Immune System

Alcohol can suppress your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness. This is more common in long-term or excessive drinkers.

Pancreas

Continuous and excessive drinking can lead to pancreatitis (inflammation of your pancreas). This can lead to permanent damage of your pancreas and increases your risk of developing digestive problems, diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

Heart

Long-term and excessive drinking can increase your risk of developing heart disease and high blood pressure. It can also weaken your heart muscle and increase your risk of heart failure.

Kidneys

Alcohol has a diuretic effect, which means it tends to make you pass more urine (pee more). Drinking to excess can cause a substantial increase in urine flow and lead to dehydration.

Alcohol can also increase your risk of kidney cancer.

Skin

Alcohol dehydrates your body, including your skin. Over time, drinking heavily can have other more permanent and damaging effects on your skin.

Bowel

Alcohol may cause bowel irritation and may trigger symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. 

Excessive drinking can increase the risk of bowel (colon) cancer.

Cancer

Alcohol contributes to your risk of developing certain types of cancer, including cancers of the upper digestive tract, liver, breast, bowel and kidney.

Brain

Alcohol slows down your central nervous system, which in turn impacts almost all your body’s cells and systems. Alcohol misuse may in the short term impair your thinking and judgement. In the long-term it can lead to brain injury.

Alcohol and your sleep

Sleep is important for your health, vitality and wellbeing. In fact, we can’t function without it. 

Alcohol can affect the quality of your sleep by interfering with the normal sleep process. While drinking alcohol before bedtime may help you fall asleep, it can affect the quality of your sleep throughout the night. It can also disrupt your sleep cycles, resulting in decreased sleep quality.1 

Even a small amount of alcohol (one standard drink) can disrupt your sleep. So, it’s recommended you stop drinking at least four hours before going to sleep. Lack of sleep or poor sleep can affect your health and quality of life. 

Poor sleep can cause fatigue, affect your concentration and memory, act as a trigger for some mental health problems and/or affect daytime alertness and performance. Ultimately, you may be less productive and more prone to accidents.

Alcohol also has a diuretic effect, which means it tends to make you pass more urine (pee more). For this reason, you may have to get up during the night to go to the toilet, which can lead to a disturbed night’s sleep.

Liver

Regularly drinking to excess may result in having a fatty liver, which can affect your liver function. Continued heavy or excessive drinking may result in your liver becoming inflamed, causing: 

• alcoholic hepatitis
• permanent liver scarring (cirrhosis)
• liver failure
• liver cancer. 

Male reproductive system



Drinking alcohol can decrease your sex drive and performance. Alcohol can also reduce the amount of testosterone in your blood. Heavy drinking increases your risk of male fertility problems.

Female reproductive system

Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can affect your periods and ovulation. This may make it difficult to get pregnant.

Diabetes

When you have diabetes the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood is too high. Drinking alcohol can make your diabetes more difficult to manage. If you have diabetes, alcohol can cause the following risks and complications.

Breasts

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women (other than non-melanoma skin cancer). Studies show a relationship between alcohol intake and your risk of developing breast cancer. While drinking alcohol does not mean you will get breast cancer, it does increase your risk of breast cancer.

Stomach

Alcohol may irritate your stomach lining which can bring on nausea and vomiting. Long-term, excessive drinking has been associated with an increased risk of stomach cancer.

Pregnancy

Alcohol exposure during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). This is a term used to describe a range of problems caused by alcohol exposure before birth. 

Other effects of alcohol exposure during pregnancy can include miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth and having a low birthweight baby.

For those who are breastfeeding, not drinking alcohol is safest for their baby.