Health Risks of Alcohol: Part 2

Continuing from my last post concerning some of the major health risks involved in alcohol abuse, I’m back with another list of 6 issues you might face if you were to continue succumbing to your addictive behavior.

Seizures

Heavy drinking has been known to cause epilepsy and can even trigger seizures in people who don’t have the disease. When a heavy drinker is going through withdrawal, one of the possible and often fatal results can be an unexpected seizure. Alcohol withdrawal is one of the only forms of withdrawal that truly can be fatal to almost anyone who suffers the heavier symptoms. Alcohol can also interfere with the medications used to treat convulsions.

Gout

 

Gout is an extremely painful condition that is caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the joins. Although most cases are primarily hereditary, alcohol and other various factors of one’s diet can play a role in developing the condition. Alcohol is also known to aggravate an existing case of gout.

High Blood pressure

Alcohol often disrupts the sympathetic nervous system, which among other things, controls the constriction and dilation of blood vessels in response to stress, temperature and exertion. Heavy drinking, primarily binge drinking can cause blood pressure to rise over time. This effect can become chronic. High blood pressure can lead to many other unwanted health issues including kidney disease, heart disease and even a stroke.

Infectious disease

 

Drinking heavily suppresses the immune system, making it significantly easier for infections to take hold. This could include tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS and other various STD’s. Drinking too much too often can also lead to risky sex due to the nature of its inhibition suppressant. Those who drink heavily have been said to be facing a risk roughly three times greater than the average person of contracting a sexual transmitted disease.

Nerve damage

Heavy drinking has been known to cause a form of nerve damage known as alcoholic neuropathy. This condition often produces painful pins-and-needles sensations or numbness in the extremities. Other symptoms are muscle weakness, incontinence, constipation, erectile dysfunction, etc. Alcoholic neuropathy may arise because alcohol is toxic to nerve cells, or because nutritional deficiencies attributable to heavy drinking compromise nerve function.

Pancreatitis

 

In addition to causing stomach irritation, drinking can inflame the pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis interferes with the digestive process which may cause severe abdominal pain and persistent diarrhea. This condition can be cause by gallstones but it’s said that up to 60% of cases stem from alcohol abuse.

Of course, these are just a few of the many serious health risks we sign up for by continuing with our addictive behavior. Drinking poison (alcohol) is going to hurt your body. How much or in what way is very subjective but the fact is, we’re better off without it. If we can’t drink casually and have admitted that we need to stop even if only for personal reasons, it’s important to remember just how many serious health issues we’re avoiding by sticking to this wise decision. If it’s still something you’re not sure of, be sure to keep reading. There are new discoveries every day on how damaging alcohol abuse can be to our minds and bodies and this short list of 12 barely scratches the surface of what we already know. Recovery doesn’t have to be scary; it can be a rewarding and enlightening process. However the conditions we may face if we chose to continue with our addictive behavior are extremely scare and we would do well to remember that.

Health Risks of Alcohol: Part 1

It’s no secret that the consequences of our addictive behavior go beyond the personal and truly reap havoc with our bodies. Both our mental and physical health can be significantly damaged by alcohol and sometimes it’s important to step back and look closely at the health risks of continuing our addictive behavior.  Here are just 6 conditions that can be linked to chronic heavy drinking.

Anemia

Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to drop significantly. This condition (Anemia) can trigger a host of symptoms. Some of them including fatigue, shortness of breath and light headedness.

Cancer

As stated by Jurgen Rehm, PhD chairman of the University of Toronto’s department of addiction policy and senior scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. “Habitual drinking increases the risk of cancer”. Like most scientists he believes the increase risk comes when the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a potent carcinogen. Cancer research also links alcohol use to mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, breast and colorectal region cancer. These risks rise even higher in heavy drinks who also smoke.

Cardiovascular disease

Heavy drinking, especially binge drinking which is an extremely common form of alcohol abuse with many, makes platelets more likely to clump together into blood clots can lead to heart attack or stroke. In a study published in 2005 by Harvard researchers, it was found that binge drinking doubled the risk of death among people who initially survived a heart attack.

Heavy drinking also has the potential to cause cardiomyopathy. This is a potentially deadly condition in which the heart muscle weakens and eventually fails. It also causes heart rhythm abnormalities such as atrial and ventricular fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is when the heart’s upper chambers (atria) twitch chaotically rather than constrict rhythmically. This can cause blood clots that may trigger a stroke. Ventricular fibrillation can cause chaotic twitching in the heart’s main pumping chambers (ventricles). It may cause rapid loss of consciousness and without immediate treatment, death.

Cirrhosis

Alcohol is extremely toxic to liver cells. A common result of heavy drinking is the development of cirrhosis which is a sometimes lethal condition in which the liver itself is so heavily scarred that it is no longer able to function. It’s difficult to predict which drinkers will develop cirrhosis. Some heavy drinkers will spend their entire lives abusing alcohol and never develop the conditions while some who do not drink very much do in fact get it. For some undetermined reason, women seem to be more vulnerable than men.

