Drinking alcoholic beverages is an accepted social activity. Consumed in moderate amounts, alcohol relaxes you, stimulates your appetite, and produces mild euphoria. It also loosens inhibitions, making you feel more friendly and outgoing. While moderate drinking is not detrimental to your health, excessive drinking or binge drinking can eventually lead to alcoholism and other serious health problems.
Excessive drinking alcohol carries many health risks, including cancer of the liver, mouth, throat, and esophagus. Excessive alcohol consumption also increases your chances of having an accident, makes you more prone to violence, and makes you more apt to engage in risky behaviors such as illicit drug use or unsafe sex.
Alcohol affects every organ in your body, even in moderate amounts, but over consumption takes its most serious toll on the liver, heart, and brain. When you drink alcohol, some of the alcohol is absorbed in your stomach, but most enters the small intestine, where it passes into the bloodstream, which carries it throughout your body. As alcohol enters your brain, it numbs nerve cells, slowing down their ability to send messages to your body. If you continue to drink, the nerve centers in the brain may lose control over speech, vision, balance, and judgment, and you may have a blackout.