Alcoholism is a powerful craving for alcohol which often results in the compulsive consumption of alcohol. The cause of this craving is heavily debated, but the most popular beliefs are that it is a chemical or nutrional imbalance, a genetic predisposition, a neurological effect caused by runaway learning mechanisms or an inability to curb one’s own desire for enjoyment.

Alcoholism is often a controversial subject. Some believe it to be a biological disease, but the inability to tie it to a specific biological causation makes this is a political debate and not a medical one.

Alcohol addiction has been identified as having various components.

Psychological addiction involves those things which convince a person that they gain benefit from the use of the substance. For instance, if they feel that they are more socially adept while drunk or that it allows them to better handle stress, then they might feel that any problems caused were worth the benefits.

Physical addiction a.k.a., dependence involves the physical adaptation of a person’s biological systems to the continued presence of alcohol in their system. The person’s systems become more comfortable when they have the “normal” level of alcohol, and higher doses are required to maintain an equivalent effect. A decrease in the level of alcohol causes reverse imbalances resulting in withdrawal symptoms, which for alcohol can be deadly.

Neurochemical addiction involves the hijacking of existing learning mechanisms in order to convince the system that an addictive behavior is good for it, despite all evidence to the contrary. Endorphin is the body’s way of telling the mind that a behavior is good for it. We release endorphin into the blood stream during sex, exercise and consumption of some foods for instance, and this is responsible for “runner’s high” and “afterglow”. This is more than just a good feeling, it is teaching our brain that these are the behaviors that it should repeat.

It has been demonstrated in various clinical tests that mammals with more active endorphin systems are more prone to alcohol addiction. This is because alcohol triggers the release of endorphins into our system, and we learn that alcohol drinking is a behavior that we should repeat. This effect is also visible in the use of opiates, and in various risk-taking behaviors such as skydiving and gambling.

The social problems arising from alcohol abuse often include loss of employment, financial problems, marital conflict and divorce, convictions for crimes such as drunk driving or public disorder, loss of accommodation, and loss of respect from others who may see the problem as self-inflicted and easily avoided.

Alcohol dependence affects not only the addicted but can profoundly impact the family members around them. Children of alcohol dependents can be affected even after they are grown; the behaviors commonly exhibited by such children are collectively known as Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome.

Although there is no specific diagnosis for alcoholism, there have been many efforts at diagnostic approaches to alcohol dependence, abuse and complications associated with chronic alcohol consumption.

Several tools may be used to determine if you are an alcoholic.

The CAGE questionnaire can be used to screen patients quickly in a doctor’s office.

Another screening questionnaire is the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test AUDIT.

The Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire is another sensitive diagnostic test.

Although there is no blood test specific for alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence alcoholism, prolonged heavy alcohol consumption may lead to several abnormalities in the body.

Alcohol addiction is a treatable disease that can end in the death of innocent people. If you are an alcoholic or are a family member of an alcoholic, contact your physician for the most current treatments available.

The peripheral nerves are bundles containing many individual nerve-fibers, and are similar to telephone cables carrying many individual wires. There are two basic types of nerve-fibers–motor and sensory. The motor fibers carry electrical impulses outward from the spinal cord to the muscles, causing them to contract. The sensory fibers carry electrical impulses inward from the skin, joints and other structures to the spinal cord, providing the nervous system with inputs, among others, concerning the senses of touch, pain and temperature.

Peripheral nerves can be pinched or injured in specific locations. When this occurs, the problem is called a “mononeuropathy,” meaning that a single peripheral nerve is affected. Examples of mononeuropathy include carpal tunnel syndrome in which the median nerve is pinched at the wrist, and peroneal neuropathy in which the peroneal nerve is injured near the knee. Because the median and peroneal nerves contain both motor and sensory fibers, people with these conditions can experience both weakness and numbness.

In carpal tunnel syndrome, certain muscles of the thumb can become weak, while numbness affects the thumb, index finger, middle finger and part of the ring finger–but not the little finger. In peroneal neuropathy muscles that lift the front and outer edges of the foot can become weak, while numbness affects the outer surface of the calf and the top of the foot–but not its bottom. In cases of mononeuropathy only the structures connected to that one nerve’s fibers are affected.

