When Heavy Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems and Mental Health Issues

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When Heavy Drinking Results in Serious Health Problems and Mental Health Issues

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

For more than a few years alcohol addiction research has revealed the fact that there is strong association between alcohol dependency and life-threatening health conditions and mental health issues such as depression.

For instance, in 2005, scientific investigation and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics demonstrated the fact that that alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. Interestingly, this enormous alcohol-related cash disbursement was substantially more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to put emphasis on these facts, it is also important to point to the fact that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health problems.

That is to say, chronic alcohol abuse and alcoholism are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

Indeed, substance abuse investigation has revealed that alcohol addiction can amplify the risk for different forms of cancer, particularly cancer of the voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, rectum, colon, kidneys, and throat. Abusive and repetitive drinking can also result in immune system issues and injury to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Destabilizes the Problem Drinker’s Organs and Systems

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, repeated, abusive drinking is especially harmful 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 redevelop. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory disease of the liver that can at the end of the day lead to cirrhosis of the liver, an acute and possibly incurable medical problem.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 critical may be unalterable and may, in turn, result in severe ill health or an untimely death.

The Relevance of Alcohol Rehab

It is essential, consequently, to know how to identify the different alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcohol addicted individual can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol treatment he or she needs.

Alcoholism and Sophisticated Brain Research

Fortunately, scientific investigation is relentlessly finding novel and important information. Recent alcoholism exploration offers an excellent example. Stated another way, for roughly the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning devices have confirmed that repetitive and chronic excessive drinking changes the constitution of the brain to a great extent, consequently resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or maybe as long as the person exists.

More accurately, medical exploration has demonstrated that people who have been drinking abusively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing long-term and severe transformations in the brain.

This type of damage may be directly related to severe liver disease, to the alcohol’s effects on the brain, or might be indirectly associated with the drinker’s poor overall health.

Mental Disorders, Malnutrition, and Hazardous Drinking

As a final example of different medical problems that are to a large extent associated with alcohol addiction, take into consideration the fact that according to scientific examination, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can result in erosive gastritis, a medical problem that diminishes the absorption of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins.

This type of organ malfunctioning is related to malnutrition and to an array of severe mental and neurological syndromes including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter medical problem is a long-term debilitating condition that is typified by incessant memory and learning problems.

Summary

It is plain to see that repetitive, abusive drinking is directly or indirectly related to a variety of dangerous medical problems that can and do lead to serious illness and premature death. Such information needs to be highlighted and presented to everyone in our society so that a multitude of people will be able to refrain from excessive drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the quality rehab they require.

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