Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 May 28;15(6):1083.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061083.

Alcoholism: A Multi-Systemic Cellular Insult to Organs

Ucee Dguzeh  1 , Natasha C Haddad  2 , Kathia T S Smith  3 , John O Johnson  4 , Angelia A Doye  5 , Judith K Gwathmey  6   7 , Georges E Haddad  8
Affiliations
Review

Alcoholism: A Multi-Systemic Cellular Insult to Organs

Ucee Dguzeh et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Alcohol abuse can affect more than the heart and the liver. Many observers often do not appreciate the complex and differing aspects of alcohol's effects in pathophysiologies that have been reported in multiple organs. Chronic alcohol abuse is known to be associated with pathophysiological changes that often result in life-threatening clinical outcomes, e.g., breast and colon cancer, pancreatic disease, cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, kidney disease, immune system dysfunction, hypertension, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, and can be as far-reaching as to cause central nervous system disorders. In this review article, we will discuss the various organs impacted by alcohol abuse. The lack of clear guidelines on the amount and frequency of alcohol intake, complicated by personal demographics, make extrapolations to real-life practices at best difficult for public health policy-makers.

Keywords: alcohol abuse; alcohol beneficial effects; multi-organ effects of alcohol.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Known organs that show pathophysiological changes as a result of chronic alcohol abuse and the related clinical manifestations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Peck S.C., Roeser R.W., Eccles J.S. Exploring the roles of extracurricular activity quantity and quality in the educational resilience of vulnerable adolescents: Variable- and pattern-centered approaches. J. Soc. Issues. 2008;64:20. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00552.x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) American Psychiatric Association; Washington, DC, USA: 2013.
    1. Allen N.A.L., Benichou J., Beral V., Bloomfield K., Brooks P., Cai L., Crabb D., Eriiksson P., Gapstur S., Gmel G., et al. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. IARC; Lyon, France: 2010. Alcohol consumption and ethyl carbamate; pp. 237–1280. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hamajima N., Hirose K., Tajima K., Rohan T., Calle E.E., Heath C.W. Alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer—Collaborative reanalysis of individual data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 58 515 women with breast cancer and 95 067 women without the disease. Br. J. Cancer. 2002;87:1234–1245. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Na H.K., Lee J.Y. Molecular Basis of Alcohol-Related Gastric and Colon Cancer. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017;18:1116. doi: 10.3390/ijms18061116. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources