Heavy alcohol drinking/Consumption and several types of cancer. In its Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services lists consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen. Alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for certain head and neck cancers, particularly cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx. Moreover, the risks of these cancers are substantially higher among persons who consume this amount of alcohol and also use tobacco.
Heavy Drinking is a major risk factor for a particular type of esophageal cancer called esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, people who inherit a deficiency in an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol have been found to have substantially increased risks of alcohol-related esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Heavy drinking and binge drinking can cause heart disease or stroke. It can raise the levels of fats in the blood, lead to high blood pressure, and stroke. It can also cause cardiomyopathy, and heart-rhythm abnormalities atrial and ventricular fibrillation. Alcohol consumption is an independent risk factor for, and a primary cause of, liver cancer.
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Heavy alcohol causes inflammation of the liver, and chronic drinking can cause scarring of liver tissue that leads to cirrhosis, a potentially fatal condition where the liver is so scarred it can no longer function. The risk increases the longer you have been drinking. Not all heavy drinkers will develop cirrhosis, though it seems to run in families, and women get it more often than men.
consumption of alcohol is associated with a modestly increased risk of cancers of the colon and rectum. A meta-analysis of 57 cohort and case-control studiesthat examined the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer risk showed that people who regularly drank 50 or more grams of alcohol per day. You may know about the dangers of blood clots and high levels of fats and cholesterol in your body. Alcohol makes both things more likely. Studies of heavy drinkers also show that they are more likely to have trouble pumping blood to their heart and may have a higher chance of dying from heart disease.
Heavy drinking can lead to a form of epilepsy called status epilepticus, or an acute, prolonged epileptic seizure, which is a life-threatening condition. Excessive alcohol use can also trigger epilepsy in some people who did not have the condition before they started drinking.
Drinking too much of alcohol can weaken your immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink too much.
