When Excessive and Heavy Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems
For more than a few years alcoholism research has demonstrated the fact that there is strong correlation between alcoholism and serious health conditions.
As an illustration, in 2005, medical investigation and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics demonstrated the fact that that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion per year. It can be emphasized that this gigantic alcohol-related expenditure was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is appropriate to stress these facts, it is also important to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.
More precisely, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly correlated with obesity and with cancer.
Definitely, substance abuse research has revealed that alcohol addiction can boost the risk for various types of cancer, particularly cancer of the esophagus, kidneys, throat, rectum, liver, voice box (larynx), and the colon. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.
Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs
Furthermore, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in a harmful manner. For instance, long-term, excessive 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. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and eradicates the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This medical circumstance leads to a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and potentially terminal medical problem.Excessive, long-term drinking not only can result in serious liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this serious may be irreversible and may, in turn, result in serious illness or an early death.
The Relevance of Alcohol Counseling
It is vital, then, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol dependent person can be given the opportunity to get the quality alcohol therapy he or she needs.
Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Research
Fortuitously, scientific exploration is constantly generating new and significant information. Recent alcoholism exploration offers a good example. Stated another way, for roughly the last ten years, sophisticated brain-imaging scanning instruments have demonstrated that repetitive and long-term irresponsible drinking alters the configuration of the brain to a great extent, therefore resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the individual lives.
More correctly, medical research has shown that individuals who have been drinking in an irresponsible manner for a sizeable length of time increase their risk for developing lasting and severe transformations in the brain.
This type of damage may be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health or directly related to severe liver disease or to the alcohol’s effects on the brain.
Malnutrition, Excessive Drinking, and Mental Disorders
As a final example of assorted medical problems that are substantially correlated to alcohol addiction, consider that according to scientific research, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a health problem that reduces the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
This form of organ breakdown is associated with malnutrition and to a variety of severe mental and neurological problems including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is a lasting debilitating condition that is epitomized by persistent memory and learning problems.
Summary
It is plain to see that repetitive, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly related to a number of critical medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of people will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the professional therapy they require.
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