Dementia

As people grow older, their brains begin to shrink. This happens on average at a rate of about 1.9% per decade. That’s considered normal, however heavy drinking greatly increases the speed of shrinkage of certain key regions in the brain resulting in memory loss and other symptoms of dementia.

Heavy drinking may also lead to subtle yet potentially debilitating deficits in the ability to plan, judge, solve problems and perform other aspects of “executive function” which are the abilities that allow us to maximize our function as humans.

In addition, heavy drinking can also cause such significant nutritional deficiencies that they themselves trigger other forms of dementia.

Depression

It’s long been known that heavy drinking plays a heavy part in the depression of many. Surely we’ve all found that though it has the potential to make you feel better short term, the long term effects cause a more drastic slip into sadness, depression and anxiety.

Aside from the changes  in our brain chemistry caused by alcohol abuse, we tend to make further bad life choices while under the influence that often make our living conditions and circumstances worse. It truly Is a downward spiral that we owe it to ourselves to get out of.

More to come soon..

6 Reasons Why it's Great to Get Sober

1. Feeling healthy feels great

Now before I go on, getting sober in itself doesn't necessarily mean getting healthy. Too often people replace their addictive behavior with overeating or indulgence in other self destructive activities. It is important when going into recovery to be mindful of these things and focus not only on sobriety but your physical health and well being.

That said, a sober body and mind feels remarkably better than that of an abused one. Alcohol is literally poison that you ingest into your bloodstream which causes havoc on your organs, brain and central nervous system. When we stop pouring poison into our bodies they tend to respond in amazing ways. Our bodies have a fascinating ability to heal and it's not long after putting down the bottle that your eyes begin to clear, your skin and hair looks healthier and your energy levels go up.

During withdrawal, you may not feel this way. It does take some time for your body in the early stages of recovery to reach a point where you notice these feelings. When you do though, you may find it's the best you've felt in years. On top of looking better and feeling better your mind will become sharper.

2. Saving money

Lets face it, alcohol is not cheap. Even the lousy stuff adds up over time. Say you only drink the cheapest vodka on the shelf, you're still hypothetically spending a minimum of $5 a day in order to maintain that lifestyle. That bare minimum adds up to $150 a month extra in your pocket. Most of us however likely spend much more than that on our drugs of choice.

Everyone is different in this regard but it's safe to suggest we can all save thousands per year by simply choosing not to drink. This opens up a variety of options one can pursue with their saved money. It may just become easier to make bill payments, pay off your car, mortgage or credit card debt. Perhaps invest it in your future or even use some of it to join a gym or a club that promotes healthy living.

We could all use a little more coin in our pockets, you'll find your wallet expanding once you chose to put down the bottle and walk the road of recovery.

3. Regaining the trust of family and friends

In most cases if you've reached a point where your addictive behavior is effecting your life in such a way that you're seeking help in recovery, there's a good chance you've hurt, offended or let down someone you care about at some point. Unfortunately, one of the many negative consequences of addictive behavior is lack of responsibility and trustworthiness. We're prone to lying or manipulating people we care about in order to continue to drink or take drugs. Our brains reach a point that they are no longer functioning at a normal level and we become people that others don't particularly want to associate with.

When you manage to put the bottle down and focus on recovery, more often than not we find even those we hurt willing to help and forgive. Some take longer than others, however it is the nature of people to want to help and support those they love. It may take some time, rebuilding broken bridges can be difficult. The harder you work towards sobriety the more people will see it and often respect you for it.

On top of rebuilding the relationships that may have been hurt by our addiction, we are now free to pursue new and wonderful relationships. Often when in an addictive and drugged state we shut out most of the world. Or perhaps just let in others who's lives are focused around self destructive choices. You'll be feeling, looking and thinking better and suddenly finding that others really like sober and honest people. Who knew?

4. Change in perspective

Sure, those first few drinks may give you a buzz and a short termed joyful boost but generally those of us who drink constantly are not happy people. We can become vicious and hateful even, as the alcohol reaps havoc on our brains. We don't notice the little intricacies that make life wonderful and often we reject everything that we don't agree with.

I for one became very hateful towards people who had different thoughts or opinions than I. Still to this day I'm stubborn and opinionated but not to the point of thinking everyone who had a different mindset towards politics, religion or society were idiots. As months of sobriety passed so did much of my anger and disdain towards the world. I, personally am a rather cynical person. However I'm no longer an unhappy one. I've learned acceptance. I may not agree with how things are, yet I can accept those things and move on.

Like it or not, the majority of things in this world are subjective and you're not right all the time. Most importantly, that's absolutely okay! It is a difficult perspective to have when shrouded in a haze of drunken frustration and depression. The sober and clean mind is an open one.

5. Time is on your side

How often, even when drinking did you think of fun activities that you'd like to take part in only to find yourself passed out or sleeping until midday whenever you had "free" time. Or, perhaps all you ever cared about was getting a fix and you never really considered all the cool stuff there is to do in this big yet small world. Now that you're sober and have all that access energy, there's a lot of time to fill and it can be done with some pretty fantastic things.

