DISEASES OF ALCOHOLISM: CHARACTERISTICS AND CAUSES - ARTE - 2025

The most common alcoholic diseases are liver disease, cancer, infections, anemia, gout, alcoholic neuropathy, pancreatitis, cardiovascular disease, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, cerebellar degeneration, fetal alcohol spectrum syndrome, dementia, and depression.

Drinking a few beers or other alcoholic beverages in company is considered a socially acceptable behavior, which can help to strengthen ties with family, friends and acquaintances. In fact, drinking one or two servings of alcohol a day can be beneficial for your body, as they help prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke.

However, if you drink more than the recommended limits, alcohol consumption can increase the risk of developing many diseases and cause other consequences.

There is clear evidence that drinking too much alcohol affects our liver, stomach, mental health, blood circulation, nervous tissue, etc. As well as leading to an important addiction, alcoholism, which is considered a serious disease difficult to recover.

Diseases caused by alcohol consumption

Next, I present the diseases that can appear if alcoholic beverages are abused.

1- Liver diseases

It is widely known that excessive alcohol consumption affects your liver. This organ is located in the upper right part of the abdomen and its main function is to help you process food, in addition to acting as a filter for certain substances.

What happens when we drink alcohol? Alcohol first reaches the stomach and intestines and then passes through our liver before circulating throughout the body.

The liver has chemicals called enzymes that process alcohol, transforming it into other chemicals that later turn into water and carbon dioxide. These excess substances are expelled through the urine and the lungs.

However, if you drink alcohol faster than your liver can process, blood alcohol levels rise and typical symptoms of drunkenness or "binge" appear.

There are three types of liver damage caused by drinking more alcohol than the body can tolerate:

- Fatty liver: heavy drinkers frequently have accumulations of fat inside the liver cells. Having fat in the liver does not produce symptoms nor does it seem to be serious, the problem is that it predisposes you to develop hepatitis if alcohol consumption continues.

This condition can be reversed if alcohol consumption is reduced or stopped.

- Alcoholic hepatitis: it is the inflammation of the liver that can have different levels of severity as the disease progresses. Thus, to a mild degree there may be no noticeable symptoms and it would only be detected through a blood test.

In contrast, severe hepatitis would cause dizziness, nausea, yellow skin and eyes (due to high levels of bilirubin), and sometimes localized pain in the liver area. In the most severe states, liver failure can develop, a life-threatening condition that leads to confusion, coma, intestinal bleeding, and blood clotting problems.

To treat alcoholic hepatitis, alcohol intake must obviously be stopped, the individual will be fed through a tube in the stomach and steroids administered.

If the hepatitis becomes chronic, the liver can be damaged until cirrhosis appears.

- Liver cirrhosis: it is a chronic disease that cannot be reversed. It is characterized by the replacement of healthy liver tissue by scar tissue or fibrosis. Little by little that damaged tissue increases, and can block blood circulation. Thus, the liver stops working properly, preventing the normal regeneration of liver cells.

This condition arises after more than 10 years of drinking alcohol excessively, and appears in 1 in 10 alcoholics.

However, you should know that not all cirrhosis is caused by alcohol, they also appear in people who do not abuse it and who are in other situations. Hepatitis B or C infection, obesity, or certain inherited diseases are some examples.

2- Cancer

Since the early 1900s, it was known that alcoholic beverages consumed in excess could be carcinogenic. It appears that this occurs because the body converts alcohol into a potentially carcinogenic substance called acetaldehyde.

More specifically, a study by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) found that alcohol increases the risk of cancer in the upper digestive tract (mouth, oropharynx, esophagus and larynx), the lower (colon, rectum and liver), in addition to breast cancer.

However, more recently other studies are discovering connections between alcohol and other types of cancer such as cancer of the prostate, stomach, endometrium, pancreas, etc.

On the other hand, alcohol consumed in moderation can be a protective factor against some types of cancer such as renal cell carcinoma (Escudo, Parry & Rehm, 2013).

Cancer is more likely to appear if the person is also a smoker.

3- Infections

The immune system, which is the one that protects us from infections and other external contaminants, seems to be weakened in individuals who abuse alcohol.

Therefore, they more easily present infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, HIV, or sexually transmitted diseases. The latter are frequent, since people who are intoxicated with alcohol are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors.

4- Anemia

It may happen that an excessive consumption of this type of beverages decreases the number of red blood cells, which are those that carry oxygen to the cells. This is known as anemia, and it leads to symptoms like permanent tiredness, shortness of breath, and paleness.

Anemia and alcohol are linked for different reasons: alcohol prevents the absorption of iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 (deficiencies of these substances produce anemia). On the other hand, alcoholics can suffer from malnutrition because they usually forget to maintain a balanced diet, which promotes the appearance of anemia.

This condition can be detected through a blood test.

5- Drop

Swollen feet, possible symptom of gout

It is a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in a joint and appears suddenly. Gout arises from the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the affected joint.

