How Alcohol Affects Your Body

1. Your brain – Alcohol, even in small amounts, causes irreparable damage to brain cells; some die and others are altered.


2. Your heart – Alcohol increase the risk of hypertension, stroke, and damage to the heart muscle.


3. Your Lungs – Alcohol depressed respiratory functions.


4. Your reproductive system – In men, alcohol can damage cells in the testes, causing impotence, sterility, and possibly enlarged breast. In women, alcohol can cause irregular menstrual cycle and malfunctioning of the ovaries. Alcohol has also been linked to birth defects in infants and to fetal alcohol syndrome.


5. Your liver – Because your liver must filter alcohol from the blood, alcohol affects it more than any other organ of your body:

a. Excess calories in alcohol are stored as fat in the liver.

b. Functioning liver cells die from alcoholic poisoning.

c. Scar tissue replace dead cells, causing cirrhosis.

6. Your immune system – Alcohol weaken the body's defense against infection and breast cancer