Drinking problems

Healthy economies, health in general, family harmony, and intelligent thinking is brought low by alcohol abuse. Is that a fact or an assumption? Just look around and observe the behavior of the most important elements of the business world, the entertainment industry, and the academic circles and see how they relate to the smallest hint of stress.

All too many need that drink to clinch the deal, another drink to seal it and yet another drink to celebrate the occasion. After that is it any wonder they’re inebriated up to their gills. Business should be about business, entertainment needs clear headed people and enthusiastic well-wishers, and colleges and universities need brains not compromised by alcohol.

Alcohol contributes to memory deficits, lowers the ability to resist and restrain one’s behavior when temptation threatens to undermine a well-developed conscience. And in general drinking too much drowns out that still small voice that tells you what is right and what is wrong and leads to demoralizing behavior. When intoxicated, blackouts or totally un-recalled events can take place and when a people lose their ability to remain in control of their faculties, anything can happen. A person under the influence of strong drink may make deals no sensible person would make, have sexual encounters that would have been unthinkable had they been in control of their actions, and students, with a total disregard for propriety and academic excellence, grades will go down.

Thiamine deficiency

In addition, alcohol takes over for nutrition. It blocks and robs the body of nutrients it needs for body building. Balance is disrupted. Specifically, alcohol robs the body of thiamine. And thiamine, a B vitamin, is necessary for active brain function, according to NIH. Alcohol does much more than that, but lower amounts of thiamine directly relates to diseases affecting memory and the nerves supplying nerve cells and messaging passage ways:

“Thiamine deficiency is the established cause of an alcohol–linked neurological disorder known as Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome (WKS), but it also contributes significantly to other forms of alcohol–induced brain injury, such as various degrees of cognitive impairment, including the most severe, alcohol–induced persisting dementia”.

Liver disease

Alcohol induced liver disease is the most common and most documented disease caused by too much drinking. This is understandable since the alcohol must be converted by the liver into a form it can utilize—the same way it acts with other food and liquids—and this is not an easy chore for the liver. Toxins and free radicals escape and harm the liver. Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver and cirrhosis, hardening of the liver by scarring are the two most common liver diseases.

Statistics are alarming: NIH reports that 10 to 35 who “drink heavily” will end up with hepatitis, and 10 to 20 percent will develop cirrhosis. In fact they report that the leading cause of death among young adults and middle aged people is cirrhosis.

Depression

Controversy surrounds depression where alcohol is a contributing factor. It’s not well understood which comes first, whether excessive alcohol brings on the depression, or whether drinking starts as a way to circumvent depression. Both probably, and each depend on the individual person, how much they drink, their age, and their overall health.

Fetal Alcoholism syndrome

Pregnant mothers are not to drink because the baby shares every bit of food and drink with the mother. Abnormalities are known to happen, some are mild but they range all the way to mental retardation.

To learn more about how to assess your drinking problem, if you have one, an online help guide stands ready with information. They will show you how to determine if you have a problem. The good news is they will help you determine whether you only have a problem or whether you are an alcoholic. If you are still in control and can take a drink now and then and not binge, then maybe you only have a problem; if you cannot take that first drink without drinking yourself senseless, then you are an alcoholic.

Drinking moderately may be okay and it’s possible there are health benefits. These, however, are few and far between, therefore, sobriety is the best health benefit of all and it comes from leaving alcohol alone, at least most of the time