Alcoholism and Modern Health Issues - Essay Example

? Alcoholism and Modern Health Issues Introduction Health is becoming a truly important issue as more health concerns continue to increase. In this regard, there are a number of issues with regard to health issues which remain to be comprehensively attended to. For instance, alcoholism is becoming a significant health risk for many people. The issue of how alcoholism affects human health. There is a need consider how this issue will continue to affect the health of individuals. To understand how alcoholism is an issue with regard to health of an individual, it will be necessary for there to be a comparison of the issue with other health issues. These other issues include diet and smoking. While smoking and proper diet have been the two main issues which health practitioners have concentrated on. However, it is emerging that alcohol is becoming a principal issue. Alcoholism Alcohol abuse can be defined as any harmful use of alcohol. In any instance, excessive use of alcohol that leads to either both physical and mental harm to the user can be defined as alcohol abuse (Lankford, 2007, pp. 89). According to O’Malley and O’Connor (2011) alcoholism is a significant health issue for most people around the world. In a modern world, individuals are faced with the health issue every day. Lifestyle illnesses have increased, and there is a need for individuals to look at the way they live their lives. This is in regard to their diet habits and what they drink and the activities they do. There are three principal issues related to health issues which can be seen as lifestyle issues. These include alcohol, smoking and high body cholesterol (Partridge, 2012). All these three factors are said to increase the risk of death through diseases or medical disorders which are associated with them. While these three factors may at some cases work together to attack the health of an individual, they can also act individually to affect the health of a person (Ford, 2012, p. 88). In this regard, there is a debate on which of the there is a more ruthless killer. This is a tricky debate as there is no conclusive solution to such a question. However, when looked at individually, it may be possible to isolate each of these factors to determine how each of the facts affects an individual’s health and which of them have the highest possibility to terminating the life of a person. Understanding alcoholism in context of human health To have a proper analysis of these issues, there are those things which must be looked at in a highly proper way. One such factor is the fact that how much any of these will affect an individual is directly determined by the level or amount of intake by the individual. For instance, alcohol is considered to healthy only until a point of abusive or excessive use (Launoy et el, 1997, 45). Cigarettes, while posing a risk at any amount of intake, the risk of affecting an individual’s health is likely to increase with the amount of intake. Cholesterol on the other hand is a much more complicated issue. According to William (2009), cholesterol has become a significant cause of health issues. He argues that although cholesterol may not cause these deaths directly, it causes deaths indirectly. However, the higher the level of cholesterol the more it poses a risk to the individual. Smoking: human health Cigarettes seem to be increasing the risk of health issues not only due to increased use, but also due to that the nicotine levels in cigarettes increasing every time. As research in tobacco farming becomes more advanced, farmers have managed to be able to produce tobacco which is of much higher quality than ever before. With regard to a harmful product such as tobacco, an increase in quality is controversial because it also means that the lethality of the product has increased. As farmers have managed to produce high quality tobacco, this means an increase in the amount of nicotine. Increased nicotine has two fundamental effects on the health of an individual. For instance, it means that an individual who smokes is more likely to be addicted. This means that new smokers are more likely to be hooked and that older smokers will be less likely to be able to cease smoking. This has a fundamental effect on the health of an individual because the main way that smoking affects an individual is by addiction and therefore increases intake of nicotine which the affects the health of an individual. Increased nicotine also means that the amount of harmful cells that an individual is likely to take in will be increased (Launoy et al, 1997, p. 90). More nicotine for instance means that the individual is at a higher risk of cancer. This is especially so because it is believed that nicotine contains numerous cancer causing elements in it. So, as time goes and tobacco farmers are able to produce more concentrated tobacco, the risk of smokers dying from nicotine is increased. Alcohol and smoking: a comparison While some people may not have to worry about nicotine, alcohol has becomes a main concern for health (Lew et al, 2011). Alcohol, especially in beer poses a bigger risk because it is the most silent killer of all time. Alcohol has been labelled as a social drink and is used in many social settings. It is believed that the reason alcohol has virtually won the trophy of being the social drink of choice of many people is because alcohol helps in breaking ice in any social situation. In parties for instance, as people drink and become intoxicated, they are able to interact in an easier and more social way. This means that more people are more likely to be introduced to alcohol use at much lower age than to smoking. Psychologists say that the modern life is more stressing and therefore more people are likely to be lured into using alcohol in order to lure their psychological pain (Fergusson, Boden, and Horwood, 2009, pp.260-66). This means that more people will be affected by the use of alcohol than ever before. Alcohol at first seems to pose little or no harm to the user, but as the user gets used to the use of alcohol they will