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What are the health effects of alcohol consumption?

The Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organisation notes that alcohol-related harm includes more than 60 types of diseases and other health conditions, such as, mental health disorders and chronic health problems in the central nervous, gastrointenstinal and cardiovascular systems. There is research to suggest that alcohol consumption can affect foetal development (Schuckit, 2005) and can increase the risk of several cancers (World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007). Alcohol also contributes to death and injury due to traffic crashes, drownings, suicide, assault and family violence.

The health and injury harms of alcohol use result from three main pathways:

intoxication (a mediator of acute adverse outcomes)
dependence
direct biochemical effects (such as chronic pancreatic and liver damage).

These health effects relate to both the average volume of alcohol consumed and the pattern of drinking. A 2005 ALAC study of the burden of death, disease and disability due to alcohol in New Zealand found that:

There are no health benefits of drinking alcohol before middle age. Most of the benefits of alcohol consumption accrue in the elderly. The benefits are associated with regular low volume intake, and risks associated with heavy drinking persist into old age.
The pattern of drinking is very important in determining the health effects of alcohol consumption. The pattern of drinking has a major influence on both benefits and harm.
Injury is responsible for about half of all alcohol-attributable deaths and almost three-quarters of the years of life lost due to alcohol. Even amongst low volume drinkers, there are increased risks of injury associated with alcohol.
There is a huge burden of disability due to alcohol use disorders.
The health burden of alcohol falls inequitably on Mäori. The combination of more harmful drinking patterns and a smaller proportion of the population in the older age groups where benefits accrue, means that the Mäori population is more adversely affected by alcohol than the non-Mäori population.