Short-term Effects of Alcohol

One thing you need to know about alcohol, is that no matter how happy it makes you feel, it is quintessentially a depressant. Now, depressants are responsible to reduce the inhibitions and cause a person to feel relaxed. However, most people may have realized a feeling of sadness, or what is known as a "sad trip" to befall them after they have consumed an amount of alcohol beyond their "capacity". This is the reason it is called a "depressant".

There is a certain way in which alcohol functions, in order to cause the body to drop its inhibitions and "securities" against letting out certain emotions. Hence, it is also said that a drunk person always speaks the truth. Well, in most cases it is true, in others it is debatable.

Short-term Consequences of Alcohol on the Body
The basic short-term health effects of alcohol consumption on the body is an inebriated state of consciousness. In such a state, a person is not fully in control of his thoughts, actions, speech or muscles. Hence, often times, "taking advantage" of a person is much easier after they are gotten drunk. More so, due to the altered state of consciousness that is caused as one of the ill effects of alcohol on the brain, a person can often lose certain chunks of his memory of the drunken state. Again, this is a good reason to believe that consuming alcohol does put a person in a vulnerable state.

Short-term Effects on Vital Organs due to Alcohol Intake

Heart
Metaphorically speaking, a short-term effect of alcohol on the heart would be that one could be in a much bigger chance of having their heart-broken. On the contrary, people often find that they can express the emotions in their heart much more easily under the influence of alcohol, making their heart happier.

Physically speaking as well, alcohol has both positive and negative effects on the heart. As seen earlier, small doses of alcohol can be good to reduce anxiety. As such, consuming moderate amounts of alcohol at situations that cause you to get highly anxious and trigger increased blood pressure can help slow down your heart rate, calm you down and get your blood pressure in place. However, extended and increased consumption of alcohol can cause the heart rate to reduce more than normal, or healthy. More so, it also slows down heartbeat rate to an extent which may cause a person to lose consciousness altogether.

Liver
The liver is one of the most important organs of the body, it is responsible for filtering the blood and destroying and flushing out the toxins. However, alcohol causes the liver to get an undue "over dose" of the toxins. Taking moderate amounts of beer to get rid of kidney stone is often suggested by doctors. This is because beer causes a person to urinate more often. However, larger and more concentrated doses of alcohol are harmful for the functioning of the liver.

Nervous System
Our nerves have certain sensory receptors. These receptors pass the message for our sensory organs to the brain for processing. This is a very fast process. However, depressants cause the receptors to get blocked. This causes the messages to not get processed, causing a flaw in functioning. This is the reason why people end up having blurry vision and reduced motor control in a drunken stupor, hence, following the rule "No Drinking and Driving" is very important. These are mostly what are perceived as the short-term psychological effects of alcohol, as well.

Stomach
On consuming a lot of alcohol at one go, it is very normal for one to feel an irritation in the stomach or a burning sensation. This is because the alcohol causes the stomach lining to get irritated. This is often the cause of vomiting on alcohol consumption, or after it. Another short-term effect of alcohol on the stomach is nausea and stomach pain. These are often seen by all on their first alcohol consumption instance.

Kidneys
A short-term effect of alcohol on the kidney is that the alcohol affects the endocrine system. This causes the kidney to not release the anti-diuretic hormone when urinating and causes it to reabsorb lesser water, which is a balance that is normally kept due to release of the anti-diuretic hormone. This is the reason why a person tends to feel dehydrated when under the influence of alcohol.

A very disturbing short-term effect that alcohol has on teenagers is that it causes them to become dependent on the alcohol for having "fun" or being socially accepted. This often causes teenage pregnancy and alcohol addiction. I hope the above passages have made you realize the negative effects of alcohol consumption and that it's time to stop drinking alcohol. This is where I sign off!! Stay sober!