Alcohol Office of Addiction Services and Supports

It has been suggested that men drink no more than 4 units per day and women drink no more than 3 units per day. According to Medical Daily, drinking in moderation should not cause any long-term problems to eyesight. The occasional consumption of alcohol is not very detrimental to health, but excessive drinking can have very serious repercussions, not just on vision, but on many other parts of the body as well. In light of all the damage alcohol can cause, you may wonder why people still have troubles with drinking excessively. It’s true that we all choose the first drink, or the first binge, or even engaging in subsequent binges. It relaxes your central nervous system, resulting in a calm feeling that may seem desirable at first. With changes to the brain can come changes to mood or behavior, and changes to thought processes, including the ability to think clearly. Long-term addiction to alcohol can also increase your risk of development of several types of cancer, including cancer of the mouth, esophagus, liver, breast, and throat. Alcohol can affect your body in many ways, from immediate effects to long-term consequences of use. Whether you have just a few drinks, or suffer from an alcohol use disorder, alcohol takes its toll on the body.

Drinking can have many short and long term effects on the eyes and vision. For example, bloodshot eyes and alcohol abuse or yellowing of the eyes from chronic alcoholism are two additional ways the eyes are affected. However, long-term, heavy drinking can pose some serious threats to our vision. It can increase the chances of developing age-related macular degeneration. While this usually occurs in older people, it can be spurred on by excessive smoking and alcohol consumption.

Why Do People Drink Excessively?

Most black eyes are minor and heal on their own; however, some may lead to significant injury. In addition to trauma to the face, cosmetic surgery can cause a black eye as a side effect. Cocaine and Crack Abuse Cocaine is an addictive stimulant that is smoked, snorted, and injected. Crack is cocaine that comes in a rock crystal that is heated to form vapors, which are then smoked. Cocaine has various effects on the body, including dilating pupils, constricting blood vessels, increasing body temperature, heart rate, and blood alcohol blurry vision pressure. Type 2 Diabetes Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that may be reversible with diet and lifestyle changes. Symptoms include excessive thirst, frequent urination, weight loss, fatigue, and an unusual odor to your urine. Most people don’t know they have type 2 diabetes until they have a routine blood test. Treatment options include medications, a type 2 diabetes diet, and other lifestyle changes. If you are concerned about the amount you are drinking and are unable to stop on your own, help is available.

If your brain does not function properly, your vision may also suffer. You may have permanently blurred vision or double vision due to the weakening of eye muscles. Short term effects of alcohol abuse also include dry eye, redness or tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is the result of the decreased sensitivity of your peripheral vision; you literally are not registering things out of your main field of view. Excessive alcohol abuse over an extended period of time can cause damage to the retina which can result in loss of vision in the center of the eye. Sustained damage to both the retina and the macula can lead to age-related macular degeneration .

How much can a person drink safely?

Decreased contrast sensitivity–Being able to make distinctions between different objects based on lightness and darkness, a very important ability when driving at twilight, is impaired by alcohol. And can alcohol abuse cause permanent problems to your Sober House sight? Read on to learn about the different effects of alcohol on the eye. Excessive alcohol consumption can also slow down the pupil’s reaction time. Pupils won’t be able to dilate or constrict appropriately in response to changes in light conditions.

Types of ALD include alcohol-related cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis and alcohol-related steatohepatitis. Another thing that gets affected by alcohol are the muscles of the iris. These muscles control the movement of our lens, which is essential for focusing on objects in front of us. Since this muscle movement is affected, we take longer to focus on objects. One study also showed that alcohol consumption can affect our ability to distinguish between contrasting images, which also contributes to blurry vision. Alcohol can affect our vision in a number of ways, both in the short and long term.

Heavy drinking of alcohol may cause problems with your vision and overall eye health including the following conditions. Among them, alcohol teratogenicity and alcohol-related optic neuropathies are more definite and seem to be the most serious ocular conditions related to alcohol consumption . Alcoholic eyes is a colloquial name for the effects of long-term alcohol use on the eyes. When you think of a person who abuses alcohol, you might imagine their eyes to be bloodshot or even have a yellow tint.

This directly affects the way the eyes detect contrast between different shades and colors. Essentially, excessive alcohol consumption can affect vision by reducing one’s ability to see colors while intoxicated. People who drink too much alcohol know the effect it gives to eyesight which is a blurry and distorted vision. It is known that drinking alcohol affects the body even if it is just a few drinks or if you are suffering from an alcohol use disorder. When someone drinks alcohol, it slows down the rate at which neurotransmitters are firing in his or her brain. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that communicate information throughout the brain and the body. The delay in sending those messages means that the person’s eye muscle coordination becomes sluggish. At this point, the person experiences double vision or blurred vision.