As a personal example, I really enjoy kayaking with my wife along the cost of Florida. It's great exercise and even the first time I went out I saw and experienced things that were so far beyond any experience sucking back the contents of a bottle ever granted me. Visiting symphonies or simply going out to dinner once a week and not only being able to stomach the food but the ability to remember every wonderful moment.

6. No more blackouts

Blackouts were becoming so constant for me, that even the moments leading up to me buying a bottle became fuzzy the next day. That constant wondering what happened, why I was waking up in a strange place or the couch. The uncertainty as to what damage I'd caused this time was absolutely terrifying. I've woken up in hospitals and I've woken up in jail with absolutely no memory of how I got there.

I'm fortunate in that all the chaos and havoc I've caused has been reparable and not too severe. That can not be said for all who drink themselves into a state of waking unconsciousness. I can think back to parties even in my youth, I recall the feeling of enjoyment yet I can not remember the moments themselves. What point is there to experiencing anything if you can not assign memory to them. As we age, memory can begin to fade. However as teenagers, young or even older adults there's no logical reason to enhance or speed up this process.

Going out for the evening and waking up the next day not only feeling refreshed from a proper sleep but able to recall the entirety of the evening in full is one of the greatest experiences someone new to sobriety can have. To me, it was one of the earliest and most reassuring gifts of a sober lifestyle. Weeks that consisted of a day or two of memory now have 7 full days of good and bad. As a sober person, I can enjoy the good and make the best of the bad without crippling under the weight of it.

Sobriety isn't easy, but it is the most rewarding path anyone can take. I've covered 6 reasons that sobriety is great but they are countless and subjective. You'll discover there are things that are specific to your circumstances but I can promise they will all be positive. Keep on keeping strong!

Playing The Tape Forward

There are many tools designed to help deal with the psychological difficulties associated with the recovery process. Several designed specifically to help deal with urges, which are not only dangerous but extremely common in early and later stages of recovery. One tool I like is called “Playing the tape forward”. It’s very simple and straight forward and seemingly obvious yet something we don’t often let ourselves do.

When we get an urge, we generally begin to play out the familiar process in our heads. We begin with how we’re going to obtain acquire the drug or bottle, where we’re going to drink it. How we’re going to hide it.. our thought process seems to stop there. Sure we can think lightly about the consequences that may occur but generally we don’t let ourselves focus on the negative and instead focus on our desire.

Next time you’re feeling an urge, play it all out like this. Think about how you’re going to get your drug of choice, where you’re going to take/drink/smoke it, what you’ll do. Then based on all of your past experiences think thoroughly about everything that will follow. Surely you’ve been through it all before and generally it all plays out the same way.

Here’s a specific example: Going to obtain the alcohol, sneak it into the house and drink it in the bathroom. Try to cover it up with mouth wash, however it likely won’t work. Will end up in an argument with loved ones, will be told to leave. Now I have to find a place to sleep for the night and wake up in a strange place feeling like crap. Now, sick and tired from the drink I have to try and figure out a way to apologize for my actions. Feeling that guilt, take note that this is how it always happens…

By going through the whole familiar process in your head before you give in to the urge, you may find yourself more capable of stepping back and being mindful of how poor the choice to use will be. Urges happen to all of us, but they come and go like waves. Use this tool to get through the next one and you’ll be grateful you chose to abstain.

Relapse? Be Strong - Move on!

One of the most common sources of anxiety, primarily in the first year of recovery can be the fear of a relapse. Unfortunately, people who have never suffered from addiction have a difficult time understanding or empathizing with what one is going through, especially in that first crucial year. Between the expectations of our loved ones and even the design of some treatment programs we can come to consider relapse in itself a complete failure. As though all our progress is somehow forfeit due to a slip along the path to sobriety.

It’s important to understand that almost everyone stumbles along this path at times and relapse is something experienced by the vast majority of people in recovery. Be it small or large, it’s something that can and often does happen.. It is NOT a failure.. It is no reason to feel guilty or ashamed. It is however, something which we can learn from. We need to step back and recognize it for what it is. Be mindful of the experience, take note and observe the circumstances that lead to the relapse itself and use what you’ve learned to become stronger should you find yourself facing similar challenges again.

Do not beat yourself up over it. You’ve abstained for 68 hypothetical days but on an unfortunate night found yourself slipping to your old routine and reaching for that bottle? Do not fret, you have NOT lost those 68 days. They are still with you, they are an accomplishment to be proud of and all part of the journey you’ve started. It's just as important for loved ones to educate themselves to better understand the trials you face and how they can be there for you. In doing so they can better understand that should you relapse, the world does not end.. It is not about them, it's about you. So get up, brush yourself off and move forward should you fall. Next time you will be better equipped to deal with whatever it was that tripped you along the way..

“Why do we fall Master Wayne? So we can learn to pick ourselves up!” – Alfred Pennyworth