What Are the Long Term Dangers of Alcohol Abuse?
Drinking Alcohol comes with inherent risk. No matter how careful you are, you may be doing long lasting damage to your body and mind by drinking alcohol. This is even more pertinent if you regularly abuse alcohol. Alcohol comes with a litany of short term dangers, but oftentimes even more worrisome is the long term dangers of alcohol. Over time, alcohol wreaks havoc over your body and may present issues and situations down that road that may put you in peril.
Long-Term Dangers of Alcohol Abuse
1. Unintentional injuries such as car crash, falls, burns, and drowning
Not only does drinking make you more likely to injure yourself while drunk, it also can make you more of a long term risk of injury. If you have a lifestyle that involves consuming a lot of alcohol, you may find a gradual dip in your fine motor functions. This dip may put you at risk for an unintentional injury.
2. Intentional injuries such as firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence
Chronic drinking can cause impairment of your judgement, leading to you making a rash decision to do something that you usually would think twice about.
3. Increased on-the-job injuries and loss of productivity
Being drunk on the job has obvious limitations, but so does being hungover. If you are frequently abusing alcohol, before long others will notice your huge drop in productivity and attention to detail and soon enough you may find yourself unemployed.
4. Increased family problems, broken relationships
Alcohol has a tendency of negatively impacting relationships. Alcohol abuse can lead to you being flaky, saying things you shouldn’t, inappropriate contact and more with friends and family. Over time, this can lead to a dramatic fracture in the relationship.
5. High blood pressure, stroke, and other heart-related diseases
Alcohol abuse damages the central nervous system, and this damage impairs the ability of your veins and arteries to dilate and constrict. This leads to high blood pressure and eventually heart disease.
6. Liver disease
The liver breaks down alcohol so it can be removed from the body, and making it work overtime with frequent alcohol abuse is a recipe for disaster. Over time this manifests itself in liver disease.
7. Nerve damage
Alcohol is a depressant that slows down everything in your body. If you drink often enough, this effect can become permanent. Suddenly, you may find yourself victim to issues such as shaking or other nerve damage side effects,
8. Sexual problems
Drinking alcohol may make you more likely to engage in sexual activity because of impaired judgement, but continued alcohol abuse can lead to several long term sexual issues.
9. Permanent damage to the brain
If you ingest enough toxins that get absorbed in the brain, it can lead to permanent brain damage. This can be impaired brain functioning, poor or degenerative memory, inability to focus, and other issues.
10. Ulcers
Drinking regularly can result in an ulcer. Ulcers are a sore in the digestive tract that cause pain while eating, heartburn, a bloated feeling and other symptoms. Keep your digestive tract healthy but not abusing alcohol.
11. Gastritis (inflammation of stomach walls)
Gastritis is an inflammation or irritation of the stomach walls due to abusing alcohol. If you suffer from Gastritis, you are likely to experience indigestion, vomiting, abdominal pain, abdominal bloating and other symptoms.
12. Malnutrition
Alcohol can lead to malnutrition and the ailments associated with it. If you are constantly drinking, you may not be eating as frequently and definitely eat less healthy foods when drunk. Alcohol also inhibits the ability of the body to breakdown and absorb vitamins and nutrients, meaning that even if you are still eating well you still may suffer from malnutrition.
13. Cancer
Drinking heavily increases the risk of cancer. If you habitually abuse alcohol you are more at risk for mouth, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus, liver, breast, and colorectal region cancer.
Get Help for Drinking Problems at The Pearson Center
Avoid these health dangers by overcoming your drinking problem today. The Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research in San Diego specializes in clinical research trials regarding alcohol abuse and binge drinking. We are currently running a study for those who wish to get treatment for alcoholism as well as a study for heavy drinkers who are not seeking help. If you are interested in learning more about the studies, give us a call at (858) 784-7867.