Welcome to the 2nd episode of our alcohol series, this week we discuss both the acute and chronic complications cited with regular consumption. As always, our aim is to provide the evidence for you to decide whether alcohol should be apart of your lifestyle and we do so in an unbiased fashion. Within this episode we assess the evidence relating to cognitive impairment, alcohol-associated liver disease, use of alcohol in pregnancy, the effect on the microbiome and whether there is still a stigma surrounding alcohol? There is a lot to discuss and we are aware that we cannot cover everything in this episode, also, please see our references below for any further reading.

If you would like to go to a particular section, please click on the time stamp below:

00:07 - Introduction & alcohol statistics

03:10 - Acute complications of alcohol

09:12 - Where did the ‘hangover’ originate?

11:30 - Does alcohol increase cognitive impairment?

15:26 - What is Wernicke’s encephalopathy?

17:24 - How is the liver affected by the alcoholic onslaught?

20:41 - Does alcohol impact the microbiome?

22:04 - What are the complications of cirrhosis?

25:25 - Is there still a stigma around alcohol?

28:37 - Our survey says we want to socially drink!

30:46 - Fetal alcoholic syndrome, the risks around pregnancy

32:46 - Alcoholic complications key points

36:16 - Respect people’s choice not to drink

37:46 - Final thoughts

Here is a list of the sources that we used to make this podcast:

https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2353?ijkey=78857d459765a35099284fe4b337607a4a8981f2&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha- cognitive impairment

https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-077090 - Alcohol associated liver disease; microbiome dysfunction and general overview

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-involving-illegal-alcohol-levels-2021/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-involving-illegal-alcohol-levels-2021 - drink driving statistics

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/alcohol-facts/fact-sheets/alcohol-statistics?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjsi4BhB5EiwAFAL0YDoiCx0W2Nj8pRbtf-mhAt4awwbUTtlq1DhmDeacEfzrB5oeH3LWExoCo7IQAvD_BwE- general alcohol statistics

https://jech.bmj.com/content/68/6/542 - pregnancy study

Rang & Dale’s Pharmacology 10th edition - general pharmacological overview

https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/ - Alcoholic anonymous

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You can also watch this podcast episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAf1zFQF4_dyVG4z8DD0_3Q 

As always, this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used in substitute to seeing a healthcare professional. Any questions, please reach out to us and thanks for listening!