When Hazardous and Abusive Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems
For more than a few years alcoholism research has revealed the fact that there is strong association between alcohol dependency and serious health conditions.
For example, in 2005, scientific examination demonstrated the fact that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion per year. It can be emphasized that this huge alcohol-related expenditure was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is relevant to underline these facts, it is also important to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.
More explicitly, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.
Indeed, substance abuse investigation has revealed that alcohol addiction can augment the risk for different types of cancer, especially cancer of the liver, voice box (larynx), kidneys, colon, esophagus, rectum, and the throat. Hazardous and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system problems and impairment to the fetus during pregnancy.
Excessive and Hazardous Drinking Weakens the Person’s Systems and Organs
Furthermore, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will likely be affected in a negative manner. For example, repeated, abusive drinking is especially detrimental 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 eradicates the ability of liver cells to regenerate. This medical circumstance leads to a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can sooner or later lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a critical and possibly fatal medical problem.
Heavy, long-term drinking not only can lead to critical liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this critical may be unalterable and may, in turn, lead to serious ill health or an untimely death.
The Relevance of Alcohol Treatment
It is vital, then, to know how to identify the different alcohol dependency symptoms and signs so that the alcohol addicted person can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol rehabilitation he or she needs.
Alcohol Addiction and Technologically Advanced Brain Research
Fortuitously, scientific exploration is persistently generating innovative and significant information. Recent alcoholism research supplies a high-quality illustration. More precisely, for approximately the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning instruments have confirmed that continuous and long-term hazardous drinking changes the constitution of the brain to a substantial extent, thusly resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the person exists.
More accurately, medical investigation has revealed that people who have been drinking excessively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing long-term and severe modifications in the brain.
This type of damage may be directly related to the alcohol’s effects on the brain, to severe liver disease, or might be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health.
Hazardous Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders
As a final illustration of various medical conditions that are to a great extent associated with 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 condition that decreases the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
This form of organ malfunctioning is correlated with malnutrition and to an array of serious mental and neurological maladies including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is a long lasting debilitating medical condition that is epitomized by continual memory and learning problems.
Conclusion
It is plain to see that continued, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly associated with many acute medical conditions that can and do result in serious illness and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a large number of individuals will be able to refrain from irresponsible drinking while other people who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehab they require.
Tags: abusive drinking, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol treatment, alcoholism, heavy drinking, self improvement