For more than a few years alcoholism exploration has demonstrated the fact that there is strong linkage between alcoholism and life-threatening health conditions.
For example, in 2005, medical research demonstrated the fact that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. It can be stressed that this enormous alcohol-related cash outlay 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 conditions.
To be more precise, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly associated with obesity and with cancer.
Undeniably, substance abuse examination has demonstrated the fact that alcohol dependency can augment the risk for various forms 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 damage to the fetus during pregnancy.
Excessive Drinking Breaks Down the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs
What is more, if alcoholism continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in a negative manner. For instance, repeated, 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. Extreme amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and eradicates the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can ultimately lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a serious and potentially incurable disease.
Abusive, long-term drinking not only can result in severe liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this dangerous may be unalterable and may, in turn, result in serious llness or premature death.
The Importance of Alcohol Treatment
It is important, consequently, to know how to identify the different alcohol dependency symptoms and signs so that the alcoholic can be given the opportunity to seek the quality alcohol treatment he or she requires.
Alcohol Dependency and Sophisticated Brain Exploration
Fortuitously, medical exploration is relentlessly finding new and significant information. Recent alcoholism exploration supplies an excellent example. More precisely, for approximately the past ten years, complex brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that repetitive and long lasting excessive drinking transforms the functionality of the brain to a significant extent, thereby resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perhaps as long as the individual lives.
Stated differently, medical investigation has shown that people who have been drinking excessively for a substantial length of time increase their risk for developing long-term 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.
Malnutrition, Excessive Drinking, and Mental Disorders
As a final example of assorted medical problems that are significantly correlated to alcoholism, take into account the fact that according to medical exploration, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a condition that limits the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
This form of organ failure is correlated with malnutrition and to an assortment of severe neurological and mental maladies including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical condition is a long-term debilitating condition that is epitomized by continual memory and learning problems.
Summary
It is apparent that repetitive, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly correlated with numerous critical medical problems that can and do result in dangerous illness and premature death. Such information needs to be underlined and presented to everyone in our society so that a multitude of individuals will be able to refrain from irresponsible drinking while others who have a drinking problem will get the professional treatment they need.