The numbers do not tell a good story. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence reports that around 17.6 million people in the US abuse or depend on alcohol. That makes it one in every 13 people. More than 100,000 people die every year due to alcohol abuse.
Men are four times probable than women to be addictive drinkers and twice as prospective to be alcohol dependent. Although the physical impacts of alcohol addiction are generally comparative for both men and women, there are limitations that affect men even more and others, which are altogether exceptional.
Health effects of alcohol
In one category alone, motor vehicle crashes that result in death, men have more than twice the chance of that crash being related to alcohol.
The short term effects of alcohol abuse or dependence bring impairment in judgment and decision-making capability. This clarifies why men are higher in number due to alcohol-related deaths and hospitalization than women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm that men are more prone to deaths and injuries due to excessive drinking. A fact sheet shared by CDC shows that men are four times more probable to get into a motor vehicle crash while drinking than women.
Other faulty choices that can be followed with the impacts of alcohol abuse encompass being bound to get into fights, having unsafe sex, sexual assaults, and even committing suicide.
In the long term, the consequences of rampage drinking and alcohol abuse degradingly affect the body just like the brain. A report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research demonstrated that alcohol abuse intensifies the chances of getting cancers identified with the colon, liver, throat, and mouth. As a matter of fact, it has been estimated that more than three percent of cancer-related deaths worldwide have been associated with alcoholism. Alcohol use over the long term also adds to heart attacks, liver failure, and other liver ailments.
Hardcore drinking is related to changes in long-term memory even in individuals who are not heavy drinkers. There are mental issues as well that may arise due to alcohol consumption, such as severe neuroses and mild depression.
Alcohol and Sexual Dysfunction
While a large number of the effects of overwhelming drinking are identified with long-term dependence, there are impacts that can influence men over the short-to-medium-term. Major among these is dysfunctionality in male sexuality.
Binge alcohol consumption can literally meddle with the function of the testicles and disturb the usual production of male hormones. A man can experience erectile dysfunction, infertility, and impotence when this happens. In the medium to long-term, this can bring about changes in secondary sex characteristics such as facial hair and chest hair loss, and the anomalous development of breast tissue (gynecomastia).
However, there are solutions for erection problems such as taking erectile dysfunction medications including Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil), and Cialis (tadalafil). But what must be kept in mind is that these medications are less able to be absorbed if taken with alcohol. This eventually lowers the advantages of these drugs.