When Abusive and Heavy Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems

For more than a few years alcohol addiction exploration has revealed the fact that there is strong correlation between alcohol addiction and serious health conditions.

For example, in 2005, medical exploration demonstrated the fact that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. It can be stressed that this immense alcohol-related expenditure was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is pertinent to highlight these facts, it is also important to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health conditions.

More specifically, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.

Indeed, substance abuse examination has revealed that alcoholism can increase the risk for different kinds of cancer, particularly cancer of the esophagus, kidneys, throat, rectum, liver, voice box (larynx), and the colon. Heavy and recurring drinking can also result in immune system problems and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.

Excessive and Abusive Drinking Weakens the Individual’s Systems and Organs

Furthermore, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will probably be affected in an unsafe manner. For instance, repeated, excessive drinking is especially injurious to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Extreme amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and destroys the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This medical circumstance results in a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can sooner or later lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a grave and possibly terminal medical problem.

Abusive, long-term drinking not only can result in acute liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this dangerous may be irreversible and may, in turn, result in serious ill health or an early death.

The Relevance of Alcohol Treatment

It is critical, then, to know how to recognize the various alcohol dependency signs and symptoms so that the alcohol dependent individual can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol treatment he or she requires.

Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Research

Fortuitously, scientific investigation is persistently discovering novel and important information. Recent alcoholism exploration offers a first-rate illustration. More correctly, for roughly the past ten years, sophisticated brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that repetitive and recurring abusive drinking changes the constitution of the brain to a significant extent, thusly resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the person exists.

Stated another way, medical investigation has demonstrated that individuals who have been drinking in an irresponsible manner for an extensive length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and significant modifications in the brain.

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

Mental Disorders, Malnutrition, and Hazardous Drinking

As a final illustration of various health problems that are to a great extent related to alcohol dependency, take into account the fact that according to scientific investigation, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical problem that diminishes the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This form of organ failure is related to malnutrition and to an assortment of severe neurological and mental problems including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is a long-term incapacitating health problem that is characterized by repetitive memory and learning complications.

Summary

It is apparent that continued, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly associated with numerous serious medical problems that can and do result in serious ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be underlined and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of individuals will be able to abstain from excessive drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the professional therapy they require.

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Tagged with: abusive drinking • alcohol abuse • alcohol addiction • alcohol dependency • alcohol treatment • alcoholism • heavy drinking

Filed under: Alternative Therapies

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