Posts Tagged ‘Fetal Alcohol Syndrome’

Alcohol Abuse and Women Health

There are hundreds of discussions on alcohol and its abuse, but this one is specially aimed at effects on women health caused due to the consumption of alcohol. Considering the variety of diseases and the resultant condition due to alcohol consumption in women prompted me to post a specific article on this topic.

Alcohol abuse may it be in men or women is definitely causing health hazards. Certain conditions like impaired driving, domestic violence and sexual assault are nothing but ugly faces of alcohol abuse. It just doesn’t stop with deteriorating ones health but also tries to harm other due to the uncontrolled behavior, a result of excessive drinking.

The following paragraphs highlight the health hazards caused due to excessive drinking especially in women. Consumption of alcohol causes different effects in men and women. Even if we were to compare drinking in men and women of the same build, height and weight, still results show lot of difference in their reactions to alcohol. And, even among individuals in the same gender, the reactions never match.

So what is that as women you should be aware of?

Alcohol Abuse and Health Hazard in Women

While both men and women suffer from health related issues, the nature of health complications faced are completely different.

• Alcohol during Pregnancy – Women who consume alcohol during pregnancy run the risk of contracting Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) in their children. Though the risk of contracting the disease is a concern when the person is involved in heavy alcohol consumption, the effects of moderate drinking is not ruled out. Children affected by FAS normally suffer out of mental and physical handicap. This is completely preventable and subjecting a child to such trouble is no less than child abuse.
• Alcohol invites Cancer – While alcohol consumption triggers the chances of a mouth cancer, esophagus, pharynx, larynx and liver in men, contracting breast cancer is one of the dominant features of consuming alcohol in women. Research reveals that the chances of a woman under of the age of 25 contracting this disease in 1 in 15,000. With age the chances of getting cancer with alcohol become more.
• Diabetes and Alcohol – Close to 16 million in the US suffer from type 2 diabetes. Consuming alcohol in moderation is said to reduce the chances of developing diabetes in women. With a research conducted on 16,330 women in the age group of 49 to 70 years, women who consumed alcohol in moderate showed less chances of developing diabetes.
• Heart disease and Alcohol – While the discussion here is about alcohol abuse, you might wonder about the positive facts about alcohol presented here for your reference. It is to make clear that alcohol also helps in curing the disease when consumed in minimal quantities. Again, beware any time crossing limit is surely going to lead to health complications. Women who consume moderate quantities of alcohol ran lower chances of contracting a coronary heart disease (CHD) than women who abstained from consuming alcohol. Alcohol also helps women from hypertension. Research conducted over 7000 women over a period of 8 years in the age group of 20 to 40 years reveals that women who drank about half a glass every day had 15% lower chances of contracting the disease. Again, consuming more than 1.5 drinks per day increased the chances of developing hypertension.
• Alcohol and Sexual Assault – More than 30% of sexual assault takes place when the perpetrator is under the influence of alcohol and there are many such cases where the victim is also intoxicated. Alcohol makes people loose control over their senses and is also one of the excuses quoted by the accused.
• Alcohol and Memory Loss – Drinking alcohol in moderation actually helps in better concentration and performance in women and deterioration begins once the dosage increases where alcohol literally destroys brain cells. Alcohol abuse increases the threat of dementia in elderly women.
• Alcohol and Osteoporosis – Consuming alcohol reduces the chance of developing osteoporosis in women, again only in moderation.

Supplement this post with more information, which is sure to help millions of people around the world.

Alcohol consumption has various impacts and dealing with them is not so easy. The impacts and their severity depend on the age of the person consuming alcohol and the level of consumption, whether moderate, heavy or complete abstinence. Studies reveal that the impact differs from men to women.

Alcoholic Impacts

The effect alcohol has on men and women are different given that they carry similarities in their height and weight. Again, among the same gender it varies from individual to individual. Studies show that women need more awareness in this issue taking into account that impacts and results vary in men and women.

