When Irresponsible and Excessive Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems

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

For example, in 2005, medical exploration and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. Interestingly, this very large alcohol-related cost was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is pertinent to stress these facts, it is also important to point out that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

To be more precise, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly associated with obesity and with cancer.

To be sure, substance abuse examination has demonstrated the fact that alcohol addiction can increase the risk for various forms of cancer, especially cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Abusive and recurring drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and injury to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Destabilizes the Problem Drinker’s Organs and Systems

Furthermore, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unsafe manner. As an illustration, long-term, abusive drinking is especially harmful 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 condition results in a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and possibly deadly medical problem.Excessive, 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 unalterable and may, in turn, result in serious disease or an early death.

The Importance of Alcohol Treatment

It is essential, therefore, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcoholic can be given the opportunity to seek the quality alcohol counseling he or she requires.

Alcohol Dependency and Technologically Advanced Brain Research

Fortunately, medical research is persistently generating original and important information. Recent alcoholism research provides a high-quality illustration. Stated another way, for roughly the past ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that repetitive and long-term irresponsible drinking transforms the structure of the brain to a substantial extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perchance as long as the person lives.

More specifically, medical examination has shown that individuals who have been drinking in an excessive manner for a substantial length of time increase their risk for developing long-term and substantial alterations 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.

Excessive Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final illustration of assorted medical problems that are largely related to alcohol addiction, consider that according to scientific exploration, the hazardous and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a health problem that reduces the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This kind of organ breakdown is related to malnutrition and to a variety of critical neurological and mental maladies including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is an enduring incapacitating medical condition that is exemplified by incessant memory and learning complications.

Summary

It is obvious that continued, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly linked to many dangerous medical problems that can and do result in serious diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of individuals will be able to refrain from abusive drinking while other people who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehabilitation they need.