Alcohol abusers suffer from a wide range of medical ills:
| Body Systems and Organs Affected |
Complications |
| Nervous system |
• Intoxication with drunkenness and coma
• Withdrawal syndromes, sometimes with seizures or delirium tremens (DTs)
• Brain wasting (dementia)
• Nerve damage
• Cerebellar degeneration (deterioration of the cerebellum, the area of the brain concerned with muscle coordination and balance) |
|
| Gastrointestinal |
• Inflammation and irritation of the lining of the esophagus and stomach (esophagitis and gastritis)
• Increased incidence of cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus
• Liver damage, such as cirrhosis or alcoholic hepatitis
• Inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), sometimes leading to pancreatic failure, chronic diarrhea, and/or chronic pain |
|
| Cardiovascular |
• Arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat)
• Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart
muscle causing an enlarged heart, which can lead to heart failure and death
• Elevated fats in the bloodstream |
|
| Metabolic |
• Low blood sugar
• Lower than normal levels of potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphate in the blood |
|
| Endocrine |
• Decreased testosterone
• Testicular atrophy causing an increase in estrogen and thus the development of breast tissue in men (gynocomatia) |
|
| Skin |
• Rosacea (you know this as W. C. Fields's nose)
• Spider angiomas (harmless collections of small blood vessels under the skin often seen in men with liver failure from alcohol) |
|
| Blood |
• Low platelets
• Anemia
• Risk of infection
• Impaired blood clotting |
Excerpted from How Not to Die by Jan Garavaglia, M.D.
Copyright © 2008 by Atlas Media Corp. and Jan Garavaglia, M.D.
Permission granted by Crown Publishers, New York, NY
