Alcohol is the greatest weapon of self-destruction that keeps tearing up your digestive system to the point that it makes you susceptible to cancer. Experts who work towards alcohol abuse treatment suggest that if left unchecked, alcohol addiction can play a vital role in tumor initiation and its rapid growth. Some studies have also claimed that it impairs DNA repair consequently increasing the risk of cancer.
Your stomach and intestines are not the only part of your digestive system. Your mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, pancreas, and anus are also a part of the digestive system. Each organ has a specific role in digestion and each is affected by alcohol in a different way.
Here’s how alcohol affects your digestive system:
1. Killing The Good Bacteria In Mouth
As soon as it touches the inside of your mouth, it starts wreaking havoc. It quickly penetrates the layer of saliva and damages the tissues in your mouth. In the longer run, it increases the risk of oropharyngeal cancer. If drinking is coupled with smoking, you run the risk of developing mouth cancer.
2. Esophagus And Acid Reflux
As it travels down from your mouth it enters the esophagus – the long tube running between your mouth and stomach. The damage caused to esophagus leads to a constant feeling of heartburn, more accurately called Acid Reflux. Acid reflux causes the contents of the stomach to run back up to your esophagus causing further damage and increasing the risk of cancer.
3. Stomach Inflammations and Ulcers
The next stop is your stomach. Alcohol spends most of its time here. The first thing it does is damage the acid production. This damage to gastric mucosa decreases this gastric secretion. The damaged mucous cells lose their ability to protect the walls of your stomach causing inflammations and lesions in severe cases it leads to ulcers.
Alcohol also slows the digestion process in general, as some of its contents cause the muscles responsible for emptying of the stomach to delay their function. This delay in turn causes you to feel bloated and nauseous.
4. Liver Inflammation And Cancer
The main role of the liver is to remove toxins; however, the breakdown of alcohol in the liver takes place in several different ways. Ultimately, alcohol is converted into acetaldehyde which poisons the cells and causes inflammation in the liver, which increases the risk of liver cancer.
This can also lead to fatty liver disease, an accumulation of fat in your liver. Acetaldehyde, the cell poison also causes extensive tissue and DNA damage. Your liver becomes impaired in its primary function i.e. removing harmful substances from your body.
5. Intestines
After 20% of the alcohol is absorbed in the stomach, the remaining 80% then moves on to the small intestine where it is absorbed. This absorption hinders the absorption of nutrients needed by your body and harms your intestines from the inside, making them more permeable.
The decreased efficiency of the intestines and the increased permeability allows toxins like Endotoxins to enter your bloodstream where they cause damage to all organs especially to your liver.
6. Pancreas
They are not directly involved in the digestion process, but they produce juices that are responsible for breaking down foods in our digestive tract. It also produces insulin. Alcohol crams up these processes and these chemicals stay inside your pancreas. This means that your body is no longer getting insulin and you are likely to develop diabetes. Chronic Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer are also results of excessive alcohol consumption.
While there are a number of ways to fight alcohol addiction, they still won’t work if you don’t put in some effort. By regularly drinking, you not only destroy your lives but also put your family’s lives on stake. The question then, is a shot of alcohol worth all this damage?
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
Speak Your Mind