When Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems

For more than a few years alcoholism research has demonstrated the fact that there is strong correlation between alcoholism and serious health conditions.

For example, in 2005, scientific examination and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics revealed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. It can be stressed that this immense alcohol-related cash outlay was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to highlight these facts, it is also important to highlight the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.

Stated another way, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.

Without a doubt, substance abuse exploration has revealed that alcoholism can augment the risk for different kinds of cancer, especially cancer of the liver, voice box (larynx), kidneys, colon, esophagus, rectum, and the throat. Abusive and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system issues and deformity to the fetus during pregnancy.

Abusive and Irresponsible Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs

Additionally, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will probably be affected in an unhealthy manner. For instance, repeated, hazardous drinking is especially hurtful to the liver due to the fact that the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been ingested. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and obliterates the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This condition results in a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a critical and potentially terminal disease.Excessive, long-term drinking not only can result in serious liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this severe may be unalterable and may, in turn, lead to severe illness or an early death.

The Relevance of Alcohol Treatment

It is critical, then, to know how to recognize the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol addicted individual can be given the opportunity to get the quality alcohol rehab he or she requires.

Alcoholism and Sophisticated Brain Exploration

Fortunately, medical exploration is continuously discovering novel and important information. Recent alcoholism exploration provides a high-quality illustration. Stated another way, for roughly the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning instruments have demonstrated that continuous and chronic excessive drinking changes the functionality of the brain to a significant extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or maybe as long as the individual lives.

More explicitly, medical research has revealed that individuals who have been drinking in a hazardous manner for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing long lasting and significant alterations in the brain.

This type of damage may be directly related to severe liver disease, to the alcohol’s effects on the brain, or might be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health.

Hazardous Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of different health problems that are largely related to alcoholism, take into account the fact that according to medical investigation, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical condition that reduces the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

This kind of organ breakdown is related to malnutrition and to a number of severe mental and neurological syndromes including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is a lasting debilitating medical condition that is characterized by continual memory and learning problems.

Summary

It is obvious that continued, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly linked to numerous acute medical problems that can and do result in dangerous diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be stressed and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of people will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the professional rehab they need.