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Alcohol and health

Alcohol is a depressant, which in low doses causes euphoria, reduces anxiety, and increases sociability. In higher doses, it causes drunkenness, stupor, unconsciousness, or death. A meta analysis of 107 cohort studies concludes low daily alcohol intake provides no health benefits and increased consumption, even at relatively low levels of daily intake (>2 beverages for women and >3 beverages for men), increases health- and mortality-risks.

Short-term effects of alcohol consumption range from a decrease in anxiety and motor skills and euphoria at lower doses to intoxication (drunkenness), to stupor, unconsciousness, anterograde amnesia (memory "blackouts"), and central nervous system depression at higher doses. Cell membranes are highly permeable to alcohol, so once it is in the bloodstream, it can diffuse into nearly every cell in the body. Alcohol can greatly exacerbate sleep problems. During abstinence, residual disruptions in sleep regularity and sleep patterns are the greatest predictors of relapse. Long-term use can lead to an alcohol use disorder, an increased risk of developing physical dependence, cardiovascular disease, and several types of cancer.

Some nations have introduced alcohol packaging warning messages that inform consumers about alcohol and cancer, as well as fetal alcohol syndrome. The addition of warning labels on alcoholic beverages is historically supported by organizations of the temperance movement, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, as well as by medical organisations, such as the Irish Cancer Society.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists ethanol as a carcinogen and states that: "There is sufficient evidence and research showing the carcinogenicity of acetaldehyde (the major metabolite of ethanol) which is excreted by the liver enzyme when one drinks alcohol." The World Health Organization also considers alcohol to be a carcinogen with no quantity of consumption considered to be safe. WHO estimates nearly half of alcohol-attributable cancers in the WHO European Region are linked to light or moderate drinking defined as "less than 1.5 litres of wine or less than 3.5 litres of beer or less than 450 millilitres of spirits per week".