When Excessive and Hazardous Drinking Leads to Serious Health Problems
For a number of years alcohol addiction research has revealed the fact that there is strong relationship between alcohol dependency and critical health conditions.
As an illustration, in 2005, medical research and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. It may be noted that this massive alcohol-related cash disbursement was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is relevant to emphasize these facts, it is also noteworthy to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health conditions.
To be exact, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.
Certainly, substance abuse examination has demonstrated the fact that alcoholism can amplify the risk for different forms of cancer, especially cancer of the kidneys, rectum, colon, voice box (larynx), esophagus, throat, and the liver. Heavy and recurring drinking can also result in immune system problems and deformity to the fetus during pregnancy.
Heavy and Excessive Drinking Weakens the Individual’s Organs and Systems
What is more, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will likely be affected in a harmful manner. For example, chronic, hazardous drinking is especially hurtful 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 redevelop. This medical condition results in a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a grave and possibly deadly medical problem.Abusive, 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 critical may be irreparable and may, in turn, lead to serious illness or an untimely death.
The Critical Nature of Alcohol Rehab
It is critical, therefore, to know how to recognize the various alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol dependent individual can be given the opportunity to get the quality alcohol counseling he or she requires.
Alcohol Addiction and Sophisticated Brain Exploration
Fortunately, medical examination is continuously uncovering novel and important information. Recent alcoholism research supplies a first-rate example. More correctly, for roughly the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that repetitive and long lasting abusive drinking alters the configuration of the brain to a substantial extent, consequently resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or possibly as long as the individual lives.
More specifically, medical examination has revealed that individuals who have been drinking abusively for an extensive length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and significant modifications 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.
Mental Disorders, Malnutrition, and Excessive Drinking
As a final illustration of diverse medical problems that are to a large extent correlated to alcohol addiction, take into account the fact that in accordance with medical exploration, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical condition that decreases the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
This kind of organ failure is related to malnutrition and to an array of severe neurological and mental syndromes including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is an enduring debilitating medical condition that is typified by incessant memory and learning complications.
Summary
It is evident that repetitive, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly correlated with numerous serious medical problems that can and do lead to dangerous ailments and premature death. Such information needs to be stressed 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 need.
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