Alcohol and Health: Which Alcohol Is Good for Health?

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) considers drinking five or more “standard” drinks on the same occasion on at least 1 day in the past 30 days as binge drinking. Heavy alcohol use can disturb the endocrine system, disrupting the hormones that help maintain the body’s stability and health. There is also evidence that alcohol can disrupt or delay puberty. Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set off a chain reaction that affects your well-being. Lowered inhibitions can lead to poor choices with lasting repercussions — like the end of a relationship, an accident or legal woes. Each of those consequences can cause turmoil that can negatively affect your long-term emotional health.

What Does Alcohol Do to Your Body? 9 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health

With so much data and so many variables, public health recommendations concerning alcohol differ around the world. You can take steps to lower your risk of alcohol-related harms. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Like a clog in a drain, those thickened fluids can jam up your ducts. That can lead to pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas.

For decades, studies suggested that moderate alcohol intake could protect the heart, reduce diabetes risk or even help you live longer. But newer research tells a different story, and it’s left many people confused. In the United States, moderate drinking for healthy adults is different for men and women. It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks. In addition to its effects on the brain, alcohol also affects the peripheral nervous system, which comprises the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord.

Which type of alcoholic beverage has the fewest negative health effects?

Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health. The whole body is affected by alcohol use–not just the liver, but also the brain, gut, pancreas, lungs, cardiovascular system, immune system, and more. A 2024 report from the American Association for Cancer Research concluded that more than 5% of all cancers in the U.S. are attributable to alcohol use. The more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer, but the risks start with any alcohol consumption. The less alcohol you drink, the lower your risk for these health effects, including several types of cancer. Pancreatitis can be a short-term (acute) condition that clears up in a few days.

Brain

Alcohol misuse refers to drinking in a manner, situation, amount, or frequency that could cause harm to the person who drinks or to those around them. Alcohol misuse includes binge drinking and heavy alcohol use. Heavy alcohol use raises the risk for fractures and even low levels of alcohol intake increase the odds for recurrent gout attacks. Alcohol also impairs bone fracture repair and reduces bone density. Stafford and his colleagues said the choice to tip back a beer or forgo alcohol — like many lifestyle decisions — should involve weighing the risks and benefits of your behaviors. But they think the public should be made more aware of those risks, which include an increased risk of cancer from drinking moderate amounts of alcohol.

Moderate alcohol use

But heavy drinking carries a much higher risk even for those without other health concerns. Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about what’s right for your health and safety. Drinking too much alcohol can weaken the immune system, making the body a much easier target for disease. Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows the body’s ability to ward off infections–even up to 24 hours later. The health risks of alcohol develop because ethanol, the type of alcohol found in beverages, metabolizes into a compound called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and other cellular components. When acetaldehyde builds up in the body, it can damage cells throughout the digestive system and beyond.

That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. Many people drink alcohol as a personal preference, during social activities, or as a part of cultural and religious practices. People who choose not to drink make that choice for the same reasons. Knowing your personal risk based on your habits can help you make the best decision for you. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.

Your body breaks alcohol down into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages your DNA. Damaged DNA can cause a cell to grow out of control, which results in cancerous tumors. In reality, there’s no evidence that drinking beer (or your alcoholic beverages of choice) actually contributes to belly fat. The liver neutralizes various toxic substances you consume.

It is well established that alcohol misuse—including binge drinking and heavy alcohol use—increases the risk of many short- and long-term consequences. These consequences range from accidental injuries to worsened mental and physical health conditions to death. The risk of harm typically increases as the amount of alcohol consumed increases. Alcohol misuse—which includes binge drinking and heavy alcohol use—over time increases the risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD). The U.S. Surgeon General warns that moderate consumption of alcohol (two drinks a day) raises the risk for cancers of the mouth, throat breast, colorectum, esophagus, voice box, and liver. Research has demonstrated that long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing cardiomyopathy.

For men, heavy drinking means more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks a week. Different types or brands of beer, wine, and spirits can contain varying amounts of alcohol. For example, some kinds of beer, like microbrews, have more than 5% alcohol. That means if you drink a beer that’s 10% alcohol, you’re consuming two “standard” drinks, not one (since it’s twice the amount of alcohol).

• And drinking raises the risk of problems in the digestive system.
• But experts caution that even within these guidelines, individual risk varies.
• Meanwhile, countries including Canada have moved to more cautious recommendations, advising no more than two drinks per week for all adults.
• That’s because your body already has processes in place that allow it to store excess proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
• Some people are already at higher risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease because of their genetics or other risky behaviors like tobacco use.

Knowing what counts as one standard drink can help you figure out how much alcohol you drink and whether it would be considered excessive. You may decide to opt for alcohol-removed beverages, including dealcoholized wine and beers, which have a very low alcohol content. Brands have also made non-alcoholic spirits, which drinking every night signs of alcoholism may serve as alternatives for alcohol in mixed drinks. Drinking alcohol appears to increase food and calorie intake during a drinking episode, which increases total calorie intake in a day. Beer has a similar number of calories as sugary soft drinks, ounce for ounce, whereas red wine has twice as much. Heavy drinking, including binge drinking, is a high-risk activity.

• You can take steps to lower your risk of alcohol-related harms.
• More information about alcohol’s effects on the brain is available on NIAAA’s topic page on Alcohol and The Brain.
• Department of Agriculture, the dietary guidelines provide recommendations on what the average American should eat and drink to promote health and help prevent chronic disease.

Department of Agriculture, the dietary guidelines provide recommendations on what the average American should eat and drink to promote health and help prevent chronic disease. And prolonged alcohol use can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. Chronic misuse can also lead to paranoia and hallucinations. If you drink every day, or almost every day, you might notice that you catch colds, flu or other illnesses more frequently than people who don’t drink.

The effects of alcohol on the liver

They also help fend off inflammation and support healthy metabolism. But there’s plenty of research to back up the notion that alcohol does lead to weight gain in general. Steatotic liver disease used to go by the name fatty liver disease.

Having alcohol use disorder, a form of substance use disorder, at least doubles the risk of depression and anxiety disorders, according to a 2023 narrative review of research. While the idea of abstaining completely may feel daunting, there’s a growing cultural shift toward mindful drinking, or not drinking. Younger generations are drinking less and non-alcoholic beverages are becoming more popular.

The pancreas is an organ that makes substances that support bodily functions including digestion and metabolism. Alcohol misuse over time can lead to pancreatitis, which can impair the production of digestive enzymes and can affect hormones that regulate blood sugar level. Meanwhile, countries including Canada have moved to more cautious recommendations, advising no more than two drinks per week for all adults. The studies, however, had some major flaws, including that people’s drinking was generally categorized only by their current behavior.