According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC,) there were 30,000 American deaths from alcohol-induced causes in 2014. The CDC report notes that the deaths included alcohol poisoning and cirrhosis, liver damage primarily caused by drinking. In an article published by Medical Daily, that information translates to 9.6 deaths from alcohol-induced causes per 100,000 people, a figure that has risen 37 percent since 2002. These alarming numbers don’t even include deaths from drunk driving, and other accidents or homicides committed under the influence of alcohol. According to Philip J. Cook, a Duke University professor who studies alcohol consumption patterns, when you factor in deaths directly or indirectly caused by alcohol would cause the number of annual deaths to rise to around 90,000. Per-capita alcohol consumption has been rising nationally since the late 1990s. The number of Americans who drink at least once per month rose by a small but significant...

In 1988, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared that alcohol was a carcinogen. The World Cancer Report released in 2014 highlighted the role of alcohol in cancer, finding that alcohol accounts for 3.5% of cancers (about 1 in 30 cancer deaths) globally. Recent data indicate that the proportion of cancers attributable to alcohol worldwide has increased. In 2012, alcohol consumption caused 5.5% of all cases of cancer and 5.8% of all cancer deaths. This increase is believed to be attributable primarily to an increase in the prevalence of drinkers and in the amount of alcohol consumed, particularly by women. The fact that alcohol is a carcinogen has been clearly confirmed according to an article published in Medscape Oncology. Jürgen Rehm, PhD, Director of the Social and Epidemiological Research Department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, describes how our knowledge about the role...

A new report published online in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse shows that overall exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising is a significant predictor of underage youth alcohol brand consumption, with young people ages 13-20 more likely to consume brands of alcohol that they have seen advertised, according to Science Daily. The new data found that youth are more than five times more likely to consume alcohol brands that advertise on national television, and 36 percent more likely to consume alcohol brands that advertise in national magazines, compared to brands that don’t advertise in these forms of media. The report was released by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Boston University School of Public Health. It is believed to be the first study to examine the relationship between brand-specific advertising and brand-specific consumption of alcohol among...

The American Academy of Pediatrics stated that no amount of alcohol should be viewed as safe throughout pregnancy and called exposure to prenatal alcohol the leading preventable cause of birth defects and intellectual disabilities in children, Today.com reports. In a report published in the journal Pediatrics, the Academy underscored that drinking during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a group of conditions that can occur in a child whose mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy and that drinking-related birth defects and developmental disabilities are avoidable through abstentions. The Academy noted that prenatal alcohol exposure is linked to higher incidences of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disabilities, such as problems with math and language, memory skills and impulse control. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are also linked to numerous conditions that can include physical, emotional, behavioral and learning problems and can range from mild to severe. The most serious type, fetal alcohol...

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald found that around 50 per cent of the risk of drug or alcohol dependence abuse is genetic.

More than 4 million Americans admit they have driven while intoxicated at least once in the past month, a new government study finds.

I watch people around me drink the same way I do but they don’t get wasted like me. There must be a trick, some secret or learned way of drinking that I haven’t figured out yet, but I will. I’ll try beer instead of vodka. I’ll try eating more before I drink. I’ll find a way—there must be a way. It’s not like I’m a drunk or something! I’ve never lost a job, I’ve never gotten a DUI, I never drink in the morning. If I was an alcoholic, I wouldn’t be able to say that. This is simply a matter of getting a grip on drinking, figuring out the way to do it. Welcome to one of the many scripts that ran through my head before I got sober. They varied a bit here and there, but they all led to the same conclusion—I could not accept that I was...