The 5 organs alcohol damages the most

See , we think that a drink here and there isn't that big of a deal , but think again , because today we are revealing the five organs that alcohol damages the most , and the facts will shock you . Your liver is not the only organ taking a hit . There are so many others at major risk .

If you are worried about your drinking or you're worried about the damage it's doing to your body , you need to watch this video . This could be the wake-up call that you seriously need . So if you're ready for the truth , let's dive into it . So first a quick introduction .

My name is Leon Sylvester , I'm the founder of SoberClearcom , and we use a totally new method to help business owners and professionals get control of their drinking , and the method works quickly in as little as 48 hours . See , I drank alcohol for close to a decade .

I've tried stopping hundreds of times , using AA , willpower , churches , whatever , but for the past 6 years I've not touched a drop of alcohol and , more importantly , I have no desire to drink . So first let's look at the brain . So alcohol damages your brain in more ways than we can possibly cover in a short video like this .

So we're going to dive into the most important areas , first , starting with the easiest to understand , which is that , over the years , heavy alcohol consumption literally eats away at your brain and shrinks it . See , alcohol is a neurotoxin and with heavy consumption it can kill off vast numbers of brain cells .

By the time that they die , brains of heavy drinkers can be up to an ounce lighter on average compared to non-drinkers .

Now , whilst the shrinkage affects the entire brain , certain parts are especially susceptible , like , for example , the frontal cortex , which underpins some of the cognitive traits that we most value in humans , things like goal-directed behaviours , good judgement and problem-solving .

In short , our ability to think ahead , plan and dynamically adjust our course of action depending on the feedback that we receive .

See , when you consider the damage to the frontal cortex from all the years of drinking , it's not really a mystery why so many drinkers find it difficult to stop their ability to objectively take stock of their condition , evaluate alternative courses of action and plan accordingly , becomes heavily compromised .

They are essentially drinking themselves into a hole , as it were , one from which becomes even harder to climb out of . But it's not just frontal lobe faculties . More or less all cognitive abilities of drinkers are compromised Memory , attention , concentration , language , social and motor skills , coordination you name it .

More or less any neuropsychological or cognitive evaluation chronic drinkers are given , they will generally perform worse than non-drinkers . Now , aside from shrinking the brain , alcohol also wrecks havoc on the molecules that our brain cells use to communicate , the so-called neurotransmitters .

See , alcohol is actually in a complete league of its own when it comes to how many different neurotransmitter systems it interferes with . It artificially boosts the activity of some and suppresses that of others . Very few other drugs , be they legal or street drugs , even come close in terms of how widespread their effects are on our neurotransmitters .

A nice example is alcohol's impact on two related neurotransmitters called GABA and glutamate . Gaba molecules are generally used to send calming signals between brain cells . They suppress brain activity . Glutamate , on the other hand , is an excitory neurotransmitter . It increases brain activity . Alcohol artificially suppresses the activity of glutamate and boosts that of GABA .

In sufficient doses , the result is a general state of calmness and sedation , at least temporarily . The problems really start to show when you try to quit . After years of training , the drinker's brain has come to expect the steady influx of alcohol . As a result , it decreases its natural baseline level , gaba activity , and increases that of glutamate .

This kind of sort of works at a steep price , of course , until the day the drinker quits for good . At that point , there is no more booze in the system to cover up those neural changes , meaning that your brain produces the exact opposite effect of alcohol intoxication Instead of sedation and calm , you get sleeplessness , irritability , mood swings and anxiety .

In really heavy drinkers , the glutamate dysregulation can be so severe that it can lead to seizures , delirium and death . The good news is that soon after you stop drinking alcohol , the brain does start to recover .

Only a month after your last drink , it will have greatly increased in volume and it will continue to rebound over the next few years and months ahead until it gradually approaches the volume of a non-drinker . Alongside the volume rebound , many of your previously compromised cognitive functions will also start to improve .

But there is a catch the recovery will always be conditional on you not drinking again . Even a relatively brief relapse will wipe out all your volume gains , shrinking your brain back to its previous shriveled . Scientists still don't understand how the brain remains so vulnerable to alcohol , even after many years have passed from the last drink .

Now let's look at the heart . So , despite what your favorite newspaper or evening news might be advertising , red wine is not good for your heart . See , red wine is toxic to your heart , like all other booze . In the medical literature , alcohol is referred to as cardiotoxic , in other words , something with a toxic effect on the heart .