In contrast, “polyneuropathy” produces a pattern of weakness and numbness completely different from that seen in mononeuropathies. Instead of affecting the fibers of just a single peripheral nerve, polyneuropathy simultaneously impacts fibers traveling in numerous peripheral nerves.

In usual cases of polyneuropathy it is the longest nerve-fibers that are most at risk, while the shorter nerve-fibers are less affected. In brief, polyneuropathy is a “length-dependent” neuropathy. Because the longest nerve-fibers in the body are those that run from the lower back to the feet, in typical cases of polyneuropathy the first part of the body to become weak or numb is the feet.

In polyneuropathy muscles ordinarily served by more than one peripheral nerve can become weak, and the numbness extends beyond the territory of any single nerve. If a person with polyneuropathy pulled on stockings, he or she could cover the parts of the legs affected by weakness and numbness. Thus, the weakness and numbness affecting the legs are described as showing a “stocking” pattern of loss.

When the medical condition responsible for the polyneuropathy causes worsening damage to the peripheral nerves, the stockings climb ever higher as the next-longest nerve-fibers become involved. By the time a person’s stockings climb as high the knees, he or she might also notice symptoms in the fingers. This is because the nerve-fibers running from the neck to the fingers are about as long as those running from the lower back to the knees.

If a person with polyneuropathy affecting the hands and arms pulled on gloves, he or she could cover the parts of the arms affected by weakness and numbness. Thus, the weakness and numbness affecting the arms are described as showing a “glove” pattern of loss, and when legs and arms are simultaneously impacted, it is called a “stocking-glove” pattern.

Medical doctors are usually able to detect polyneuropathy from patients’ histories of symptoms and their physical examinations, but tests of muscle and nerve electricity–called electromyography and nerve conduction studies–are often helpful in characterizing the extent and pattern of nerve impairment.

Polyneuropathy is more of a category of nerve impairment than a final diagnosis, and numerous diseases can produce the same end-result of stocking-glove loss.

Diabetes is the most common cause of polyneuropathy in both the U.S. and the rest of the world. Blood sugars are elevated in people with diabetes, but the extent of polyneuropathy is not strictly related to how bad the blood sugars are, or for how long they have been elevated. For example, one person with severe, long-term elevations of blood sugars might have very little polyneuropathy, while another person might have polyneuropathy as the very first symptom of their diabetes. At present there is no good treatment for the polyneuropathy of diabetes apart from best-achievable control of blood sugars, but when annoying sensations like burning or tingling are present, these can be managed with topical or oral medications.

Ingestion of toxic chemicals can also produce polyneuropathy, and alcohol is the chemical most frequently involved. And while people with heavy and prolonged use of alcohol are more likely than light drinkers to develop this complication, here, too, some people seem more susceptible to this problem than others. Abstinence can keep the polyneuropathy from worsening, but the already damaged nerve-fibers might not fully recover. Because people with alcoholic polyneuropathy often lack sufficient quantities of thiamine, a vitamin important to the nerves, supplementing well-rounded, nutritious meals with this vitamin is usually helpful.

Inherited polyneuropathy can be transmitted in families in either a dominant or recessive form. In families with dominant transmission a bad gene from just one parent is sufficient to produce the disease in a child. In families with recessive transmission defective genes from both parents are required in order to produce the disease.

As a final illustration of the range of disease processes that can cause polyneuropathy let’s consider Guillain-Barr pronounced GEE-on bah-RAY syndrome, also known by the more cumbersome term of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. In contrast to the diabetic, alcoholic and genetic forms of polyneuropathy that typically worsen at a pace measured in months or years, Guillain-Barr develops in a matter of days. The affected patient usually notices weakness about the ankles, followed rapidly by weakness about the knees, hips, arms and even of the muscles controlling breathing. Symptoms usually peak within two weeks during which time a patient should be monitored in a hospital in case a ventilator is needed to support breathing. Subsequent recovery of strength occurs over a course of weeks to months.

Guillain-Barr syndrome involves inflammation of nerves and nerve-roots spinal cord connections caused by an overactive immune system. This is a so-called auto-immune disease in which a person’s immune system attacks a tissue within their own bodies, in this case the nerves. Certain treatments that temporarily suppress the action of the immune system have been shown by randomized, controlled trials–the gold-standard of medical proof–to improve outcome in this condition.

