For a number of years alcoholism exploration has revealed the fact that there is strong correlation between alcohol dependency and serious health conditions and mental health issues such as depression.

For example, in 2005, medical examination and alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics showed that alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency cost the United States an estimated $220 billion annually. It can be stressed that this very large alcohol-related expenditure was substantially more than the cost linked with cancer ($196 billion) or with obesity ($133 billion). While it is important to highlight these facts, it is also important to emphasize the point that an interrelationship exists between all three of these health issues.

More to the point, chronic alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency are also highly interrelated with obesity and with cancer.

Without a doubt, substance abuse exploration has shown that alcohol addiction can augment the risk for various types of cancer, especially cancer of the kidneys, rectum, colon, voice box (larynx), esophagus, throat, and the liver. Heavy and repetitive drinking can also lead to immune system problems and impairment to the fetus during pregnancy.

Hazardous and Excessive Drinking Enfeebles the Drinker’s Organs and Systems

Furthermore, if alcohol addiction continues over a period of years, the person’s body organs will probably be affected in a harmful manner. For instance, repeated, hazardous drinking is particularly detrimental 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 obliterates the ability of liver cells to reproduce. This condition leads to a progressive inflammatory injury to the liver that can sooner or later lead to cirrhosis of the liver, a grave and potentially incurable disease.Heavy, long-term drinking not only can lead to dangerous liver damage, but it can also result in damage to the heart and to the brain. Physical damage this critical may be irreparable and may, in turn, result in severe disease or premature death.

The Significance of Alcohol Counseling

It is important, therefore, to know how to identify the various alcoholism symptoms and the “alcohol signs” so that the alcoholic can be given the opportunity to get the professional alcohol counseling he or she needs.

Alcohol Addiction and Technologically Advanced Brain Research

Fortuitously, medical research is persistently finding unique and significant information. Recent alcoholism research provides a good example. More exactly, for roughly the past ten years, technologically advanced brain-imaging scanning devices have verified that continuous and recurring hazardous drinking transforms the functionality of the brain to a great extent, consequently resulting in brain disease that can last months, years, or perchance as long as the person lives.

More explicitly, medical investigation has demonstrated that people who have been drinking abusively for a considerable length of time increase their risk for developing long-term and substantial changes 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.

Malnutrition, Abusive Drinking, and Mental Disorders

As a final example of diverse medical problems that are substantially related to alcohol addiction, consider that according to medical investigation, the excessive and repeated abuse of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, a medical problem that limits the absorption of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins.

This form of organ failure is linked to malnutrition and to a number of serious neurological and mental syndromes including sleep disturbances, memory loss, and psychosis such as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. This latter health problem is a long lasting incapacitating medical condition that is typified by persistent learning and memory problems.

Summary

It is evident that continued, hazardous drinking is directly or indirectly related to many dangerous medical problems that can and do result in dangerous illness and premature death. Such information needs to be emphasized and presented to everyone in our society so that most individuals will be able to abstain from irresponsible drinking while other individuals who have a drinking problem will get the quality therapy they require.