It's well known that long-term alcohol abuse results in serious damage to the human body. Liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and estrogen like effects are problems commonly experienced by heavy drinkers. .
There are three types of alcohol related liver diseases: fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Fatty liver is the result of a build up of fat in the liver cells. This can lead to alcoholic hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, which can then cause scarring, also known as cirrhosis ("Medical Consequences" 27). According to an article in the journal of Alcohol Research & Health, "Patients with both cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis have a death rate of more than 60 percent over a 4-year period, with most deaths occurring within the first 12 months of diagnosis" ("Medical Consequences" 27).
Chronic alcohol abuse is also related to cardiovascular diseases like alcoholic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias. In alcoholic cardiomyopathy, the heart becomes enlarged and loses some of its ability to contract, which results in an insufficient blood flow to the rest of the body. Heavy drinking can also cause a disruption in the heart rhythm. This is known as an arrhythmia, which can result in sudden death for alcoholics with or without preexisting heart disease ("Medical Consequences" 27).
Lastly, the plants used to make alcoholic beverages contain phytoestrogens, which are estrogen like substances. According to Judith Gavaler, "men with alcoholic cirrhosis often show testicular failure and symptoms of feminization [which suggests] [ ] that alcoholic beverages may contain biologically active phytoestrogens [ ]" (220). This idea is further supported when subjects who produced no estrogen themselves displayed estrogen like effects after alcohol consumption. These "effects were observed even at moderate drinking levels" (Gavaler 220).
