Is It Possible for Alcohol to Cause Permanent Damage?

What Organs Are Most Affected by Long-Term Alcohol Use?

To determine can a hangover can cause permanent damage, let’s begin by explaining what’s happening when you experience these classic symptoms that can make the day after drinking a rough time of illness. Alcohol is a diuretic, which makes drinkers dehydrated. There isn’t one particular amount that will be too much—some people can suffer hangovers after just having one drink, while others can have several drinks while avoiding the worst symptoms. 

Still, the problem comes down to this dehydration, which actually can make the brain slightly shrink in volume. When that happens, you’re likely to feel those headaches and a dry mouth. The hours and days after drinking, alcohol is still affecting your overall brain function, which can impact your mood the next day and lead to restless, disturbed sleep.

While you can get over a hangover by rehydrating, getting sleep, and eating food to deal with the drop in blood sugar that alcohol causes, it isn’t so easy to shake off the other ways drinking affects your body, especially over months or years of heavy drinking. Alcohol causes organ damage that, over time, can become severe and impossible to heal. 

Here’s a look at some of the things alcohol does to the body:

• Liver: The liver is perhaps the hardest-hit part of your body from the effects of drinking due to its primary role in metabolizing alcohol. Over time, the long-term effects of alcohol on the liver can include inflammation, cirrhosis, scarring, and complete liver failure.

• Brain: Alcohol severely interrupts how the brain communicates with your body and how it responds to things, which can affect your mood, behavior, coordination, and decision-making, as well as increasing the risk of suffering a stroke. It also impacts your nervous system, which can lead to problems like neuropathy, irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, and erectile dysfunction.

• Heart: Heavy drinking can severely damage your heart by weakening the muscle, increasing blood pressure or heart rate, and causing an irregular heartbeat. Over time, drinking can raise the risk of heart attacks and narrowed arteries, as well as affect the count of components in the blood, like red blood cells or platelets.

• Immune System: Your body’s defense system can be weakened and significantly compromised by drinking, making you more susceptible to infections and organ damage that doesn’t heal normally.

• Pancreas: Drinking can eventually cause pancreatitis, which is an inflammation of the pancreas, the organ that makes enzymes and hormones that support digestion, metabolism, and other bodily functions. In addition to being extremely painful, pancreatitis can cause severe damage to your pancreas, significantly increase your risk of pancreatic cancer, and contribute to the development of diabetes.

• Lungs: Your lungs are also affected by long-term drinking, increasing your risk of developing infections, pneumonia, and other respiratory problems.

What Are the Signs of Alcohol-Related Dementia or Cognitive Decline?

Brain damage from alcohol is a serious threat to your overall health and well-being, and there are clear links between years of heavy drinking and how well your brain operates. One of the most significant complications of drinking is Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which is caused by a deficiency of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. WKS can cause confusion, vision changes, muscle coordination problems, amnesia, hallucinations, difficulty with understanding information or explaining things, and exaggerated storytelling.

There’s another problem that can happen due to brain damage caused by drinking: Alcohol-related dementia, which is a form of cognitive impairment. Symptoms of this can include:

• Memory problems, especially in being able to make new long-term memories
• Difficulty focusing or concentrating
• Struggling with making plans and solving problems
• Impairment in decision-making, motivation, and goal-setting
• Struggling to organize things
• Balance problems

The cause is how alcohol speeds up the aging of your brain, causing changes in your overall memory and executive functioning that can make even daily tasks much harder while also affecting your mood and behaviors. In one study of 36,678 middle-aged or senior adults, people who had three drinks every day in the past month had noticeable reductions in their brains’ white and gray matter, and this made their brains look three and a half years older than their actual age. If you quit drinking, the symptoms will likely stop progressing, giving you a better future without worsening brain function.

How Much Alcohol Does It Take to Cause Lasting Damage?

If you’re still wondering if a hangover can cause permanent damage, you might also question how much alcohol is “too much” and consider if there’s a specific amount of drinking that will cause lasting damage. The truth is, there’s no such thing as a safe level of drinking, and any amount of alcohol can cause problems due to the way this substance affects and impacts your organs and brain.

However, there is a clear tie between heavy or problematic drinking and having a much higher risk of lasting damage when compared to low-risk or infrequent drinking. Over the course of months and years, heavy drinking can cause brain damage, liver and heart disease, mental health struggles, and significantly increased risks of developing certain kinds of cancers.

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Are Frequent Hangovers a Sign of a Bigger Problem?

If you’re still wondering about the main question—can a hangover cause permanent damage? You might want to consider how frequent hangovers can be a warning sign of problematic drinking and possible addiction. The signs of alcohol use disorder can include:

• Failing to limit how much you drink.
• Wanting to cut back but unsuccessfully trying to do so.
• Spending an increasing amount of time drinking or getting alcohol, or recovering from hangovers after drinking.
• Missing important events and failing to keep up with work, school, or home due to drinking.
• Isolating and no longer doing things that once were interesting or pleasurable to you.
• Unsafe alcohol use, such as while driving, swimming, or operating machinery.

Key Takeaways on Can a Hangover Cause Permanent Damage

• Most Americans have drunk alcohol at least at some point in their lives, and millions of people struggle with problematic, heavy drinking.
• Alcohol can cause many short-term problems, including hangovers.
• Over time, heavy drinking can cause significant damage to many of your organs, including the liver, brain, and heart.
• Drinking can also lead to permanent damage like alcohol-related dementia, liver failure, and cardiovascular problems, as well as a higher risk of developing certain cancers.
• Can a hangover cause permanent damage? Probably not if it happens once or twice, but frequent hangovers can be a sign of problematic drinking and addiction.

If you or a loved one is ready to learn how to address your problematic relationship with drinking and break the chains of alcohol addiction, Resurgence Behavioral Health can help. Call us at 855-458-0050 today, and let’s get you started on the road to recovery.

Resources

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – Alcohol Use in the United States: Age Groups and Demographic Characteristics
• Northwestern Medicine – Quick Dose: What a Hangover Does to Your Brain
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – Alcohol’s Effects on the Body
• Healthline – Recognizing and Treating Alcohol-Related Dementia