Alcohol is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
Read on to explore how alcohol impacts common non-communicable diseases, and how you can use this information to reduce your chances of developing an NCD in your lifetime.
Looking for alcohol support? Get in touch with us on 0800 140 4690 (UK) or +44 345 222 3508 (international). Whenever you’re ready, our advisors can help.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are long-term diseases that can’t be passed on between people.
In 2021, NCDs killed at least 43 million people around the world (1).
There are four main categories of NCDs, and together, they cause 80% of all “premature” NCD deaths (2). These are:
Outside of these categories, other examples of non-communicable diseases include genetic conditions, neurological disorders, and mental health diagnoses.
While NCDs are influenced by genetics, lifestyle factors play a key role in their development. This includes lack of exercise, poor diet, smoking, and, crucially, harmful alcohol use.
The fact that alcohol is so closely linked to our health is not news to most of us. There’s a reason we’re asked about our drinking habits at the doctor’s, even for seemingly unrelated illnesses.
So what’s the specific relationship between alcohol and non-communicable diseases?
Alcohol use contributes to inflammation, elevated hormones, and general damage to organs, which makes drinkers much more vulnerable to various health conditions.
One study found that alcohol-related NCDs accounted for 8.48% of male deaths and 1.33% of female deaths in the Brazilian population (3).
Even moderate drinking can increase someone’s risk of developing an NCD. However, it’s more common for these illnesses to occur after harmful alcohol use, including:
Alcohol increases cholesterol and blood pressure, which puts strain on the heart. For people with existing cardiovascular disease, this can cause problems even when they aren’t drinking alcohol excessively.
When drinking becomes chronic, it puts the user at a higher risk of developing irregular heart rhythms, plaque build-up in the arteries, and cardiomyopathy, all of which increase the risk of death.
There are also indirect factors that can lead to cardiovascular disease. For example, heavy drinkers are more likely to be overweight and develop type 2 diabetes, making them more vulnerable to heart disease.
Alcohol increases our hormone levels, our absorption of carcinogens, and may damage DNA, all of which contribute to an elevated risk of cancer.
Eight different cancers have been causally linked to alcohol use, including breast cancer and cancer of the oesophagus (4).
When we drink alcohol, especially excessively, we’re risking damage to our liver.
The liver is responsible for filtering toxins from the blood. When it breaks down alcohol, it has to produce harmful substances to do so, which can severely damage the liver.
A well-known result of this is fatty liver disease, which is unpleasant but often reversible. However, with prolonged drinking, there is a higher risk of alcoholic hepatitis (liver inflammation) and cirrhosis (liver scarring).
Chronic drinking causes sudden shifts in blood sugar. Sugary alcoholic drinks can boost our blood sugar to dangerous levels (hyperglycemia), while people with reduced liver function might battle low sugar levels (hypoglycemia).
As well as increasing diabetes risk, this also causes harm for people with pre-existing diabetes. It’s much harder to keep your blood sugar levels within a healthy range when you’re dealing with constant spikes and drops from alcohol.
Dangerous drinking is linked to a weakened immune response, which worsens existing respiratory conditions, increases the risk of infections, and ultimately makes users more vulnerable to chronic respiratory disease.
Research shows that people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) are more likely to develop: pneumonia, tuberculosis, respiratory syncytial virus infection, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (5).
Most of the UK drinks alcohol. Some are hiding dependence or addiction, others have a healthy relationship with drinking. Either way, there’s no doubt that alcohol is normalised in this country.
This normalisation is part of the reason alcohol is so often overlooked as an NCD risk factor. Few people want to explore just how damaging alcohol can be for our health, particularly if it develops into alcohol use disorder.
There’s also an element of misinformation. What many people perceive as “moderate drinking” is in fact heavy drinking.
For example, someone may drink two glasses of wine and consider this moderate, but if they were drinking from a large glass and filling it to the top, they have consumed much more than they may realise.
Another reason alcohol gets overlooked is that the effects of chronic alcohol use may not be visible for many years.
Fatty liver disease doesn’t develop overnight, so people may falsely believe that their drinking won’t cause them harm simply because the dangers aren’t yet obvious.
It’s becoming more common for people in the UK to get sober. This is the best way of reducing alcohol-related risk, as it completely removes the alcohol risk factor linked to many NCDs.
That being said, not everyone wants to be sober. You can control your drinking without putting down your glass forever.
Here are some tips for reducing your vulnerability to NCDs through healthy alcohol habits:
Many people struggle to identify when their drinking has escalated from moderate to severe, or harmless to harmful.
When drinking becomes a problem, you may notice:
It’s never too early to get help. When these signs show up, it means your health is already being affected by your drinking, and at this point, it may be reversible.
If you choose to get sober now, you are giving yourself a smoother recovery experience and making permanent sobriety much more accessible.
Please don’t make the mistake of hiding away and trying to get sober without any help. To kick your dependence or addiction, professional services are the way to go, such as residential rehab and outpatient services.
Our expert advisors can help you assess the severity of your alcohol problem and plan which treatment type would be the most effective for you.
It’s all about keeping you safe in the long-term, and that includes reducing your risk of developing an NCD. To do that, we always advise seeking our confidential help as early as possible in your journey.
If you’d like us to find treatment options for you (with no pressure to follow through), give us a call on 0800 140 4690 (UK) or +44 345 222 3508 (international).
Below, we answer some common questions around this important topic:
One unit of alcohol is the equivalent of 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, and this is the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in one hour (6).
Units for different alcoholic drinks:
Dependence means someone is physically reliant on alcohol, but not yet fully addicted. There is not yet a psychological component involved. In this sense, it’s less “risky” than addiction, as it comes with fewer symptoms.
However, dependence is dangerous on its own, and it often requires a medical detox to prevent a high-risk withdrawal phase.
What’s more, there’s no predicting exactly when dependence will turn into addiction. This makes dependence a very risky stage to be in, as it’s often a precursor to addiction.
Yes, mental illness is considered a non-communicable disease, as it can be long-term and it isn’t contagious.
Alcohol is a key risk factor for mental illness, as it exacerbates existing symptoms by interfering with our mood, energy levels, and cognitive functions. It can also increase our likelihood of developing a mental health condition.
[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases
[2] https://msf.org.uk/issues/non-communicable-diseases
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350624002105
[4] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3174337/#:~:text=Alcohol%20is%20causally%20linked%20(to,reduce%20harmful%20use%20of%20alcohol./
[5] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4590617/
Boris is our editor-in-chief at Rehab 4 Addiction. Boris is an addiction expert with more than 20 years in the field. His expertise covers a broad of topics relating to addiction, rehab and recovery. Boris is an addiction therapist and assists in the alcohol detox and rehab process. Boris has been featured on a variety of websites, including the BBC, Verywell Mind and Healthline. You can connect with Boris online at LinkedIn or X.com.
