tends to interfere with the neurotransmitters in your brain exposing you to developing anxiety and stress.

Depression - If you are resorting to regular and frequent drinking, then you are also lowering the level of serotonin inside your body. Serotonin is a chemical in your brain that helps to regulate your mood and kill depression-related thoughts and feelings. This depression can also affect your relationships in an adverse manner.

Memory damage - Alcohol can also affect your memory in more ways than you can imagine. Alcohol consumption generally leads to your brain not recording information on a regular basis. This is the reason why people tend to forget whatever they say or do once they are under the influence of a heavy alcohol dosage.



Effects of Alcohol on Mental Health

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