eventually have to pay an unexcitedly big price. Alcoholism and alcohol abuse is becoming a common thing of the day, and in the modern world, there are way too many individual who have to go through treatment for alcoholism (Galaif, Sussman, Newcomb, and Locke, 2007, pp.27-35). But even as many die from alcoholism, many are the ones who die from other lifestyle related health issues. Rehabilitation from alcoholism is extremely expensive, and many people with this issue are less likely to be able to aces the treatment (Williams, 2013, p. 78). The profile of an average alcoholic person indicates why these persons unable to access the expensive rehabilitation services. These are likely to be people who are going through, among other problems, financial problems, and this means that they cannot be able to afford to pay for the expensive rehabilitations fees (Hain, and Bonner, 2008, pp.1-14).. More importantly, alcoholism is one of the few diseases that receive a lot of stigmatization (Chan, and Harris, 2011, pp 25-28). Stigmatisation of alcoholism This stigmatisation acts in two ways in making it harder for the individual to escape from the deadly claws of the diseases (Jayadeep, Samokhvalov, and Rehm, pp.101-124). To begin with, stigmatization makes it harder for the individual to access medication. This is because the individual is more likely receive less support from family and society. For example, if there were two people of whom one was sick with a more common disease like malaria, and the other with alcoholism, the one with malaria would not only receive no stigmatisation at all, they would be more able to receive support from family and society. Alcoholism is killing even more individuals daily due to a number of issues (Prabhat et al, 2013). Alcohol is a highly strong chemical substances and increased intake affects the brain. Alcohol causes inhibitors which affect the brain and also affect the immune system and those who indulge in too much alcohol intake are more likely to be affected. Like tobacco, alcohol is also addictive, and new users are more likely to be hooked in addition while older users find it harder to quit drinking. Above all, those who abuse alcohol are more likely to resort to suicide as a way to solve the problems (Oquendo, et al, 2010, pp.902-909). Increasing deaths from alcoholism Yearly, the amount of individuals who die from alcohol related health issues increase with time. Unlike cigarettes users, alcohol users face one more risk of untimely death from the use of the substance. This comes in the form of accidents caused by drunk driving. Even after, tight laws have been developed to inhibit people from driving while drunk, there are many people who still break these laws and end up dead in greasily road accident. High cholesterol Excessive cholesterol in the human body is definably a health risk that many people have to be concerned with. With passing time, the amount of individuals with increased cholesterol in their bodies has been particularly high, and this means there are more people at the risk of death due to high fat in their diet. For many people, high fat diet is just a delicious meal they cannot afford to miss; researchers have said that human beings are naturally attracted to eating fatty foods due to a natural programming that took millions of years to perfect (Halton, 2006; 355). In the early days as human beings were developing, there were two main factors which made the human body to need energy. First of all, before civilisation, man had no or limited tools and therefore the process of getting food was tiresome and required a lot of energy, living condition were hard and the body requited a lot of energy. Secondly, the human brain was growing at a particularly high rate and this required a lot of energy to service this complicated machine. The whole human body was therefore programmed to crave for more energy giving food. This kid of programming was done for hundreds of millions of years, and it was only a few years back when man was able to get tools and new lifestyle which does not need a lot of energy. While the human body does not need so much energy today especially with many people working in offices or less active environments, the craving for these foods still goes on. Not only is the craving still there, but it is today much easier to get these foods, especially with numerous fast-food outlets everywhere. The only way that the body knows of storing the excess energy in the body is by converting them into fats. So, when a less active individual take sin lots of energy-giving food, their body will store this in the form of fats. The body stores these fats in the hope that it will require the energy later in which case the body would convert the fats into energy by breaking the molecule of the fats into energy and water. For a person who is continually inactive, these fats are kept forever (Ford, 2012). Excess fats in the body will definitely inhibit some functions in the body. Apart from affecting the immune system excess fats in the body inhibits the flow of blood in the body thus causing to major issues. First, these fats are deposited on the insides of blood capillaries, and this makes pumping of blood to meet resistance. This makes the heart to have to work extra harder, and this can cause heart failure. As Agassi (2008, p3) says, the there is overwhelming evidence that smoking can be directly linked to the risk of lung cancer and emphysema. According to a study on a cohort in UK, the risk of cancer increases for those who use alcohol (Park et al, 2010, pp 747-756). This increased risk is not to regard the amount of alcohol intake but anyone who takes any amount of alcohol increases this risk. These findings seem to be confirmed by what Karlsen (2012, pp 201-206) found in his study. This study done in Europe revealed that there is a high connection between alcohol use and the increased risk of a number of cancer infections. Cancer remains a great risk factor for those who use alcohol and tobacco. However, as Williams, Steptoe, and Wardle (2013) found out, individuals diagnosed with cancer usually