Effects of Alchoholism

Essay by jacob42369High School, 11th gradeA+, December 2004

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SKIN

Alcohol dilates (enlarges) the blood vessels, producing a warm flush and decreases the body temperature. This is why it is pointless to take alcohol to keep warm in cold weather. If it is vital to conserve body heat, it could be dangerous, if not life threatening, to drink alcohol.

NERVOUS SYSTEM

The drinking of too much alcohol or the sustained use of alcohol will give a "pins and needles" tingling sensation in the feet and hands. The nerve in the back of the legs will also be damaged with constant use of alcohol and this will lead to the person walking stiffly, like a robot.

BLOOD

Excessive use of alcohol will also lead to a wide variety of problems with the blood. One of the main problems, under this heading, is the loss of blood one suffers after a fight, which is always something we as Aboriginals can be sure of, especially after we've had a few too many drinks.

All jokes aside though, the blood is the stuff that carries the alcohol around the inside of the body and gets the alcohol up to the brain, into the liver and all sorts of places where it is going to do real harm like for instance that one muscle which we make work overtime, the heart.

HEART

If you are a heavy drinker it is almost certain that you will suffer a heart attack of some description. Now for some big medical words. Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy which means that the muscles of the heart are failing due to the excessive use of alcohol. It may be so severe that it causes death from the heart being over-stressed and failing to work. Even if we only have four beers a day, the stress we put onto the heart is as bad...