When Hazardous and Heavy Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems and Depression

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When Hazardous and Heavy Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems and Depression

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

For several years alcoholism exploration has revealed the fact that there is strong linkage between alcohol dependency and life-threatening health conditions and mental health issues such as depression.

For example, in 2005, medical investigation and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics revealed that alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency cost the United States an estimated $220 billion on an annual basis. It may be noted that this immense alcohol-related cash outlay was significantly more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to highlight these facts, it is also important to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health conditions.

Stated another way, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

Certainly, substance abuse research has revealed that alcoholism can increase the risk for different kinds of cancer, especially cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Abusive and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system difficulties and impairment to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Heavy Drinking Breaks Down the Person’s Organs and Systems

What is more, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the individual’s body organs will likely be affected in an unsafe manner. For instance, long-term, abusive drinking is particularly damaging to the liver since the liver does most of the work of processing the alcohol that has been ingested. Unwarranted amounts of alcohol kills liver cells and obliterates the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This medical condition leads to a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can in due course lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a grave and potentially incurable medical problem.Heavy, long-term drinking not only can result in serious 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, lead to severe illness or an untimely death.

The Critical Nature of Alcohol Rehab

It is vital, then, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol dependent person can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol treatment he or she needs.

Alcohol Dependency and Technologically Advanced Brain Exploration

Fortunately, medical exploration is relentlessly finding unique and significant information. Recent alcoholism research provides a high-quality example. Stated another way, for roughly the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning instruments have shown that continuous and chronic abusive drinking alters the makeup of the brain to a significant extent, as a consequence resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or possibly as long as the individual exists.

More precisely, medical examination has demonstrated that individuals who have been drinking abusively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing long lasting and serious transformations 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 Excessive Drinking

As a final illustration of assorted medical problems that are considerably related to alcoholism, consider that according to medical investigation, the abusive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a health problem that decreases the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

This form of organ breakdown is correlated with malnutrition and to a variety of serious mental and neurological disorders including memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical condition is a long lasting debilitating condition that is epitomized by repetitive memory and learning problems.

Summary

It is clear that repetitive, excessive drinking is directly or indirectly associated with a number of critical 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 massive amount of people will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while other people who have a drinking problem will get the professional treatment they need.

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