When Abusive and Hazardous Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems

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

For instance, in 2005, medical exploration 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. Interestingly, this huge alcohol-related cash disbursement was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is relevant to stress these facts, it is also noteworthy to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.

More specifically, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

To be sure, substance abuse exploration has shown that alcohol addiction can amplify the risk for various forms of cancer, especially cancer of the colon, voice box (larynx), liver, rectum, throat, kidneys, and the esophagus. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system difficulties and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.

Heavy and Abusive Drinking Weakens the Person’s Systems and Organs

What is more, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unsafe manner. For instance, long-term, hazardous drinking is particularly injurious to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been consumed. Excessive amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and destroys the ability of liver cells to redevelop. This medical condition leads to a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can at the end of the day lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a serious and potentially terminal disease.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, lead to serious ill health or an untimely death.

The Critical Nature of Alcohol Treatment

It is critical, consequently, to know how to recognize the different alcoholism symptoms and the "alcohol signs" so that the alcohol dependent individual can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol rehab he or she needs.

Alcohol Dependency and Technologically Advanced Brain Research

Fortuitously, scientific examination is relentlessly discovering innovative and significant information. Recent alcoholism research supplies a good illustration. More precisely, for roughly the past ten years, complex brain-imaging scanning devices have verified that continuous and long-term abusive drinking changes the configuration of the brain to a significant extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or conceivably as long as the individual lives.

Stated another way, medical examination has shown that individuals who have been drinking excessively for a substantial length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and substantial changes 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.

Mental Disorders, Malnutrition, and Abusive Drinking

As a final example of assorted health problems that are significantly related to alcohol dependency, consider that according to scientific examination, the excessive 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 breakdown is associated with malnutrition and to a number of severe mental and neurological disorders including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is a long lasting incapacitating medical condition that is typified by repetitive learning and memory complications.

Conclusion

It is clear that continued, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly linked to a variety of critical medical conditions that can and do result in dangerous ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be underlined and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of individuals will be able to abstain from irresponsible drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the professional therapy they require.