Let’s follow your cocktail as it travels through your body. It does not tarry long in an empty stomach, and in the intestines the alcohol quickly passes into the bloodstream. The blood carries it to the liver, where it is broken down and excreted, thus removing it from the bloodstream. In this way the liver can handle in an hour the alcohol in one cocktail, one glass of wine, or one can of beer.

Alcohol takes water out of your body cells. Excessive amounts of alcohol dehydrate the liver cells and eventually destroy them, resulting in cirrhosis. The damaged liver can no longer supply sufficient sugar to the bloodstream, opening the way for hypoglycemia. It becomes less and less efficient in removing alcohol from the blood. Then the alcohol goes throughout the body, dehydrating and killing cells everywhere.

Heavy drinking may cause men to develop female characteristics. Men produce both male and female hormones, but the liver eliminates the female ones. A damaged liver, however, lets them remain.