10 Essential Facts About Alcohol Abuse

Whether you prefer beer, wine, or hard liquor such as bourbon, tequila, or gin, what you don't know about alcohol can be dangerous.

According to a survey conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 56 percent of American adults over the age of 18 reported drinking in the previous month, with 24 percent admitting to binge drinking.

Of course, most people who drink do not binge drink, do not have physical problems associated with alcohol abuse or alcoholism, and will never develop an alcohol problem.

However, before you take your next drink, consider the following facts about alcohol, alcohol abuse, and your health:

1. The intoxicating component in alcoholic beverages is ethyl alcohol. Ethanol is made from fermented yeast, sugars, and starches found in a wide range of grains, fruits, vegetables, and plants. When you drink in moderation, the liver can easily metabolize alcohol from both of these drinks because ethyl alcohol is fundamentally the same in all forms of alcoholic beverages. Heavy drinking, on the other hand, overburdens your liver, and excess alcohol circulates throughout the body, including your brain. This is what causes you to become inebriated.

2. You may be consuming more alcohol than you know. Standard alcoholic drinks, such as the ones mentioned below, have around 14 grams (0.6 ounces) of pure alcohol in them.

• 12 ounces (oz) standard beer

• 5 oz. wine

• 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits

• 8–9 ounces malt liquor

However, customary beverage serving sizes in restaurants and bars do not always correspond to standard drink sizes. As a result, a single mixed cocktail may contain the alcohol equivalent of up to three standard drinks.

Men should limit their alcohol consumption to no more than four drinks per day, or 14 per week, to maintain a low-risk drinking level that will minimize any impact on their health and susceptibility to addiction. Women and people over the age of 65 should limit themselves to three drinks per day and seven drinks per week. It is critical to stick to both daily and weekly limits.

3. Alcohol, in moderation, may be beneficial to your health. According to Lewis Nelson, MD, professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, many chemicals are beneficial in low doses but toxic in higher doses.

According to Dr. Nelson, “the benefits of consuming small amounts of alcohol are primarily due to reductions in behavioral, emotional, and physiological responses to stress.” This explains why many of alcohol's perceived benefits are cardiovascular in nature, potentially protecting against stroke and heart attack. He continues, "We don't know whether low-dose consumption of any alcohol is beneficial, or if only specific alcohol-containing products, such as wine, are."

4. Alcohol has an effect on the brain. According to Brad Lander, PhD, clinical director of addiction medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, your brain physically adapts to your surroundings so you can do better at anything you're doing. However, if you drink alcohol on a regular basis, your brain can perceive this as a new environment and alter nerve cells and brain connections to help you work better with alcohol in your system.

“The brain does not ‘unadapt' after it has adapted to the alcohol,” he says. “Some of these shifts appear to be a challenge for alcoholics even after they quit drinking.”

5. Alcohol has different effects on men and women. According to Dr. Lander, men and women metabolize alcohol differently due to differences in stomach enzymes, hormones, muscle-to-fat ratios, and water concentration in the body. Women absorb more alcohol and metabolize it more slowly, and they are also at a higher risk of long-term alcohol damage. Men are more likely to drink excessively while also engaging in high-risk behaviors, resulting in a higher rate of alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations.

6. Alcoholism has a hereditary component. Family history is the most powerful risk factor for having an alcoholism. “Part of it is due to your parents' genes, and part of it is due to the world in which your parents raised you: nature vs. nurture. “Many [experts] believe the balance is roughly 50-50,” Nelson says. “The genetic aspect does not appear to be due to a single gene, but rather to a slew of genetic interactions that influence both the likelihood of developing the disease and the response to various treatment approaches,” says the study.

7. There is a distinction between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Lander defines alcohol abuse as "drinking in a way that causes problems in a person's life." Some examples include failing to meet responsibilities at work or at home, continuing to drink despite the fact that it is causing relationship problems, or encountering legal issues (such as being charged with driving under the influence) as a result of drinking.

Alcohol addiction is widespread, and it is the most widely used addictive drug in the US. Alcoholism affects almost 17 million people in the United States, or nearly 7% of the population. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, about half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking, and more than seven million children live in households where at least one parent drinks excessively.

"In contrast, alcoholism involves changes to neurons in the brain that create obsessions, such as the feeling of needing a drink or compulsive drinking, which is drinking when you didn't intend to or drinking more than you intended," Lander explains. Many experts believe that alcoholism is a chronic, or lifelong, disease.

8. Alcohol is a leading cause of death in the United States. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly 88,000 Americans die each year from alcohol-related causes (alcohol is responsible for nearly one-third of all driving fatalities), making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the country. Excessive drinking increases the risk of developing other diseases, including cancers of the mouth, colon, rectal, stomach, and esophagus.

9. Binge drinking is dangerous. According to the NIAAA, excessive drinking in a short period of time, also known as binge drinking, is common among people aged 18 to 22. The agency defines binge drinking as four drinks for women and five drinks for men in less than two hours.

Alcohol slows breathing and, if consumed in excess, can cause you to stop breathing entirely. “Alcohol is a sedative, as are almost all sedatives at high enough doses. Every year, thousands of cases of alcohol poisoning occur in the United States,” Nelson says.

Such dangerous health consequences of binge drinking include vomiting (which puts you at risk of choking), seizures, exhaustion, and unconsciousness. Your stomach and intestines will begin to pump alcohol into your bloodstream even though you're unconscious, increasing your blood alcohol levels even higher.

10. Withdrawing from alcohol can be harmful. When you quit drinking after being addicted to alcohol, your nerve cells can become so irritated that you experience delirium tremens, or DTs, which can lead to uncontrollable seizures in its most extreme form. DTs are a medical emergency that necessitates admission to the hospital.

Related:  5 Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Liquor Brands