Alcohol drinking has been part and parcel of daily life for many people in the whole world for thousands of years now. It’s no wonder that the recent lockdowns in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic has actually boosted alcohol sales by up to 20% in some areas! However, anything done in excess is not good, as the saying goes, and alcohol drinking is a very good example of this. If you drink every day alcohol, the effects could last longer and could be more dangerous than you would expect. Here are some details on what could happen to your body if you drink alcohol every day
Digestive Issues
Our stomach and gut areas have bacteria that allow us to digest our food normally. Even just a little amount of alcohol can already affect this area of our bodies. This has the immediate effect of reducing the healthy bacteria, causing an imbalance that could have damaging effects to our stomach and digestive lining. Since this is the region of the body where your immune system fights off the infection, you could get sick more often if you drink alcohol too frequently.
Watching Your Weight
By itself, alcoholic drinks are already calorie-heavy due to a large amount of sugar present. Now, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as most of the calorie intake when drinking is due to the food you pair alcohol with. There are numerous pairings for alcohol out there, such as wine pairings, beer pairings, and such. When you eat all these, the body uses the energy from the alcohol first as its fuel. This means that other food’s energy gets stored as fat in the body.
Gains and Losses
Many people who workout have the aim of gaining muscle whether it be lean or explosive muscle size. If you drink alcohol every day, you might not be able to see the results of your intense workouts. This is because drinking alcohol affects the rate in which your muscles repair themselves, which hampers their further growth after. This reduced muscle growth would mean you have to workout much more to achieve the same gains than if you did not drink alcohol every day.
Sleeping Soundly
Something as simple as having a good night’s sleep could be affected by drinking alcohol too much. This is because consistently drinking alcohol increases your heart rate, and this makes it harder for your body to relax in order for you to have a deep sleep. A common sign of this is waking up frequently during the night, unable to have a prolonged period of sleep. Another side effect would be that while alcohol makes it harder for the rest of your body to relax, your throat muscles experience the opposite. They could relax too much during your sleep, and could obstruct your breathing, leading to cases of sleep apnea and snoring.
Hear your Heart
The fat accumulating in your body due to the increased number of your calorie intake when drinking alcohol could be noticed physically after some time. However, there are other places fat could build up in which is not noticeable and is actually a lot more dangerous for you – inside the arteries around your heart. The fat buildup inside these would obstruct the blood flow and makes your risk for a heart attack or stroke increase substantially. With cardiovascular issues and disease being the number one killer each year of people all around the world, it would be wise to always keep your heart as healthy as possible.