It is related to alcohol since it contains high levels of purine. Purine is a substance that, when metabolized inside cells, produces uric acid that can crystallize in the joints.

It is treated with drugs that lower uric acid levels in the body, and a restriction or reduction of foods high in purine, such as alcoholic beverages, meats, and some fish.

6- Increase in blood pressure

Alcohol consumption is an important risk factor for hypertension, between 5 and 7% (Spanish Heart Foundation).

If alcohol is abused, it can alter the sympathetic nervous system, which is what controls the constriction and dilation of blood vessels in response to temperature, stress, or efforts.

Both binge eating and excessive alcohol consumption can increase our blood pressure, and over time, it develops into a chronic condition known as hypertension.

High blood pressure can lead to kidney disease, heart problems, and even strokes.

It seems that more than two drinks a day for long periods of time, facilitate high blood pressure. However, recent research has found that smaller intakes could have this effect.

7- Alcoholic neuropathy

It is a disease in which the peripheral nerves deteriorate due to neurological damage associated with the consumption of alcohol, since it is toxic to nerve cells.

It also appears because alcohol produces a poor absorption of nutrients such as thiamine, vitamin E, vitamins B12 and B6. These seem to play an important role in keeping the nerves in optimal condition.

The main symptoms of alcoholic neuropathy are weakness, severe pain, tremors, and tingling, primarily affecting the extremities.

8- Pancreatitis

It consists of inflammation of the pancreas, an organ related to digestion that produces hormones (such as insulin) and secretes digestive enzymes.

Its main symptom is abdominal pain that worsens after meals, as well as nausea, vomiting, fever and weakness. It is a life-threatening disease that must be treated right away.

It can have other causes, but 60% of patients with pancreatitis have developed it due to alcohol abuse.

10- Cardiovascular diseases

Excessive alcohol consumption and, above all, the ingestion of large amounts of alcohol in a short time, promotes platelets to clump together in blood clots.

These clots, as they increase, can clog our veins and arteries, increasing the risk of heart attacks or strokes.

In people who are prone to heart attacks and have already survived one, it has been found that alcohol abuse can double the risk of death.

Another disease that alcohol can cause is cardiomyopathy, which involves a weakening of the heart muscles. It is a serious condition, since by not being able to pump blood as it should, structures of the nervous system, lungs, liver and other organs are damaged due to lack of blood flow.

It appears that large amounts of alcohol are toxic to the cells of the heart muscle, especially if it has been consumed in excess for many years.

11- Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

These are two syndromes in one (Wernicke's encephalopathy and Korsakoff's psychosis). Wernicke's encephalopathy is short-lived, but of significant severity. It is characterized by lack of motor coordination, confusion and paralysis or lack of control of the ocular nerves.

On the other hand, the next phase consisting of Korsakoff's psychosis is chronic and the following symptoms occur: amnesia, new learning difficulties, apathy, concentration difficulties and lack of awareness of their own illness (anosognosia).

It is caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1), something very common in alcoholics, and which causes brain damage.

12- cerebellar degeneration

In chronic alcoholics it is observed in almost 27% (and over 38% of those who already have Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome). It consists of an atrophy located in a part of the nervous system called the cerebellum, progressively producing instability and gait ataxia (lack of coordination and balance when walking).

It seems that it also comes from a lack of thiamine in the body.

13- Fetal alcohol spectrum syndrome

It arises when the woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy, since during this pregnancy she should not drink any alcohol.

This is because it produces numerous risks for the fetus such as brain damage, developmental problems, low birth weight, cognitive delay, concentration problems… in addition, babies can suffer from alcohol withdrawal syndrome once they are born.

The development of the child is also worsened because these mothers, if they are alcoholics, often suffer from malnutrition, smoke, and even consume other drugs.

14- Dementia and other cognitive deficits

Brain atrophy (dementia patient) (Source: James Heilman, MD via Wikimedia Commons)

Alcohol is known to have neurotoxic effects on our brain cells. Therefore, it is not surprising that aging accelerates, leading to obvious difficulties in cognitive processes.

It is common for alcoholics who have been drinking for a long time to have memory loss, impaired attention, concentration, planning, as well as difficulty solving problems.

On the other hand, abusive consumption also produces malnutrition, which in turn can cause multiple damage to the cognitive system.

15- Depression

It has been proven that it is very common for excessive alcohol consumption to lead to depression. However, it is not known exactly which happens first, that is, whether depression promotes alcoholism or is it alcoholism that causes depression. Something similar seems to happen with anxiety.

What is certain is that there are people with mental disorders who tend to consume alcohol or other drugs to alleviate their discomfort. Those who have some type of mental disorder accompanied by addiction to alcohol or other drugs is called "dual pathology".

However, there is research that has found that problems with alcohol can be linked to a high risk of depression. Here's what New Zealand researchers found, who analyzed a group of 1,055 participants over 25 years. However, they do not know the exact explanation for why this occurs (Fergusson, Boden & Horwood, 2009).

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