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When Abusive Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems

October 30, 2009

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

For instance, in 2005, scientific exploration and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics revealed that alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency cost the United States an estimated $220 billion per year. It may be noted that this substantial alcohol-related cost was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is appropriate to highlight these facts, it is also important to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

To be exact, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.

Certainly, substance abuse research has shown that alcohol addiction can boost the risk for different types of cancer, particularly cancer of the kidneys, rectum, colon, voice box (larynx), esophagus, throat, and the liver. Abusive and recurring drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and damage to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Destabilizes the Individual’s Systems and Organs

Furthermore, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in an unsafe manner. For example, chronic, hazardous 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 consumed. Unwarranted amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and obliterates the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This medical condition leads to a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can ultimately lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and potentially fatal disease.Abusive, long-term drinking not only can lead to severe liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this critical may be irreversible and may, in turn, result in severe disease or premature death.

The Significance of Alcohol Treatment

It is essential, as a result, to know how to recognize the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol 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 Sophisticated Brain Research

Fortunately, scientific research is continuously finding unique and significant information. Recent alcoholism research offers a high-quality example. Stated another way, for roughly the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning devices have confirmed that repetitive and recurring abusive drinking transforms the makeup of the brain to a substantial extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or possibly as long as the individual exists.

More to the point, medical investigation has revealed that individuals who have been drinking abusively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and severe adaptations 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.

Mental Disorders, Malnutrition, and Abusive Drinking

As a final example of various medical problems that are significantly associated with alcohol dependency, take into consideration the fact that according to medical exploration, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a condition that diminishes the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

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

Conclusion

It is clear that continued, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly associated with a number of severe medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous illness and premature death. Such information needs to be stressed and presented to everyone in our society so that a multitude of people will be able to refrain from irresponsible drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the quality therapy they require.

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