Optimize Your Health

Alcohol consumption affects us in several ways and our social skills; After one or two drinks you often feel more comfortable and more talkative as the alcohol gets into the brain and affects your cognitive abilities.
Consuming alcohol causes your heart rate to heighten and you may experience a warm glow. This is caused by alcohol making the smaller blood vessels in the skin enlarge, allowing blood to flow nearer to the surface and lowers blood pressure.

The Effects of Alcohol on your health

The dangers of drinking large amounts of alcohol can be dire. Alcohol health problems include anxiety, slowed breathing and heartbeat, impaired judgment leading to accidents and injuries, loss of consciousness, suffocation through choking on your own vomit and potentially fatal alcohol poisoning. There are also many mental effects, making you feel guilt or anger for no apparant reason and even making you paranoid. You slurr your words, often don’t recognise your surroundings and drinking too much alcohol can result in memory loss.

Drinking alcohol also increases your calorie intake, suggesting why alcohol is a large factor in adult obesity. There are 125 calories in a medium-sized (175ml) glass of wine and over 500 in a bottle. So thats about one quarter of your guidline daily calorie allowance!

The morning after – hangover unpleasantries

Alcohol abuse causes you to get a hangover the next morning, which often has undesirable affects. You may experience stomach ache, sickness, nausea and sometimes diarrhea, Drinking alcohol also has a dehydrating effect. Drinking alcohol can also make you feel depressed, guilty

.
Drinking more than the guidline daily amounts regularly you are putting your health in damger. Consuming alcohol in large quantities increases blood pressure.

Alcohol is regularly associated with mental health problems. A recent British survey found that people with anxiety or depression were twice as likely to be alcoholics.

Large quantities of drinking may occasionally lead to ‘psychosis’, a bad mental illness where hallucinations and delusions of persecution develop. Heavy drinking may lead to seclusion and dismay.

Technorati Tags: Alcohol, alcohol abuse, Alcohol Abuse Effects, Alcohol Add, alcohol addiction, Alcohol Consumption, Alcohol Drinking, Alcohol Effects, Alcohol Health, Alcohol Misuse, Alcohol Problem, Alcohol Problems, Alcohol Test, Alcohol Testing, Alcohol Use, alcoholism

The Banana Man

I have seen Cirrhosis up close and it’s not pretty. One of my lifelong friends and my former business partner is an alcoholic. His name is John and he promised to stay on the wagon to entice me to work with him, and it proved to be the biggest mistake of my life. He lives in San Francisco and I in Chicago, so he was out of my sight doing his thing most of the time.His wife had passed away recently after a brief illness and John wasn’t handling it very well. I suspected he was drinking again. Those fears were confirmed when I received a phone call four or five months after his wife’s passing from a mutual friend who said John had been taken to the hospital after a binge.He said it didn’t look good.

I hopped on the next plane and got to California and took a cab to the hospital. I was astounded by what I saw. My friend was the color of a fresh banana–sort of like the Incredible Hulk but the color of French’s mustard. He was babbling incomprehensible phrases. He recognized me but quickly forgot I was there. A group of our Bay Area friends met at the hospital. The doctors said his condition was grave. One pulled me aside and said my friend had Cirrohisis, which wasn’t a surprise from his appearance.His liver had shut down–liver failure, and as I learned over the next few days, when your liver goes, so does everything else in your body, The liver controls most of your major organs, at least in a dependant way. His kidneys were failing and he had to go on dialysis treatments three times a day.

Bedside Vigil

Most of the next week he really didn’t know where he was. The doctors said the next few days were critical but that he probaby wouldn’t make it six months even if he survived this immediate crisis. I literally spent thirty minutes talking to him one morning trying to get him to give me the details on how to retrieve his phone messages back at his apartment. He couldn’t remember the password. And this entire time his body was still 100% pure banana colored. It was an awful experience for everybody.

