The Common Disease Alcoholism

There is a disease that is common to many people, cultures and societies throughout the world, it is called, alcoholism. It is also a chronic and serious health problem that can lead to alcohol-related cirrhosis, cardiomyopathy, gastrointestinal problems, and pancreatitis. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a leading cause of mental retardation and results from alcoholism of the mother during pregnancy.

Just how common is alcoholism in the U.S.?

When surveying hospital patients you may find that 20% of all adult hospital inpatients suffer from alcoholism according to a U.S. National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Study. According to the study it is more common for the disease to be seen in lower income families that are less educated.

What about the rest of the world?

The World Health Organization (WHO) discovered that 1 in 3 patients in Britain were at risk for drinking behavior and that alcoholism is more common in France than it is in Italy and both countries have identical per capita alcohol consumption.

Did you know that alcoholism is the 3rd leading cause of PREVENTABLE death in the U.S.? A whopping 4% of the global burden of disease can be directly related to alcoholism and in North America, Australia, Europe and Japan with that figure is increased to 7% with the figure going even higher, to 12% in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Alcoholism is also responsible for a number of complications or consequences including 20% of all motor vehicle accidents involve alcohol, 19% of all mouth and oropharyngeal cancers are related to alcohol consumption, 24% of all homicides have a alcohol connection, and alcoholism is the cause of 32% of all cirrhosis.

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.

The disease, 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. 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.

Just because the statistics show how common alcoholism is doesn’t mean that there is the understanding about the disease. Many individuals including those who employ those with the disease, spouses, other family members, friend’s even doctors have a difficult time understanding the difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. This misunderstanding creates a greater hardship on the individual who is suffering from alcoholism because treatment is dependent on getting the diagnosis and accepting it.

The fact that alcoholism is a chronic disease means that the disease will never go away, even when the symptoms are being managed and the patient is in treatment; the disease can rear its ugly head and create havoc in the life of the individual who has the disease, his/her family, friends and others such as employers, co-workers, and community members.

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