For more than a few years alcohol dependency research has demonstrated the fact that there is strong association between alcoholism and serious health conditions.
For instance, in 2005, medical research showed that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. Interestingly, this gigantic alcohol-related expenditure was substantially more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is pertinent to accentuate these facts, it is also noteworthy to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.
That is to say, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.
To be sure, substance abuse investigation has demonstrated the fact that alcohol addiction can augment the risk for different types of cancer, particularly cancer of the kidneys, rectum, colon, voice box (larynx), esophagus, throat, and the liver. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system difficulties and damage to the fetus during pregnancy.
Hazardous and Heavy Drinking Weakens the Problem Drinker’s Systems and Organs
Additionally, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will likely be affected in a negative manner. As an illustration, chronic, excessive drinking is particularly injurious to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been ingested. Extreme amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and obliterates the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory malfunction of the liver that can in the end lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a precarious and possibly deadly disease.
Abusive, long-term drinking not only can result in dangerous liver damage, but it can also lead to damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this dangerous may be irrepairable and may, in turn, result in severe disease or an untimely death.
The Significance of Alcohol Treatment
It is essential, therefore, to know how to identify the various alcohol dependency symptoms and signs so that the alcohol addicted individual can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol rehabilitation he or she needs.
Alcoholism and Sophisticated Brain Exploration
Fortuitously, scientific investigation is constantly discovering original and significant information. Recent alcoholism exploration supplies a high-quality example. Stated differently, for approximately the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning instruments have confirmed that repetitive and long-term irresponsible drinking transforms the configuration of the brain to a great extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or maybe as long as the person lives.
More to the point, medical exploration has demonstrated that people who have been drinking abusively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing lasting and severe adaptations 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, Abusive Drinking, and Mental Disorders
As a final example of assorted medical conditions that are considerably correlated to alcohol addiction, consider that in accordance with medical exploration, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical problem that reduces the absorption of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins.
This type of organ failure is associated with malnutrition and to a variety of severe neurological and mental maladies including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical condition is an enduring debilitating medical condition that is typified by continual learning and memory difficulties.
Summary
It is apparent that repetitive, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly correlated with a variety of critical medical conditions that can and do lead to dangerous diseases and premature death. Such information needs to be underlined and presented to everyone in our society so that a large number of individuals will be able to refrain from abusive drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the professional rehabilitation they need.
