For more than a few years alcohol addiction research has revealed the fact that there is strong relationship between alcohol addiction and life-threatening health conditions.
For instance, in 2005, medical examination 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 huge alcohol-related cost was substantially more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to accentuate these facts, it is also noteworthy to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.
To be more precise, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.
To be sure, substance abuse investigation has shown that alcohol addiction can boost the risk for various kinds of cancer, particularly cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Abusive and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system issues and abnormality to the fetus during pregnancy.
Abusive and Heavy Drinking Enfeebles the Person’s Systems and Organs
Additionally, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will more likely than not be affected in an unhealthy manner. As an illustration, chronic, excessive drinking is especially injurious 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 regenerate. This medical circumstance leads to a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a serious and potentially incurable disease.Excessive, long-term drinking not only can lead to acute liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this dangerous may be unalterable and may, in turn, result in severe illness or an early death.
The Critical Nature of Alcohol Counseling
It is imperative, therefore, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol dependent individual can be given the opportunity to seek the professional alcohol counseling he or she needs.
Alcoholism and Sophisticated Brain Exploration
Fortunately, medical examination is persistently discovering innovative and important information. Recent alcoholism research offers a good illustration. Stated differently, for roughly the last ten years, complicated brain-imaging scanning devices have demonstrated that repetitive and chronic excessive drinking modifies the configuration of the brain to a substantial extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perhaps as long as the individual lives.
More specifically, medical investigation has shown that people who have been drinking excessively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing permanent and severe alterations 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.
Excessive Drinking, Malnutrition, and Mental Disorders
As a final example of different medical conditions that are to a large extent associated with alcohol dependency, consider that according to scientific examination, the hazardous and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical problem that limits the absorption of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins.
This form of organ malfunctioning is linked to malnutrition and to a number of serious mental and neurological maladies including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is an enduring debilitating condition that is epitomized by incessant memory and learning problems.
Summary
It is clear that repetitive, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly linked to a number of severe medical conditions that can and do lead to serious diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be stressed and presented to everyone in our society so that a massive amount of people will be able to refrain from hazardous drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehabilitation they require.
Tags: abusive drinking, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol treatment, alcoholism, heavy drinking, self improvement