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Alcohol Use and Your Health Alcohol Use

Drinking alcohol too much or too often, or being unable to control alcohol consumption, can be a sign of alcohol misuse and, in some cases, alcohol use disorder (AUD). There is strong scientific evidence that alcohol drinking can cause cancer (1, 2). The National Toxicology Program has listed consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen in its Report on Carcinogens since the ninth edition, in 2000. NIAAA defines heavy alcohol drinking as having four or more drinks on any day or eight or more drinks per week for women and five or more drinks on any day or 15 or more drinks per week for men. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks (men), or four or more drinks (women), in about 2 hours.

Brain and Nervous System Problems

Even if your case of AUD is mild, it can have a serious effect on your physical and mental health. Often, AUD causes other problems that you try to avoid by drinking. Another way to look at your drinking habits is to think about how much you have during an average week. For women, “heavy” or “at risk” drinking means more than seven drinks per week or more than three in any day.

A model of care for co-occurring AUD and other mental health disorders

Care is integrated with patients’ other health care to improve treatment access, reduce costs, and promote better physical and mental health outcomes. Like many other substance use disorders, alcohol use disorder is a chronic and sometimes relapsing condition that reflects changes in the brain. This means that when people with the disorder are abstaining from alcohol, they are still at increased risk of resuming unhealthy alcohol consumption, even if years have passed since their last drink.

What Causes Alcohol Use Disorder?

More resources for a variety of healthcare professionals can be found in the Additional Links for Patient Care. Very high concentrations of alcohol in the blood can cause breathing problems, coma, or death. Many past studies did not consider other factors that could have influenced the results. We invite healthcare professionals to complete a post-test to earn FREE continuing education credit (CME/CE or ABIM MOC). This continuing education opportunity is jointly provided by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and NIAAA.

• Thus, the blood alcohol concentration builds when a person has additional drinks before prior drinks are metabolized.
• People with this condition can’t stop drinking, even if their alcohol use upends their lives and the lives of those around them.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism outlines, “Treatment for alcohol use disorder may include detoxification, behavioral therapies, and medications” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2021).
• Black, Latino, and other ethnic groups who had a high school education or less and who were on Medicare or Medicaid were also less likely to get the more detailed screenings.
• Alcohol can interfere with a person’s ability to care for their other medical conditions or make other medical conditions worse.

More studies now show that there aren’t health benefits of moderate drinking compared to not drinking. You can lower your health risks from alcohol by drinking less or not drinking at all. Learn more about the effects of alcohol use on men’s and women’s health. For example, one way the body metabolizes alcohol is through the activity of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH, which converts ethanol into the carcinogenic metabolite acetaldehyde, mainly in the liver. Recent evidence suggests that acetaldehyde production also occurs in the oral cavity and may be influenced by factors such as the oral microbiome (28, 29).

Video: Why are Drugs So Hard to Quit?

Overall, alcohol use disorder meets the criteria for a disease due to its identifiable causes, range of symptoms, and negative impact on health and functioning. As with most other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, treatment for drug addiction generally isn’t a cure. People who are recovering from an addiction will be at risk for relapse for years and possibly for their whole lives. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medicines with behavioral therapy ensures the best chance of success for most patients. Treatment approaches tailored to each patient’s drug use patterns and any co-occurring medical, mental, and social problems can lead to continued recovery. In this disorder, people can’t stop drinking, even when drinking affects their health, puts their safety at risk and damages their personal relationships.

• Amanda completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice and Post Masters Certification in Psychiatry at Florida Atlantic University.
• Psychotherapy may help a person understand the influences that trigger drinking.
• To a lesser degree, other enzymes (CYP2E1 and catalase) also break down alcohol to acetaldehyde.
• Nevertheless, it can be controlled with medication and lifestyle changes.
• A person’s risk of alcohol-related cancers is influenced by that person’s genes, specifically the genes that encode enzymes involved in metabolizing (breaking down) alcohol (27).
• Many past studies did not consider other factors that could have influenced the results.

Alcohol and Cancer Risk

In pregnant women who drink drug addiction treatment alcohol, there is also the danger that the child will develop fetal alcohol syndrome, a cluster of health problems including unusually low birth weight, facial abnormalities, heart defects and learning difficulties. Alcohol, the most commonly used substance in the United States, has far-reaching health consequences that impact not only individual patients but the entire healthcare system. Alcohol use in and of itself is not problematic but exists along a spectrum from low-risk use to alcohol use disorder (AUD).

How is alcohol use disorder diagnosed?

• Our Florida medical detox facility can help you safely eliminate alcohol from your system, which would then allow you to move forward with drug & alcohol addiction rehabilitation.
• If someone you love struggles with alcohol use disorder, you should express your concerns objectively and compassionately without judgement or blame—as you would do with any serious chronic disease.
• What’s more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol use leads to over 95,000 deaths in the U.S. every year.
• The intervening category, known as risky drinking, includes heavy drinking as well as binge drinking.1 AUD is a chronic disease with significant medical, social, and psychological implications for the patient.
• As mentioned, genetic and environmental susceptibilities are not fully understood.

Treatment offering the greatest potential for successful recovery includes behavioral therapies, medication, a 12-step support system, and family support. Studies show that what is considered chronic alcohol use those who continue therapy after completing their treatment program and regularly attend 12-step support meetings, have the highest success rate for long-term recovery. The latest science shows that AUD can cause lasting changes in the brain.