Kidney Dialysis 3 Times A Day

A week passes and he starts to get better. Gradually. He’s still on dialysis three times a day, but at least he can talk fairly cogently. And slowly he regains his personality–starts kidding with all the nurses and telling stories. After three weeks he was discharged but had to go to a half-way house that could take care of his dialysis and other medical needs. He would get transported three times a day in a van to a clinic where the dialysis was done. I flew home as I had been there a month and had a lot of business matters to attend to and see my wife, who was very supportive during this period.

A month goes by and my friend’s best friend in SF calls and says John is going home–he’s getting out of the half-way house after six weeks, but still requires dialysis daily, but now just once a day. I flew back to San Francisco and we all (there were about six of us) go out to celebrate John’s birthday. As dinner ended and we were having a cognac (not John!our mutual friend says he wants to make a special toast. He makes a toast and says that today is a special day. It’s John’s birthday, and he’s pleased to announce that the doctors have decided he no longer needs dialysis! There was a hurrah that filled the restaurant!

It was truly a remarkable experience. On the plane back to Chicago, I was thinking how John and I used to drink rounds together at the bars in Georgetown, chasing women and getting “steaming” together. We laughed a lot together over the years,always with a lot of beers or anything else with alcohol. It was really part of our culture.

But this is where it led. And there were no laughs and jokes being told. If it weren’t so personally tragic, I wish we could have fast-forwarded into the future from those early care-free days to see what drinking and alcoholism is all about and where it leads.

Luck Of The Irish (At Least Some Of Them)

John was lucky, and his liver bounced back and healed. But the doctors told him that he could never drink alcohol again–that it would poison him, like drinking a glass of cyanide.  And you know what? John hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol since. He still goes to bars and shoots the bull with his friends. He’s no longer a beer drinker but drinks only soft drinks. And he’s enjoying his life just as much as before. Lucky for him. He got a second chance.

Alcohol Is A Killer

If you or someone you know is a heavy drinker and  has looked a little jaundiced of late, it’s probably a sign that the liver is damaged. Before it gets to the point my friend faced there are some  natural homeopathic remedies to detox your liver and get you back on the right track. Of course, once you go through this process, you need to be committed to a life of alcohol abstinance if you want to live a longer life. Not lecturing here, but those are just the facts.

Good luck!

Published By Rehab Help Online

Technorati Tags: alcoholic, alcoholism, binge drinking, cirrhosis, detox liver, dialysis, dialysis treatments, half way house, heavy drinker, homeopathic remedies, intervention, kidney failure, liver damage, liver failure, natural remedies, rehab

Jennifer is a thirty-eight-year-old loan processor who has been consuming alcohol in an irresponsible and hazardous manner since her fiancée and she decided to break up. In actual fact, for the past five months she has been drinking very nearly a bottle of wine every night, and on the weekends she also has been drinking several shots all the way through the day. In a word, Jennifer has been drinking so excessively that it’s amazing that she hasn’t suffered from alcohol poisoning.

After feeling dispirited because she was beginning to close her eyes to her health, Jennifer at long last told herself that enough is enough, that it’s time to stop feeling sorry for herself, that it’s time to stop the excessive and hazardous drinking, and time to get going with her life. So the following Saturday morning at 8:00 AM, she made up her mind to stop drinking completely and suddenly without planning or preparation.

When She Attempted to Stop Drinking She Felt Terrible, She Vomited Several Times, She Was Extremely Nervous and Moody, Her Head Was Throbbing, She Had Absolutely No Appetite, and She Started to Perspire Profusely

When Jennifer quit drinking, she thought that she would probably be tempted to take a couple of drinks, but she never figured that she would feel so dreadful. More correctly, around three-and-a-half hours after she stopped drinking, her head was throbbing, she vomited several times, she started to sweat profusely, she was extremely anxious and moody, and she had absolutely no appetite.

When she called her best pal and informed her that she had quit drinking and that after a couple of hours she suddenly started to have flu-like symptoms, Linda, her best friend, told Jennifer to call her physician and explain in a clear manner what she was going through.