C 2005 by Gary Cordingley

Alcohol is addictive. You will find many people who will argue with this statement, but alcohol fits all the definitions of a harmful and addictive drug;

1. You need to take more and more of it to get the same effect
2. Your body becomes physically dependent on alcohol.
3. People die from alcohol abuse

An alcoholic is someone who has become physically dependent on alcohol. Alcoholism is permanent, it can not be cured. An ex-alcoholic is simply one who has not had alcohol for a long time. If the “ex”-alcoholic has one drink they are hooked again and have to go through the whole drying out process again.

Alcoholism treatment centers allow the alcoholic to live in a supportive and alcohol free environment while giving up the drug. Psychological advice is available and group therapy sessions help many recovering alcoholics.

Alcoholics Anonymous are one group that holds support meetings for alcoholics. AA has groups in most towns and cities in most countries and many recovering alcoholics find the group sessions to be an essential part of STAYING a recovered alcoholic.

Given the toxic nature of alcohol, if the substance was discovered today, it would never be licensed as a drug or food. It is only the entrenched nature of the alcohol industry and the fact that so many jobs depend on it that make it politically unacceptable to ban alcohol. Does this sound similar to the excuses made by opium producing countries? Would there be pressure to legalize the opium if it was grown in USA, because of the jobs dependant on the crop?

Perhaps western governments need to grasp the nettle of alcohol before prosecuting the war on drugs abroad. Alcohol kills many more people on a daily basis than die of drug related crime or addiction.

Drug trafficking causes crime, as addicts try to get money to pay for their supply Political issue

Alcohol abuse causes deaths of innocents by drunk drivers. Isnt this a political issue, too?

One of the commonest questions anyone working in the addiction field is asked is How can I stop my wifehusbandpartner from drinking so much? Unfortunately the short answer to that is you cant. They will stop when it suits them, whether that is because they hurt so much or because circumstances change. That is painful to hear, but nevertheless it is true.

There is some good news, however, and that is if you cant actually stop them drinking then there are things that you can do, or stop doing, that will make it more likely that they will take action andor seek help for their drinking. Below I have listed a number of things that you should avoid doing as they often have the opposite effect to intended, making the situation even worse. I will discuss the things that you should do in another article.

Dont protect the drinker from the naturally occurring consequences of drinking. If they embarrass themselves dont make excuses, or if they fall dont pick them up. Only intervene if there is a danger of the drinker being injured. For most people this kind of tough love is a difficult thing to do, just ignore a loved one when they are drunk goes very much against the grain. However, protecting the drinker means that they never suffer the consequences and so are never aware of the severity of their drinking. Since many believe that problem drinkers only seek help when they are hurting, so protecting the drinker only delays that time coming and that it could be argued is more cruel.

Dont protect the drinker from other consequences. If they take time off work through being too drunk or too hungover, dont phone the boss and give an excuse. The problem drinker is only too happy for someone else to accept responsibility whereas they need to accept responsibility for their own behaviour if they are to change.

Dont collude with the drinker. If they spend all their money on drink dont lend them money or pay their debts. Again this is protecting and delays recognition of the extent of the problem.

Dont join in and drink along with the drinker. It may seem a natural thing to do if you cant beat them join them but this just makes the drinking behaviour appear to be normal, which of course its not. Besides if you try and keep up you could end up needing help yourself, and one drunk is more than enough for any household.

Dont scream and shout and nag about the drinking behaviour. This just provides an excuse to drink even more. That is, the logic that is used here is I drink because you nag rather than You nag because I drink. Yea, I know that is not logical but hey this is not about logic, its about drinking.

Dont make threats and give ultimatums. Unless you are actually prepared to carry out these threats and ultimatums they will lose any power to influence the drinker. In fact, they may even provide an excuse for drinking, especially if there is a pattern of drinking to avoid stress and painful circumstances. Therefore you could be left feeling even more frustrated than before.

Dont cry and sulk and withdraw to punish the drinker. The drinker can again view his as behaviour best avoided by getting drunk, perhaps with the immortal words No wonder I drink, look at you!.

Dont try and have a meaningful conversation about the drinkers behaviour or your lives together when the drinker is intoxicated. It is easy to get lured into a conversation dont. Wait till the morning or when they are sober.

