Immediate effects on your brain include slowed mental and physical reactions, reduced ability to think and reason, and impaired memory. Longer-term, alcohol can increase your risk of dementia and lead to alcohol-related brain damage.
Alcohol can cause gastritis (inflammation) and lead to pain and uncomfortable reflux. Alcohol can also impact the sensitive inner membrane that lines the oral cavity and oesophagus. This increases the risk of bowel and other cancers.
Your liver processes the alcohol you consume – and over time, this can harm liver health. Alcohol can lead to alcohol-related fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, liver inflammation (hepatitis), and liver cancer.
Alcohol causes your kidneys to work harder. It can affect their ability to regulate fluid and electrolytes in the body, making them less able to filter your blood.
Alcohol use increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Longer-term, alcohol can cause abnormalities in heart rhythm, increase your blood pressure, weaken your heart muscle, and lead to heart attack and stroke.
Alcohol increases your risk of injury and other short-term harms. It impairs balance and coordination and slows your reflexes, which can lead to accidents or injury.
Higher-risk drinking can also result in nausea and vomiting, memory loss, difficulty breathing, alcohol poisoning, loss of consciousness, coma, or death. It can result in hangovers, poor mood, and increased anxiety.
Alcohol also adds to energy intake as it is full of empty calories, making it more difficult to avoid weight gain.
Alcohol can also negatively affect the quality of your sleep. Alcohol, even in small quantities, disrupts your body’s capacity to enter deep, restorative sleep.
If you wake up in the night after drinking, it’s because alcohol increases the production of epinephrine, a stress hormone that increases heart rate and stimulates the body. Alcohol is also a diuretic, which means you may need to wake up in the night to visit the bathroom.
Drinking alcohol in the four hours before sleep can lead to less rapid eye movement sleep early in the night and less deep sleep later in the night. You may experience frequent waking, night sweats, nightmares and headaches.
Alcohol use is associated with more than 200 diseases, injuries and other health conditions – with alcohol directly linked to cancers in at least seven sites of the body, including the mouth, liver, bowel and breast.
No amount of alcohol is entirely without risk and low levels of drinking can cause harm. A person’s existing health status, ongoing health conditions, age, sex and other characteristics can factor into their individual level of risk.
Many alcohol-related harms that occur in the community are associated with binge drinking and/or long-term, high-risk drinking.
Alcohol can weaken our immune system over the long term. This can result in more intense illness, longer-lasting symptoms and the body requiring more energy to fight off illnesses, infections and diseases.
Alcohol impacts the body’s general immunity to disease-causing viruses and bacteria, and its ability to recognise and prevent prior infections, like chickenpox. Alcohol can also impact levels of ‘good’ bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.
Drinking alcohol can disturb the endocrine system – the network of glands and organs that produce hormones. Hormonal changes caused by alcohol consumption can interfere with many bodily functions, including metabolism, maintaining blood sugar and bone density levels, and reproduction.
Higher-risk alcohol use over a long period of time can also lead to alcohol use disorder.
Alcohol use disorder can be characterised by a person having strong cravings to drink alcohol, difficulty to control or stop drinking, requiring greater amounts of alcohol to feel its effects and, in some cases, physical dependence on alcohol.
A person who is physically dependent on alcohol may experience withdrawal symptoms if they try to stop drinking, such as nausea, shakiness, anxiety and sweats.
If you do currently drink at high levels and wish to cut back or cut out alcohol, speaking with a doctor first is advised – as they can assess your individual situation and determine next steps to make a positive change.
The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care breaks down the health effects of alcohol on their site:
The Sleep Health Foundation has an article about how alcohol affects sleep:
Beyond Blue also shares some ideas for getting a good night’s sleep:
More information
To find a local GP, you can call 1800 022 222 or visit healthdirect.gov.au. To find a local psychologist, visit psychology.org.au/find-a-psychologist. If you need other support to reduce your drinking, you can contact the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015.
Will you join the community taking action on alcohol?
FARE acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters on which we operate throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise the continuing connection to country of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
©2023 FARE
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FARE acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters on which we operate throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise the continuing connection to country of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
©2021 FARE
Privacy Statement
T&C
