A Brief Word about Alcoholism

By: William C. Head, Attorney at Law

About 8% of all American adults are alcoholics.  Roughly 15,000,000 million Americans suffer from this often debilitating disease.  Some are able to carry on with employment functions while others are mired in a psychological fog that disables them from keeping any sort of job.

Alcoholism is caused by a combination of physiological, psychological, social, and (very often) genetic factors. Alcoholism is a developmental disease that progresses slowly over a number of years and is based on both the physical and emotional dependency on alcohol. In many Alcoholism can lead to debilitating physical ailments, brain damage and early death.

Early symptoms include a pre-occupation with having alcohol available, which influences a person’s choice of avocations, friends and associates. Alcoholics use alcohol more as a personality-changing drug rather than a beverage served with food or as a social custom.

An alcoholic usually develops (through repeated consumption) a high tolerance to alcohol, which means that he or she can drink more and show fewer side effects than others.  Due to this conditioning of the alcoholic’s body to “counter” the typical symptoms of alcohol impairment, it may be more difficult for friends and family to detect when the person has been drinking. 

The alcoholic typically begins to drink even though it may not be in the person’s best interest.  Common sense and reason are thrown out the window as the physiological “need” for the effects of the drug overwhelms the alcoholic.  As the disease progresses, alcohol comes to be more important than personal relationships, family, work, or even health.

The disease can appear to be latent for a while.  Hence, estimating how much an alcoholic will drink at a certain occasion is not possible.  If the alcoholic is presently abstaining from alcohol there is no good way to predict when the drinking will resume again. In advanced stages of the disease, physical dependence (addiction) may lead to consuming some type of alcohol around the clock to avoid withdrawal symptoms.  A true alcoholic will drink Listerine®, Scope® or even whole bottles of Nyquil® or rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) to satisfy the craving for the drug (yes, alcohol is a drug.)

Ethyl alcohol, the alcohol used in alcoholic beverages, consists of C₂H₅OH. It is a clear liquid with a burning taste and a pleasant smell. It has toxic (i.e., can cause DEATH) and sedative (i.e., can cause loss of consciousness) effects on the body. In the days before ether and other anesthetics, alcohol was often given to a patient prior to surgery in an effort to dull the pain anticipated from the surgery.

Alcohol can detrimentally affect major organs in the human body. For example, it can cause ulcers, inflammation or the pancreas, and cirrhosis of the liver. It can permanently damage the central nervous system, weaken blood vessels and capillaries (sometimes leading to stroke) and damage the peripheral nervous system. Withdrawal from alcohol, in severe cases, can cause shaking limbs, hallucinations, and blackouts. These symptoms can be fatal if not properly treated. Even withdrawal from hard drugs such as heroin rarely results in death, yet alcohol withdrawal patients have severe problems with the effects of alcohol.

The liver is the largest internal organ in the body. In a healthy adult, it weighs about 3 pounds and holds about thirteen percent of the body’s blood supply. Blood flowing from the stomach and intestines goes into the liver where the liver extracts nutrients and cleans out toxins that all humans tend to have in their bodies. The blood is then pumped back to the heart.

The liver performs over 500 vital functions. It processes all of the nutrients that the body requires, including breaking down protein, glucose, vitamins, cholesterol, and fats. It also works to convert potentially toxic substances, including alcohol, ammonia, nicotine, drugs to non-toxic “metabolites” or burn-off products.

The liver is particularly susceptible to being damaged by alcohol. In the body, alcohol breaks down into various chemicals which are very toxic to the liver. Alcoholic cirrhosis is the most common cause of cirrhosis in the U.S. and is estimated to be responsible for 44% of deaths from cirrhosis in North America.  However, one Canadian study found alcohol to be the major contributor to 80% of all cirrhosis deaths.

About 10% to 35% of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis. After years of drinking, liver damage can be very severe, leading to cirrhosis in about 10% to 20% of cases. Not eating during drinking episodes and consuming a variety of alcoholic beverages are also factors that increase the risk for liver damage. People with alcoholism are also at higher risk for hepatitis B and C. People with alcoholism should be immunized against hepatitis B and may need a larger dose of the vaccine for it to be effective.

Recent evidence shows that even moderate drinking in women during pregnancy can result in serious damage to the child. For example, it may cause physical or mental retardation, inability to perform school work, and in some cases, fetal alcohol syndrome.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a recognized medical condition caused by alcohol consumption of pregnant women. The consumption of alcohol greatly increases the risk of abnormalities for the unborn child. Some of these abnormalities include: growth deficiencies (head, weight, length etc.), facial abnormalities (small head, small jaw, small, closely-set eyes), heart disease, and limb abnormalities.

Recognizing that one has a problem is the first step in treatment. For most alcoholics, the next step is detoxification, which is the medical management of severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms.  Many psychologists have become alcohol and drug counselors and specialize in treating the disease through education, therapy sessions and aftercare programs of varying degrees of intensity and oversight.

Patients undergoing “detox” (detoxification), which usually requires less than a week, and often stay in a specialized residential treatment facility or a special unit of a hospital.  These in-house programs can be the turning point for a person in the early stages of alcoholism.  However, in severe cases, long term medical treatment and oversight may be needed.  Fortunately, drug therapies can sometimes assist a person to overcome cravings for alcohol.