Alcohol & Alcoholism Facts

1. The health-related symptoms of alcoholism include dizziness, blurred vision, unconsciousness and even coma and death. Long-term alcohol use can also have serious impact upon just about every organ in the person’s body.
2. Counseling and drugs are the two most commonly used treatments for alcoholism and treatment can be dispensed in a detoxification program where psychological support and psychiatric treatment is available and emphasis is placed on abstinence and acceptance of the disease. Drug treatments include the use of a alcohol-sensitizing drug "disulfiram" (Antabuse). and other medications such as naltrexone, and acamprosate.
3. An alcoholism intervention is a confrontation between those who are concerned about the individual and feel the need for medical diagnosis and treatment of the symptoms of alcoholism and the person with the alcohol problem.
4. Education is the best prevention for alcoholism and it must start with the youth so that they are taught and encouraged to avoid situations that will put them at risk for alcoholism.
5. There are quite a few medical complications that can arise when a person suffers from alcoholism including birth defects (when mom is an alcoholic), bone loss, cardiovascular problems, divorce and domestic violence, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes complications, poor work performance or poor performance at school, sexual function, problems with menstruation and also a higher rate of suicide and homicide.
6. The World Health Organization (WHO) discovered that 1 in 3 patients in Britain were at risk for drinking behavior.
7. Alcoholism is more common in France than it is in Italy even though both countries have identical per capita alcohol consumption.
8. Half of all violent crimes are connected to alcoholism. Individuals who abuse alcohol are less likely to quit smoking so alcohol increases another health risk – smoking tobacco products.
9. Alcoholism is twice as prevalent in males as it is in females in fact it is 2.5 times as likely in men than it is in women.
10. Women who are diagnosed with alcoholism are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life as opposed to males who tend to develop alcoholism earlier in life.
11. Alcoholism is a chronic and serious health problem that can lead to alcohol-related cirrhosis, cardiomyopathy, gastrointestinal problems, and pancreatitis.
12. The younger the individual starts the drinking habit the difficult the disease is to treat. Those that have a good deal of difficulty dealing with stressful situations or those who have mental issues tend to be at a higher risk for developing alcoholism.
13. Alcoholism will follow a very predictable path that will become progressively worse over time. The disease makes the individual feel as if they can’t possibly function normally unless they consume greater and greater amounts of alcohol, leading to more severe symptoms of health related problems. The disease can progress to the point of being fatal.
14. Statistics show that there are more than 100,000 deaths each year that can be directed tied to alcoholism or excessive alcohol consumption that include both direct and indirect causes of death such as death caused by drunk driving, alcohol-related falls, liver cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, complications of diabetes that are related to alcohol consumption, and also stroke.
15. The illness spreads through family units as children of parents who suffer from alcoholism have a significantly higher risk for starting to drink during the teen years and then to develop alcohol related disorder because of the early drinking.

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