Alcohol addiction is a major health risk issue that should be addressed in order to deter the sometimes-fatal short term and long-term effects of the disease. Some of the dangerous short-term effects of the disease include impairment of judgment and coordination that can result to fatal accidents. In the long term, development of cirrhosis of the liver and some types of cancer can prove fatal to sufferers of alcohol addiction.
Alcohol addiction can have a serious life threatening and debilitating effect on the h uman body. When a person consumes large amounts of alcohol regularly he may develop alcohol addiction where his brain and body begins to crave for the effects the substance induces after consuming large quantities.
The short-term and long-term effects of alcohol addiction depend on a variety of factors. The type of alcoholic beverage consumed, the amount and level of alcohol per drink, and the duration of time measured in months and years the person drinks the substance. Aside from the amount, other factors also come to play to influence the effects of alcohol addiction namely: the person’s weight, age, sex and size.
The short-term effects of alcohol addiction are immediate. The person who binge drinks begins to display loss of inhibition. This is particularly one of the most sought after effects especially for individuals that tend to be shy in social situations. They resort to alcohol to make themselves more open to the others and therefore begin displaying uninhibited behavior.
Other short-term effects of alcohol addiction include talkativeness and dizziness, the most immediate effects of consuming large doses include disturbed sleep, slurring of speech and nausea and vomiting. At low doses, alcohol automatically can begin to impair judgment and coordination exposing the individual to high-risk behavior like insisting on taking the wheel when already drunk, endangering their life and the lives of others. Thousands of people die each year from drunk driving related accidents because of this.
Prolonged and heavy use results in alcohol addiction. If a person tries to stop cold turkey he will have withdrawal symptoms that include delirium, severe anxiety including hallucinations and convulsions. The long-term effects of alcohol addiction combined with poor nutrition leads to irreversible damage to vital organs. Liver cirrhosis or more commonly chronic scarring of the liver is one of the serious long-term effects of alcohol addiction. The liver is where the alcohol is metabolized and filtered, chronic abuse kills and damages the liver to a point where it dies. Only a liver transplant could help sufferers of this disease.
Chronic alcohol addiction also leads sufferers to have hepatic encephalopathy wherein they develop delirium coma and death due to damage from the liver and brain. Other long-term effects include susceptibility to certain cancers including cancers of the oesophagus, pharynx and mouth. There are also some studies that present a link between chronic alcoholism and the development of liver, breast and colorectal cancers.
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