She Admits to Her Medical Practitioner That She Has Been Drinking In an Abusive and Hazardous Manner, That She Just Tried to Quit Drinking, and That She is Suffering Through Terrible Flu-Like Symptoms

So Jennifer called her medical practitioner, informed him that she has been drinking in an irresponsible and excessive manner for a number of months and that when she attempted to suddenly stop drinking earlier in the day, within a few hours she felt as if she had the most terrible flu-like symptoms that she had ever experienced.

Her medical practitioner informed her that she may be suffering from symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and that she should have a friend or neighbor drive her to the emergency room ASAP.

As soon as Jennifer got off the phone, she got a neighbor to take her to the hospital. Interestingly, all the way to the hospital, as sick as Jennifer felt, the only thing she could think about was whether or not she might be an alcoholic.

Obviously her doctor had phoned ahead and informed the emergency room staff to expect Jennifer because when she got to the hospital, she was met by a paramedic and a nurse who immediately asked her to get in the wheelchair they had with them. After getting taken to the emergency room and undergoing a couple of important tests, it was established that Jennifer was in actual fact going through alcohol withdrawal symptoms and was in need of alcohol detox.

A doctor gave her some medications to reduce the intensity of her flu-like symptoms and also gave her some meds to help eliminate the alcohol that was still in her circulation system.

An Alcohol Dependency Physician Explains That She is an Alcoholic and Then Clearly Explains What Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms and Alcoholism Stages Are

After two or three hours, Jennifer was taken from the ER and transported to the recovery room. After she was in recovery for just about an hour, Doctor Clark, a drug and alcohol addiction specialist, came to visit her. He took plenty of time and explained that Jennifer had experienced alcohol withdrawal symptoms when she stopped drinking because she had become alcohol dependent.

He then stated that with repeated and excessive drinking, the drinker’s brain progressively adapts to the alcohol so that it can perform in a “semi-normal” way. When the individual then suddenly quits drinking, as one would expect, the brain reacts by producing alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Moreover, her healthcare professional also explained the different alcoholism stages that a person who is alcohol dependent typically experiences as the disease gradually gets worse.

It is Verified that Jennifer is in the First Stage of Alcohol Dependency and She Gets a Favorable Forecast For a Full Recovery if She Gets the Alcohol Addiction Rehab She Needs

Fortunately for Jennifer, it was verified that she was in the first stage of alcohol addiction and, as a consequence, she was given a favorable forecast for a complete recovery if she obtains the alcohol rehabilitation she needs.

Jennifer told the physician that she will do whatever it takes to get sober and to reclaim her health and her life. She also articulated that she has a first-rate hospitalization policy that will more likely than not pay for most of the costs needed for rehabilitation. It was clear to see that Jennifer was extremely thankful about her encouraging prognosis and felt reassured knowing that she will be able to get the alcohol dependency therapy she needs so that she can begin the road to recovery.

Technorati Tags: alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol detox, alcohol rehab, alcohol rehabilitation, alcohol treatment, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, alcoholism, alcoholism stages

How do you know that you have a problem with your drinking? When is it evident that you are engaging in irresponsible drinking?

If you have ineffectively struggled to discontinue your drinking or if you have given your word to yourself that your drinking days are terminated and then you realized that you were drinking in a hazardous way just a few days later, chances are especially good that you have drinking problems. The point of emphasis is that if you have made an effort to terminate your drinking and cannot accomplish this, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

Likewise, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” you probably need to recognize the fact that you have a drinking problem.

You may be telling yourself that the rationale for your drinking is so that you can lower your nervousness or get rid of the agony that you feel. Likewise, you may be trying to avoid a negative situation and may be looking for something better, more favorable, or less regretful.

As you keep on drinking, on the other hand, you will understand that drinking does not produce the same high and you will also grasp the fact that drinking doesn’t help eliminate whatever brought about your misery in the first place.

