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About Alcohol
more information:
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Did you know?
- 3 in 10 Americans have a drinking pattern that puts them at risk and 1 in 25 deaths internationally are linked to alcohol use.
- The amount and frequency of alcohol use play a big role in health problems
like liver disease; cancers of the mouth, stomach and breast; and addiction.
- Alcohol disease is treatable.
- Alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
- Families with an alcoholic member have twice the average health care bill that
other families do, and healthcare costs of untreated alcoholics are 100% higher
non-alcoholics.
- Americans spend two times as much buying chocolate as they do to treat
alcoholism.
- For every dollar invested in treatment there is a savings in health costs of four to twenty-three dollars.
- In Gallatin County, treatment needs are 10.8 times higher than treatment demand.
That means, many who need help are not getting it.
The US Government defines moderate drinking for the general population, age 65 and under as
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Men No more than 2 drinks per day. And, no more than 4 drinks on any one occasion
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Women
No more than 1 drink per day. And, no more than 3 drinks any one occasion.
There are no healthy drinking levels for youth under 21, pregnant women, or recovering alcoholics and addicts.
If you cannot hold your use to these levels or less, you should not drink.
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Though a wise first step, cutting to within the limits is not risk free, since motor vehicle crashes and
other problems can occur at lower drinking levels.
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Is everybody doing it?
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Drinking
Patterns Among Adults
in the United States (R. Brown, University of Wisconsin-Madison).
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Levels of use
- People who abstain are those who consume no alcohol.
People may choose to abstain because of religious proscription, because of not liking
the taste, or because they have been influenced by a friend of family members’
problems with alcohol and have made a conscious choice not to go there.
- Low-risk drinkers
consume alcohol at or below American Medical Association (AMA) recommendations.
A person drinks at low-risk levels if they experience no negative consequences as
a result of their alcohol consumption.
- At-risk or hazardous drinkers
drink alcohol at amounts above those recommended by the AMA. “Risky drinkers”
are people who may have experienced a negative
consequence or two, but may not.
- Alcohol abusers
have experienced repeated alcohol-related negative consequences such as
accidents, injuries, problems in school, behavioral problems, etc.
- Dependent drinkers
are unable to control their alcohol use, have experienced repeated adverse
consequences, are preoccupied with alcohol use, and may have evidence of
physical tolerance or withdrawal.
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