Read on to get the details on how alcohol can affect your body, brain, and emotional health, plus a few tips on finding support if you’re considering cutting back on drinking. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. Drinking alcohol can also increase the risk of stroke. Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mouth, proboscis, or elsewhere. Humans drink by swallowing, completed by peristalsis in the esophagus. The physiological processes of drinking vary widely among other animals. Drinking alcohol can lower or raise blood sugar. Learn how alcohol affects glucose, warning signs to watch for, and ways to drink more safely. Learn how alcohol affects your body, sleep, anxiety and cancer risk — and when drinking may become a health concern or alcohol use disorder. Alcohol misuse refers to drinking in a manner, situation, amount, or frequency that could cause harm to the person who drinks or to those around them. Alcohol misuse includes binge drinking and heavy alcohol use. That glass of wine with dinner might do more for you than take the edge off a long day. Check out these possible health benefits of drinking in moderation by clicking through the WebMD slideshow. Drinking less is better for your health than drinking more. You can lower your health risks by drinking less or choosing not to drink. Your liver can only process small amounts of alcohol. The rest of the alcohol can harm your liver and other organs as it moves through the body. Dr. Sengupta shares some of the not-so-obvious effects that alcohol has on your body. Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation. When your liver finishes that process, alcohol gets turned into water and carbon dioxide. Drinking excessively increases your risk of getting sick, injured, or dying sooner. You can choose not to drink alcohol, drink less, or drink in moderation to lower these risks, compared to drinking excessively.