As you continue to drink, sadly, you may become addicted to alcohol and, as a consequence, you may add another fundamental issue to deal with rather than becoming aware of more productive and beneficial ways of dealing with your alcohol generated problems.

When an Alcohol Evaluation is Required

If you have determined that you have a drinking problem, perchance the most positive thing you can do for yourself is to call your physician or healthcare professional and schedule an appointment for a complete physical and for a review of your drinking behavior.

If you honestly believe that you have a dangerous drinking problem, it may be a good idea to get prepared to hear that you need to get alcohol reahbilitation.

At this point, what are your choices? You can positively decide against seeing your family doctor and persevere with your pattern of abusive drinking.

It truly doesn’t take a rocket scientist, nevertheless, to realize that repeated, heavy drinking, if left untreated, will worsen over time and more likely than not result an early death. Thus, your most practical choice is to confront your drinking situation and get the alcohol counseling you require.

The Deception of the Functioning Alcohol Addicted Individual

It is ironic to note the fact that numerous people who are alcohol dependent lead busy and active lives and have vehicles, jobs, pets, houses, families, and any number of material possessions similar to people who are not alcohol dependent.

Many of these “functional” alcohol addicted people may have never been apprehended for a DWI and may have been fortunate enough to avoid all alcohol generated legal predicaments. Despite this good fortune, nonetheless, these alcohol dependent individuals need to drink in order to operate on a regular basis while upholding their facade as they interact with the outside world.

Ask anyone who has seen them when they are engaging in one of their drinking binges or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcoholism, however, and they will be quick to affirm the reality of the drinker’s situation and the whole story about the alcohol addicted person’s drinking circumstances and about his or her alcohol produced predicaments.

Why Do Alcohol Addicted People Fail to Address Their Drinking Difficulties?

As alcohol addiction research and statistics on alcohol abuse have emphasized, no matter how observable the alcohol-related difficulties seem to those who interact with the alcohol addicted person, alcohol dependent individuals regularly deny that drinking is the cause of their alcohol generated problems. Not only this, but alcohol addicted people often blame their alcohol-related problems on other individuals or upon other circumstances that surround them instead of seeing their part in the difficulty.

The root of the difficulty is that alcoholism is a disease of the brain. Once the problem drinker has become alcohol dependent, he or she regularly resorts to denial, manipulation, and deceit as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make matters more complex, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms characteristically thwarts the alcohol addicted person’s rare attempts to suddenly quit drinking. As depressing as the alcohol addicted person’s life is, nonetheless, the encouraging news is that professional assistance is commonly obtainable – if the alcoholic reaches out and gets alcohol counseling.

Summary

Owning up to the fact that drinking is causing difficulties in your day by day functioning is perhaps the easiest way to find out if you have a problem with your drinking. In other words, if your drinking is eliciting difficulties with your health, at work, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the legal system, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be tackled.

If you have a problem with your drinking, additionally, this means that you are engaging in irresponsible drinking.

While some individuals may be able to come to grips with their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and substantially decrease the quantity and frequency of their drinking, other drinkers, conversely, need to tackle their drinking problems by getting professional alcoholism therapy. Moreover, due to their tendency to deny the facts and bend the truth, alcoholics certainly need quality alcohol rehabilitation for their irresponsible drinking.

Technorati Tags: alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol rehab, alcohol treatment, alcoholics, alcoholism, drinking problems, problem drinking

Jesse had an exceptionally hard time maintaining a job. Indeed, due to his lassitude and lack of drive, he was without a job far more frequently than he was in work. And when he did get a job, he had an awfully hard time getting to work in a timely manner, he frequently got less than satisfactory performance reviews, and he called off sick so habitually that he commonly got fired just a few weeks after he started working. Not unexpectedly, one of the results of Jesse’s less than great employment history was the fact that he was virtually without a dime from day-to-day.

In spite of Jesse’s appalling employment history and financial disregard, conversely, somehow he managed to drink in an excessive and irresponsible manner most of the time.

