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Long Term Effects of Alcohol

Mankind has been consuming alcohol since time immemorial and it has become a part and parcel of all cultures around the world. In many cultures, even gods have been depicted as drinking alcoholic beverages, and social drinking is not considered bad even though it has long-term bad effects on the health of the drinker. Alcohol is one substance that is harmful to every single organ in our body and its abuse can lead to various ailments of the liver and kidney. But not many know that abuse of alcohol is detrimental to the natural ability to conceive in case of females and to fertilize the female egg with sperm, in case of males.

A lot of research has gone into negative effects of alcohol intake on the ability to reproduce and conceive, in part because of innumerable cases where women have found it difficult to conceive because of their habit of alcohol consumption. No matter how much or how frequently you drink, you must be aware of all effects of alcohol on the body if you are a lady planning to conceive. This is because it has been proved conclusively that alcohol can damage reproductive system of a woman and surely lowers her chances of conceiving and then carrying on full term of pregnancy. Alcohol and infertility have been strongly linked together and doctors have always advised against alcohol intake during pregnancy.

Fertility decreased with increasing alcohol

Social drinking by ladies has all along been considered harmless or innocuous and many women have never thought of their moderate alcohol intake to be even remotely linked with their inability to conceive. But scientists have proved that alcohol hampers with fertility health of women and in fact women suffer from negative effects of alcohol at far lower levels than men.

Alcohol intake and chance of getting pregnant

It has been proved by scientists that no amount of alcoholic intake can be considered as safe if a woman is planning to become pregnant, and certainly not for a growing baby inside the womb. Drinking alcohol at any stage or pregnancy has been shown to hamper with the development of brain and limbs of the baby.

Avoid intake of alcohol for reproductive health

Alcohol is bad for our health in normal circumstances as it is known to deplete the levels of vitamins and minerals in our body. These minerals and vitamins from body break the carbohydrates we get from alcohol. Now our fertility is dependent upon nutrients in our body and drinking alcohol will always lower the levels of nutrients in our body.

Alcohol hampers functioning of body organs and even hormonal system

Liver is burdened with removing toxins from our body working as a filter but it has to overwork and becomes weakened as it tries to metabolize alcohol we consume. A weakened liver cannot regulate the production of estrogen hormone in our body and this means estrogen balance is thrown out of gear. Women tend to have problems and diseases because of this estrogen dominance.

One of the long term effects of alcohol consumption by men is seen as impotency as most men report problems in their erections. Another related problem is seen as lowering of zinc in male sperm. This leads to poor sperm count leading to inability to fertilize female egg. Abnormal sperm is also reported with long term alcoholic consumption. As told earlier, hormonal imbalance is one of the negative effects of alcohol. This imbalance directly affects entire ovulation and menstrual cycle process. Thus alcohol intake is directly linked with infertility in women.

Fetal alcohol effects

Though it is easier to talk about long term effects of alcohol, especially on the fertility health of a woman, alcohol is equally bad during pregnancy. This is going a step ahead of the topic that suggests keeping confined to infertility and alcohol. However, it has to be noted that most doctors advise women to avoid intake of alcohol altogether once they have conceived. This is because no safe level of alcohol consumption has so far been established. A woman does not even realize she is pregnant till about 12th week of pregnancy, and thus it is better to abstain from alcohol if you are trying to conceive. Even slightest of alcohol consumption has been seen to create complications. Why take chances and face dire consequences?

Alcoholic women are well advised to abstain from alcohol is they are desirous of conception. Miscarriage, still birth, premature birth, infertility, etc are some of the serious effects of alcoholism that are not worth taking at all. Anovulation, which is a disease called lack of ovulation is another side effect of alcohol intake that affects the menstrual cycle, and therefore the reproductive health of women. When you and your unborn baby are at risk by drinking, can you continue to drink?