This toxicity is generally separated into acute and chronic , which is another way of saying short and long term . One of the acute effects that are easiest to measure is increased blood pressure or hypertension . Three to four drinks a day raise the risk of hypertension by 70% and seven drinks by 150% .

And though it has no symptoms , hypertension is not to be taken lightly . On the contrary , it is the leading risk factor for increased mortality or your probability of dying . As a matter of fact , the single best thing that you can do to live longer is lower your blood pressure .

No other health intervention can increase your life expectancy as much as this , and if you're not measuring your blood pressure regularly , I would advise you doing so now , especially if you're still drinking Now . The second common acute cardiotoxic effect of alcohol is cardiac arrhythmia , an irregular heartbeat .

In the late 1970s , an astute doctor coined the term holiday heart to describe this . It's a sudden onset irregular heartbeat in otherwise healthy people which was the result of binge drinking , and this typically happened around the Christmas and New Year period , hence holiday heart .

Now , assuming the person stopped drinking , the arrhythmia would usually disappear just as quickly . If they kept on drinking , however , the arrhythmia would become chronic , with potentially deadly results . Over time , drinking leads to structural changes in the heart muscle itself , so-called alcoholic cardiomyopathy .

Its muscles weaken and the heart literally stretches out of shape , leaving it unable to effectively pump blood through the body . This happens because alcohol interferes with several cellular functions of the heart tissues , including the regulation of calcium levels and various proteins .

Symptoms of cardiomyopathy include weakness , shortness of breath , palpitation , swelling of the extremities , chest pain and , eventually , death from heart failure or cardiac arrest . On average , it takes about 15 years of heavy drinking to develop this condition , though this can sometimes be as little as 5 .

Depending on how advanced it is , complete abstinence may or may not lead to a partial recovery . So much for being good for our heart . What nonsense . Now , thirdly , let's look at the liver . So the liver is one of the most remarkable of our organs and , at the same time , the least appreciated .

We understand that the role of the heart is to pump blood , the lungs are there to deliver oxygen to our bloodstream , and so on . But what does your liver do , ask a man on the street , and he probably doesn't have a clue . Well , it turns out that the liver is the most versatile of our solid organs , with over 500 different functions .

Some of these include metabolising and storing nutrients , regulating blood glucose and cholesterol , as well as synthesising proteins . But perhaps its most well-known function is to detoxify our body from foreign substances that should not be there , like alcohol . It's the liver's job to break them down and prepare them for expulsion .

The problem is that when ethanol is transported to the liver for breakdown , it's first metabolised into an even more toxic substance , acetaldehyde . This is a highly reactive molecule , meaning that it likes to interact with everything that it finds inside the liver Cell membranes , proteins , dna and so on .

See , acetaldehyde is the reason that the liver is the organ to suffer the most from drinking , and it's why liver disease is a leading cause of death amongst drinkers . The first stage of alcohol-related liver disease is so-called fatty liver . This is when the liver becomes enlarged due to an accumulation of fat . Fatty liver is nearly universal among drinkers .

Scientists believe that it develops in part due to alcohol interfering with several genes that regulate the production and breakdown of fat . The good news is that fatty liver is generally reversible if you stop drinking . The next stage of liver disease , however , alcoholic hepatitis , is not always reversible .

Here the liver is not only fat but also becomes inflamed and scarred , largely from the action of acetaldehyde . The giveaway for hepatitis is jaundice , the characteristic yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes . Other symptoms include loss of appetite , weakness , nausea , vomiting and abdominal pain .

Though symptoms can be severe , hepatitis can still be reversed if the person stops drinking at least partially . The final stage is cirrhosis , where most of the healthy liver is replaced by scar tissue . This is irreversible , end-stage liver disease that comes about after many years of heavy drinking , typically 10-20 years .

Symptoms are the same as hepatitis , also including weight loss , swelling in the ankles and feet , as well as muscular atrophy . An especially dangerous complication of alcoholic cirrhosis is the buildup of fluids in the belly , so-called ascites . The appearance of ascites signals the transition to very advanced cirrhosis and complications from them are often fatal .

Life at that point is more or less unlivable . The person has to go to hospital regularly to have the ascites mechanically drained , all while dealing with all of the other complications of cirrhosis . There is no effective treatment for cirrhosis . Even with complete abstinence , life expecting tea can be very short , especially with acides present .