You know that you have got a problem with booze when

1 before every party or social occasion your partner asks you not to drink too much tonight.

2 you feel that everyone in your company drinks too slowly or doesnt know how to let their hair down and have a good time like you.

3 you are having extra drinks when you go to the bar, because see number 2.

4 you hate going to any social occasion if there is no opportunity to drink.

5 you think about drinking constantly, cant wait to finish work to go and have a drink, cant wait to be finished ..anything.. to go and have a drink.

6 you hide alcohol around the house, garage, office, wherever.

7 you lie about how much you drink and how often you are drunk, always minimising the amount.

8 you cant, or find it difficult, to set a limit on the number of drinks and keep to it.

9 you drink too much at inappropriate times, embarrass your family, friends and self.

10 you feel guilty about the night before and have difficulty looking people in the eye.

11 your hands shake in the morning

12 you feel sweaty on waking and for most of the day

13 the previous nights drinking is a bit of a blur, or worse still a blank.

14 your partner increasingly criticises your drinking

15 your friends increasingly criticise your drinking

16 your co-workers andor boss increasingly criticise your drinking

17 you dont count your money in dollars or ponds but in the number of drinks that it will buy

18 you are always the last of your group to leave the bar and the first to suggest another bar or another drink somewhere else.

19 you find it increasingly difficult to talk to people or socialise without having had a drink.

20 you want a drink as soon as you wake up

If you experience a couple of them occasionally it does not necessarily mean that you have a problem with booze. It is when these signs are regular features of your drinking that they are significant. We can all overindulge on occasion but if these occasions are becoming more frequent and you are experiencing an increasing number of these signs then maybe you need to take a hard look at your lifestyle and your drinking. Also you do not need to be experiencing all of these signs to have a problem, a few of them is more than enough. If you do feel that you need help check with your family doctor sooner rather than later. Like most problems, drinking problems are easier to treat when they are detected early.

While alcohol consumption is considered to be a recreational activity for adults, it can carry with it potential health hazards including dependence, addiction, liver damage and all kinds of different accidents. Alcohol test kits can help put a stop to irresponsible drinking, and reduces the amount of workplace accidents, drunk driving arrests and accidents and binge drinking-related deaths.

Signs of Alcohol Abuse

Someone under the influence of alcohol typically exhibits very characteristic signs including glassy eyes, irritability, memory loss, decreased hygiene, job performance and school performance, argumentative behavior and decline in relationships.

Signs of Alcohol Addiction

People who consume 15 or more drinks per week are prone to developing alcohol dependence or becoming alcoholics. Symptoms of alcoholism include excuse-making behavior in order to drink, violent outbursts, tendency to hide drinking habits, forgetting meals, nausea, confusion, decline in physical appearance, inability to quit drinking and drinking alone.

Signs of Alcohol Poisoning

Alcohol poisoning is very serious. A person suffering from alcohol poisoning requires immediate medical attention, as death can result. Some signs and symptoms to watch for that indicates alcohol poisoning include confusion, seizures, vomiting in sleep, hypothermia and irregular or slowed breathing. If someone has drank a large quantity of alcohol and exhibits these symptoms, call 911 immediately.

Alcohol Testing

There are several different types of alcohol detection tests for use both in the home and in the workplace. The most popular include the breath analyzer and a saliva screen test. Both of these alcohol drug test kits provide fast and easy-to-read results with lab-accuracy.

Alcohol testing kits are valuable tools that help to keep people responsible for their drinking behaviors. Likewise, alcohol testing can help businesses maintain a safe and healthy work environment for their employees, lowering the amount of onsite accidents and saving companies money. Alcoholism is damaging to a companys production rate and reputation, by increasing losses due to sick days, lowered productivity, onsite accidents, workers compensation claims and insurance claims. This is precisely the reason many companies opt to incorporate alcohol drug testing into their procedures.

Some industries are required to enforce the use of alcohol drug test kits. Such an industry is the Department of Transportation, which is government mandated to comply with alcohol and drug testing regulations. DOT alcohol & drug tests keep the public safe and the Department of Transportation accountable.

Parents can also benefit from alcohol tests. A simple breathalyzer test can determine whether or not your teen has been drinking, and if so how much. A simple alcohol drug test can help you either lay your fears to rest as a parent or seek appropriate help for your child should the need arise.