change their lifestyle in response to their new health risks. At the same time, a study done by Larcombe (2013, pp 1204-1209) also seemed to rubber-stamp what Williams et al found out. Alcohol and breast cancer Silva (2012, pp 1195-1196) reveals that alcohol may be an even bigger culprit when it comes to breast cancer. In this study, Silva investigates on whether females using alcohol are at higher risk of getting cancer than those who use tobacco and not alcohol. Lew, et al (2011, pp 537-541) also found that alcohol has already been identified as a seriuos issue and various cancers such as renal cell cancer. According to Launoy et al (1997, p. 1389-1396) there is an increased relation between alcohol intake and the risk of a number of cancers that an individual can get. In fact, in this study, it became apparent that the individuals who were currently taking alcohol and or tobacco and those who had taken the same at an earlier time and then stopped both had the risk of cancer. This is because these cancer elements found in both alcohol and tobacco can remain inactive in the body waiting for the right time to attack (Amundson and Tresky, 2007, 541-561) I his study, Herbert (2012, pp. 181-183) found that high fat diet is likely to increase the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This is in addition to other related health issues which the body would have to deal with if too much fat is introduced in the body. According to Wang (2012; 367) due to the fact that the heart produces natriuretic peptides as a way to influence the functions of the other organs of the body also means that metabolic disorders are more likely to lead to unprecedented and cardiovascular risk in human beings. In this regard, high fat diets are most likely to affect the cardiovascular health of the individual. However, while alcohol is a significant concern on heath risk, diet issues are also highly serious issues. This can be confirmed by what Ware (2003, pp 2136-2137) found in his study. For instance, as Halton (2006, pp. 1991-2002) found out in her study, women who took low carbohydrate diet were at a much lower risk of getting coronary cancer. According to a study done by Ford (2012, pp. 2249-2252), adults who use alcoholic beverages are at a higher risk to immature death as compared to those with high levels of cholesterol but who do not use alcohol. A study done by Fenske and Allolio (2012, pp. 3426-3437) revealed that diet intake can affect the health of the person. According to them people and the general public need to of the effects of alcohol and understand the impact of increased fat content due to how this affected them. At the same time, according to Prabhat et al, (2013, pp 341-350) the risk of death related to smoking is increasing by the year and it is becoming hugely necessary for individuals to be able to cease smoking. According to a report by the World Health Organization (2009, p. 48), health risk continue to increase in more and more as more health challenges come up. Alcohol is one of the significant threats followed by dietary issues. These bad news were confirmed by a study done in Canada by Thomas and Hrudey (1997, p. 185) however as Hoffmann (2007, p58) says, diet issues also play a significant role in the health risk for most people. Alcohol on the other hand has continued to be a large issue for most people. As Jared (2009, 18-59) discusses how alcohol has become a principal risk factor for women than for men. According to them, women taking alcohol have a higher risk of breast cancer. Conclusion It can be said conclusively that alcohol poses a particularly big risk to those who consume it while tobacco and unhealthy diet also contribute significantly to the negative effect, alcoholism can be seen as a bigger issue because of the many heath complications it is likely to inflict on the users. Alcohol not only affects the physiological and physical health of the individual it also affects their mental well being. This means that alcohol is a highly formidable health issue. To make the situation even worse foe alcohol consumers, study after study indicate that alcohol is a principal cause for cancer. Unlike in the past where cancer was associated with things like cigarettes which contain nicotine, modern studies have shocked medical professionals by showing a high relationship between cancer and alcohol use. The fact that studies have shown that alcohol is a principal contribution to cancer risk is enough to conclude that alcohol is a menace to health of an individual. At the same time, mental health issues also seem to be a significant issue for most people who use alcohol. As already explained, the risks of alcohol become a source of health risk for many individuals is higher than other lifestyle issues. This is because alcohol use is promoted on a daily basis because alcohol is s social drink that people take in almost any social situation. As a result, it might be necessary for health professionals to be able to know how to caution individuals on alcohol use and abuse. Over history, smoking has been seen as the main heath issue. In fact, in places like the UK, public doctors are given incentives to help as many people as possible to quit smoking. Alcoholism on the oath hand has remained an issue without good solutions and not well discussed or looked at. For this reasons, alcohol threatens to kill much more people. In this regard, it is going to be necessary for healthcare individuals to be more serious in the way they warn the public and their patients in particular about the use of alcohol. Bibliography Agassi, J. (2008). Causality and Medicine. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 1976, vol. I, no. 4. , p3. Amundson, R. & Tresky. (2007). On a Bioethical Challenge to Disability Rights. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 541-561. Chan, S. (2011). Ethical Issues In Research Into Alcohol And Other Drugs: An Issues Paper Exploring The Need For A Guidance Framework. National Health and Medical Research Council, 25-28. Fenske, W. and Allolio. (2012). 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