When Excessive and Hazardous Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems

For several years alcohol dependency research has demonstrated the fact that there is strong correlation between alcohol addiction and life-threatening health conditions.

For example, in 2005, medical examination and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics demonstrated the fact that that alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. It can be stressed that this considerable alcohol-related expense was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is pertinent to give emphasis to these facts, it is also noteworthy to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

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

Undeniably, substance abuse investigation has demonstrated the fact that alcohol addiction can amplify the risk for different types of cancer, especially cancer of the kidneys, rectum, colon, voice box (larynx), esophagus, throat, and the liver. Abusive and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system problems and damage to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Abusive Drinking Enfeebles the Drinker’s Systems and Organs

Additionally, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unsafe manner. For instance, chronic, hazardous drinking is particularly harmful 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 obliterates the ability of liver cells to regenerate. This medical condition results in a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can in the long run lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a dangerous and possibly terminal medical problem.Abusive, long-term drinking not only can result in critical liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this severe may be irreversible and may, in turn, result in severe ill health or an early death.

The Significance of Alcohol Therapy

It is imperative, then, to know how to identify the various alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol addicted individual can be given the opportunity to seek the quality alcohol counseling he or she needs.

Alcohol Addiction and Technologically Advanced Brain Exploration

Fortuitously, medical examination is relentlessly unearthing novel and significant information. Recent alcoholism research provides a high-quality example. More correctly, for approximately the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning devices have shown that continuous and chronic abusive drinking modifies the constitution of the brain to a substantial extent, therefore resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perhaps as long as the individual lives.

More precisely, medical examination has shown that individuals who have been drinking excessively for an extensive length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and severe adaptations 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.

Abusive Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of assorted health problems that are largely related to alcohol dependency, consider that according to medical research, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a medical problem that limits the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This kind of organ failure is associated with malnutrition and to an array of critical mental and neurological disorders including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is an enduring debilitating condition that is characterized by persistent learning and memory problems.

Summary

It is clear that repetitive, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly correlated with a number of acute medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be highlighted and presented to everyone in our society so that a multitude of individuals will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the professional treatment they require.

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