So it came as no big shock when Jesse got a third DWI. When he went before the court, the magistrate stated to Jesse that his alcohol-related conduct was irresponsible and, as a consequence, he was going to sentence Jesse to spend five months in the city jail.

Time While Locked Up In Jail To Reflect On The Unhealthy Consequences of Irresponsible and Abusive Drinking

During his time in the county jail, Jesse was required to learn more about alcohol facts, about the adverse consequences of irresponsible and excessive drinking, and he was required to get alcohol therapy. The judge highlighted the fact that unless Jesse receives professional alcohol therapy and discovers how to live a life of abstinence, he will quite possibly be spending more than a short amount of time in the county jail.

Jesse said that he understood what the judge was proclaiming but he still thought that placement in the local jail was not the most effective sentence. The magistrate saw things from an entirely different orientation and stated that it was his obligation to keep alcoholics off the streets who drink and drive and who get a DWI. To support this assertion, the judge quoted some venerable, extensively researched alcohol statistics that pointed to some of the demoralizing outcomes that are linked to irresponsible drinking.

Although Jesse comprehended that he drank in a hazardous and abusive manner, he never thought that he was a person who was dependent on alcohol. So it was a real bombshell when Jesse began experiencing alcohol withdrawals roughly five-and-a-half hours after after getting locked up in the city jail.

To deal with his symptoms of alcohol withdrawal in a safe and sound manner, Jesse was life flighted to a drug and alcohol treatment facility for alcohol detox and then brought back to jail. While locked up in the county jail Jesse received alcohol treatment but due to the fact that he got this rehabilitation as something that was mandated for him, he was unsuccessful in taking ownership of his abusive drinking.

When his time behind bars was over, the judge without reservation told Jesse that he would be under rigorous observation and would be mandated to take periodic urine alcohol tests.

Jessie’s Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking Prevents Him From Living in a Productive and Mature Manner

After hearing how Jesse failed to take ownership of his drinking circumstances and how he halfheartedly followed the treatment modus operandi while in the county jail, the magistrate knew that it was basically a matter of time before he would be seeing Jesse once again in court about his careless drinking behavior. As the judge thought about Jesse’s circumstance, he couldn’t help but think about how some people never use common sense and discover how to live in an accountable and responsible manner.

Technorati Tags: about alcohol facts, alcohol abuse, alcohol dependency, alcohol statistics, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, alcoholism, drinking problems, men's issues, Mental Health, self improvement

When I was a sophomore in high school, I registered for a drug abuse class. At that time period, I did not grasp the fact that alcohol abuse in point of fact was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse and especially about alcohol side effects, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehabilitation and the various alcohol rehab facilities that are often available to abusive drinkers.

Damaging Consequences That are Related to Alcohol Dependency and Alcohol Abuse

Some of the damaging end results correlated with alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class definitely terrified me. The ruined lives and frequent serious issues experienced by most alcoholics made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. More to the point, I did not want to face the wreckage and ruination that alcohol addicted individuals almost always go through.

Ponder upon this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What teenager wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teen wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes an adult?

What young person wants to experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause problems in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that revolves around hazardous drinking?

These issues were so significant that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was entirely amazing to me was the number of students who basically didn’t care about the dangerous results of hazardous drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t care less about the truth and how these results can wreck their lives. For the first time in my life I started to comprehend a saying that my grandfather used to tell me all through my adolesence: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.

It’s Beneficial, Enlivening, and Important to Stay Away From the Damaging and Unhealthy Consequences of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

And even at my young age, I also started to comprehend how liberating, important, and beneficial it is in life to stay away from the debilitating and unhealthy outcomes of drug and alcohol abuse.

Technorati Tags: alcohol abuse, alcohol rehab, alcohol rehab clinics, alcohol treatment, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, alcoholic rehabilitation centers, alcoholism, drug abuse, Mental Health, self improvement, substance abuse