Now , fourth , let's look at how it damages the pancreas . See , the pancreas has two major functions it produces enzymes that regulate your digestion , as well as hormones that regulate your levels of blood sugar . And , though it doesn't directly metabolise alcohol like the liver , it's one of the organs most heavily affected by chronic drinking .

See , the damage happens via various biochemical routes , several of which involve acetaldehyde . The hallmark disease is pancreatitis , an inflammation of the pancreas . About 70% of pancreatitis cases can be attributed to alcohol and the remaining to other causes . See . Alcoholic pancreatitis typically starts as an acute single episode or series of episodes .

Most often this is in males in their 30s . The telltale sign is severe abdominal pain , and I do mean severe . Lab tests and scans will then go on to show increased levels of pancreatic enzymes in the blood , as well as visible damage to the pancreas in imaging . If the person stops drinking , there is a possibility that the condition will resolve .

Now this was famously the case with Friends star Matthew Perry , who , to the best of our knowledge , had a one-off bout with the disease in the year 2000s before going sober shortly after . If the person continues drinking , however , the pancreatitis can progress to a chronic , irreversible form . Here , just like with the liver , irreversible scar tissue begins to form .

This gradually replaces the healthy tissue , to the point that the pancreas becomes non-functional . According to one estimate , you typically need a minimum of 6-12 years of heavy drinking exceeding 80g of ethanol daily , which is around 6 drinks a day . Patients with chronic pancreatitis have a much reduced life expectancy .

Now that alcohol is toxic to the pancreas is not in dispute . The mystery for scientists is why only a minority of heavy drinkers maybe around 10% will go on to develop full blown pancreatitis .

Another mystery is that the autopsies of many deceased people who suffered with AUD show pancreas damage consistent with pancreatitis , even if the person never complained of any symptoms whilst alive .

Researchers now believe that there exist certain co-factors that increase the drinker's susceptibility to this disease , and some of these include smoking , obesity , as well as unidentified genetic factors . Smoking in particular is so damaging that it can cause pancreatitis on its own , even in non-drinkers .

And another thing to consider is that for people who are genetically prone to pancreatitis , even relatively minor amounts of alcohol can be enough to trigger the disease . And given our current state of technology , we have no way of identifying these people until after they have become sick .

Depending on how advanced the disease is , stopping drinking may or may not help reverse it or even alleviate the symptoms . So the takeaway from all of this is A if you're drinking , you're pretty much playing with fire . B once you get pancreatitis , especially the chronic version , all bets are off .

There is no guarantee that stopping drinking will heal your pancreas or even relieve the symptoms , which would leave you with a painful and dramatically shortened life . And finally , let's look at the reproductive organs . And I have saved one of the least recognised but potentially most devastating effects of alcohol .

The last See the damage that this poison inflicts on the fertility of both men and women . Now , a recent review in the famous scientific journal Nature pulled data from 19 independent studies . Combined , these involved a whopping 98,000 women . These studies had all examined the effects of drinking on a woman's probability of achieving pregnancy during a menstrual cycle .

Compared to non-drinkers , light drinkers showed an 11% decrease in getting pregnant . For heavy drinkers , the decline was 23% . This decrease in fertility takes place through various mechanisms , including hormonal imbalances and irregular menstrual cycles . In some women , periods can cease altogether .

The so-called ovarian reserve , which refers to the quantity and quality of a woman's remaining eggs , is also compromised . Studies that look at the outcomes for couples who attend IVF clinics find that women who consume more than four drinks a week have a 16% lower chance of producing a live birth compared to non-drinkers

. And things are equally bad , if not worse , for men . Chronic drinking lowers the levels of several hormones necessary for the proper development of sperm cells . These include testosterone , the luteinizing hormone and the follicle stimulating hormone .

Alcohol also directly attacks the testicles , with autopsy studies finding a statistically significant weight difference between the testicles of heavy drinkers and non-drinkers . So booze can end up shrinking your testicles in a similar manner to your brain . The effects of alcohol on sperm are dose and time dependent .

The longer and harder you drink , the lower your parameters slide . First and foremost is a reduction in total semen volume . Then there are parameters which describe both the quantity of your sperm cells as well as their quality , in other words , the percentage that are properly formed .

Common sperm cell defects caused by alcohol include breakage of the head , swelling of the midsection and curling of the tail . An equally important parameter , and one that is often the first to be affected , is motility , in other words , the percentage of sperm cells that actively move forward . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear .

If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly , then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom .