Health Problems effect-of-abuse


12 Dangers Chronic Heavy Drinking Poses On Your Health In Stoke Under Alcohol Rehab Stoke

Excess drinking can cause many health challenges, it can also lead to liver sickness and wounds inflicted through car accidents, and this is publicly known. However, if you believe that liver disease and car crashes are the only health risks assosiated with alcohol consumption then you are wrong. More than 60 diseases have been linked to alcohol consumption by researchers throughout the world.


"Alcohol affects the body in many ways that we are yet ignorant of" as quoted by James C. Garbutt, MD, a psychotherapy lecturer at the North Carolina University at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and also a University researcher of Bowles Centre for Alcohol courses. This is a molecule which is pretty complicated.


Up to 12 health issues that are linked to acute alcohol consumption include

  • Anemia
  • The number of oxygen-carrying blood cells to become abnormally low when they are caused by heavy drinking.
  • Dizziness, low breath and exhaustion are group of signs that can result from this condition which is called anemia.
  • Cancer
  • As the Toronto based high-ranking scientist for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and administrative head of the department of dependency policy at University of Toronto, Jurgen Rehm, PhD has said "Habitual drinking increases the risk of cancer".
  • Scientists are of the opinion that the enhanced risk rises when the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, which is a potent carcinogen.
  • The liver, oesophagus, throat, voice box, breast, mouth, colon, and rectum are areas where cancer can develop due to alcohol consumption.
  • Chronic alcoholics that combine drinking with tobacco use are even more susceptible to cancers.
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Excessive intake of alcohol like bingeing can result to heart attack or stroke mostly when the platelets fuse up to each other.
  • Bingeing can double the risk of dying if you've previously suffered a heart attack according to a key study that was conducted and published in 2005 by researchers from Harvard.
  • Ailments like cardiomyopathy, which weakens the muscles of the heart and eventually destroys it, and some other abnormalities with the rhythm of the heart including ventricular and atrial fibrillation could develop as a result of chronic drinking.
  • Atrial fibrillation is the condition in which the upper chambers to the heart twitch rather than constrict rhythmically can cause blood clots, which can trigger a stroke.
  • Chaotic twitching of the ventricles, which do most of the pumping work, is known as ventricular fibrillation.
  • It could make the victim suddenly unconscious; leading to death is not properly treated immediately.
  • Cirrhosis
  • Alcohol is known to be toxic to liver cells and numerous heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, which is often a lethal condition because it can scar the liver to a level where it will become impossible for it to function.
  • Determining whether a drinker will develop cirrhosis is not easy.
  • "Cirrhosis may not even happen to the person that drinks so much alcohol; it might happen to the one who doesn't take much drink", as said by Saitz .
  • Women tend to be at a greater risk than men for some mysterious reason.
  • Dementia
  • The brain continues to contract as people mature, averagely at a speed of about 1.9% every ten years.
  • And that's natural.
  • The brain weakens faster when an excess dose of alcohol is consumed; this can lead to dementia and other mental illnesses.
  • Garbutt further stated that the ability to execute certain higher level functions such as planning, solving problems and making judgements may also be gradually lowered by consistent heavy drinking.
  • Heavy drinking can also cause nutritional deficiencies, which are severe and can trigger other forms of dementia in addition to the nonspecific dementia which stems from brain atrophy.
  • Depression
  • Information is available from the past that heavy drinking is often accompanied by depression but there have been debates about which one of them arrived initially - the drinking or the depression.
  • Most people drink because they want to get relieved so they can free themselves from stress and troubles is one theory.
  • According to the New Zealand research, the reverse is the case - which is, excessive intake of alcohol causes depression.
  • Saitz said, some study reveals that regular drinking increases the rate of depression.

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  • Seizures
  • Even in people who have no history of epilepsy, heavy drinking can cause this leading to seizures.
  • The prescription drugs used to manage convulsions can have their effects counteracted as well.
  • When crystals of uric acid form in the joints, this condition is known as Gout.
  • Alcohol has been noted to be a major player in this condition although in certain cases it is hereditary.
  • It does give the indication that alcohol can aggravate existing conditions of gout.
  • High Blood Pressure
  • A disruption of the sympathetic nervous system is caused by the consumption of alcohol, which also controls the constriction and the dilation of blood vessels as a response to stress, temperature, exertion, Etc.
  • The blood pressure could shoot up as a result of excessive consumption of alcohol, especially binge.
  • This condition becomes severe with time.
  • Some other health issues like stroke, heart diseases, and kidney infections could be caused by the high blood pressure.
  • Infectious Disease
  • Drinking heavily can suppress the immune system and provide a toehold for infections, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, including some, which can cause infertility.
  • Heavy drinkers are prone to engage in dangerous sexual actions.
  • Experts have clarified that heavy drinking is associated with a threefold increase in the risks of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.
  • Nerve Damage
  • Heavy drinking can also cause alcoholic neuropathy, which is a form of nerve damage that can produce painful pins and needles, feeling of numbness in extreme conditions along with weakness of the muscles, incontinence, constipation, erectile dysfunction and numerous other problems.
  • Alcohol is toxic to the nerve cells and this is the reason for the alcoholic neuropathy and it could also be because of nutritional deficiencies, which can be attributed to the heavy drinking which may have caused a compromise to the functions of the nerves.
  • Pancreatitis
  • The pancreas can also be inflamed by alcohol, in addition to the condition called gastritis which means irritation of the abdomen.
  • Chronic pancreatitis affects the digestive process, resulting to a cruel stomach ache and continuous diarrhoea - Saitz said "it's not curable."
  • About 60 percent of long-lasting pancreatitis cases are related to alcohol use, although some of them are cause by gallstones.