Alcohol Overview

Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is an intoxicating ingredient found in beer, wine, and liquor. Alcohol is produced by the fermentation of yeast, sugars, and starches.

Long Term Alcohol Effect on the Body

How alcohol affects you in the long term depends on how much and how often you drink. Heavy drinking raises blood pressure and puts people at risk of stroke and heart failure. Heavy alcohol use can result in appetite loss, sexual impotence or menstrual irregularities, vitamin deficiencies and infections. Alcohol irritates the lining of the stomach, which can be painful and is potentially fatal. Alcoholic liver disease is a major cause of illness and death in North America. Alcohol also increases the risk of liver, throat, breast and other cancers.

Chronic use of alcohol can damage the brain, which can lead to dementia, difficulties with co-ordination and motor control, and loss of feeling or painful burning in the feet. Alcohol dependence often results in clinical depression, and the rate of suicide among people who are alcohol-dependent is six times that of the general population.

Although women's average lifetime alcohol intake is less than half that of men, women are just as likely as men to develop alcohol-related diseases, and are twice as likely to die from these conditions.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment / Alcohol Rehab

Treatment for alcohol addiction usually begins by treating withdrawal symptoms, but most people needs additional treatments to help them stop drinking. Even after long periods of abstinence, a person may continue to crave alcohol, and may begin to drink again. Alcohol addiction treatment may include residential alcohol rehab, individual or group therapy, self-help or mutual help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and certain medications, such as naltrexone. Some people respond well to one form of alcohol addiction treatment, while others do not.

Often people who suffer from alcohol addiction may be suffering from depression. The condition is called a dual diagnosis and to be overcome successfully requires skilled medical attention and the services of an addiction treatment facility.

If you or someone you love has an addiction to alcohol, seek the help of our alcohol rehab, contact us at:

ALCOHOL, ALCOHOLISM RELATED TOPIC:

Introduction to alcohol

Drinking levels

Excessive alcohol use

Drinking problems

Special populations