What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health

Every 10 grams of alcohol you drink each day increases your breast cancer risk by 4-13% (alcohol causes tumors to grow faster and suppresses molecules that inhibit tumor growth, as well as alcohol, increases tumor growth) for every 10 grams of alcohol you drink. As a result of aromatization, drinking alcohol on a regular basis increases estrogen le... See more

People who start drinking at a young age (13-15) are more likely to get addicted to alcohol, no matter if their families are alcoholism-prone. Even if there's a history of alcoholism in the family, a person who waits till their early 20s is less likely to become addicted to alcohol. If you drink consistently (even in small amounts, like one drink a... See more

As a result, we have a fork in the road: group1 is made up of people who feel sedated after a few drinks, while group2 is made up of people who don't feel sedated after a few drinks (predisposition to alcoholism).

It's been shown that with 2-6 months of abstinence, social/casual drinkers can rewire their neural circuits and revert damage to their prefrontal cortex. Drinking can cause the prefrontal cortex and circuits that control memory to shut down, so chronic alcohol users are likely to feel long-lasting effects.

Alcohol can disrupt the brain's function if you drink a lot, even at low or moderate levels, like 1-2 drinks a day or 7-14 drinks a week. Drinkers' prefrontal cortex and top-down inhibition will be diminished, so they'll act impulsively. Long-term drinkers (even those who drink 1-2 nights a week, long term) tend to rewire circuitry outside of drink... See more