Knowing these simple basic facts help you understand some of the complications in health hazard caused by alcohol in men and women. Alcohol does not have one single impact, it causes Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) affecting the fetus in pregnant woman, aggravates different types of cancer in men and women, diabetes, heart and circulation related problems, leads to partner or spousal violence, sexual assault, affects memory, leads to osteoporosis.

Alcohol Abuse Invites Cancer

Alcohol is said to cause different types of cancer in men and women. While alcohol abuse together with smoking surely leads to esophagus, larynx, liver and pharynx cancer in men, it is breast cancer in women.

Not all of these cancers are common except for breast cancer. Even moderate consumption of alcohol leads to breast cancers, while it is not the case in all other cancers. Hence, women are at a greater danger of facing trouble due to alcohol consumption.

Interesting Findings by Alcohol Research Center

Centre for Alcohol Research at the National Institute for Public Health in Denmark conducted a research over 13,000 women spread in the age group of 20 to 91 and the results where also consistent with the Framingham Study which indicated that the risk of breast cancer is not increased due to moderate consumption of alcohol.

It is interesting to note that alcohol also has positive effects on cancer. In a study conducted on 410 women with papillary thyroid cancer when compared to 574 women who were all healthy revealed that alcohol reduced the risk of developing such cancer.

While the topic here is about how alcohol invites cancer, it is also interesting to note how alcohol helps in reducing cancer. Similar to papillary thyroid cancer, alcohol also reduces the risk of suffering from kidney cancer or the renal cell carcinoma. While middle aged women had shown 38% lower chances of contracting this cancer, women aged over 55 years showed 66% lower chances.

Coming back to the topic of contracting breast cancer, the chances of a 25 year old suffering from breast cancer is one in 15,000 women. With age the chances of contracting cancer in breast also increases. A woman aged over 80 years, has a chance of 8.8 contracting the disease in every hundred women and every drink per day increases the chance by one percentage point.

If you have informative article on alcohol and its effect in increasing the chances of cancer in men and women do not forget to share it with us.

Moderate drinking during pregnancy generally does not have any adverse effects. Various studies and research reveal that there is no adverse effect on pregnancy as long as the pregnant mother does not consume more than one drink per day. Medical specialists are of the opinion that it is impossible to determine the time and amount of alcohol consumption that will not put the child under risk.

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS is a health syndrome caused due to alcohol consumption by a pregnant woman and where the victim is the new born baby. This is completely preventable. Subjecting a child to FAS is no way less cruel than child abuse as the child is bound to suffer for life. Children affect with this syndrome normally have deformed facial features, short memories, smaller heads in proportion to their bodies, lack of coordination and abnormal limbs and joints.

The result is that these children normally tend to have inappropriate behavior, disruptive schooling, and severe physical and mental health related problems, addictive to drugs and alcohol, on the whole a horrible life time.

How Does Consuming Alcohol Affect Pregnant Women?

A number of studies and research have been conducted in order to get a clear picture about the alcohol and its impact on pregnant women. While browsing through the net for various articles pertaining to alcohol and pregnant woman I found an interesting article at ‘Alcohol Problems and Solutions’. The website offers you an in depth analysis into the details of Alcohol and its effects on individuals. It was indeed worth reading presenting some of it for your reading.

Women who tend to drink heavily during their pregnancies bore the risk of bringing forth children with smaller heads who had either mental or physical handicaps, when compared to those who drank occasionally or never according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Pregnancy and Alcohol – Is There Any Need?

Pregnant woman are warned of birth defects in their children where they tend to drink more than one alcoholic drink per day. Harvard’s Women Health Watch defines one drink as equal to consuming 12 ounces of beer, 1.5 ounces of spirit and five ounces of wine.

Consuming 2 drinks a couple of times in a week is said to cause no harm to the health of a pregnant woman, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist which is also consistent with the National Academy of Sciences.

Research has shown that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs in children whose mother is an alcoholic; it also assures that there is no apparent risk found where the mother consumes not more than one drink every day.

Precaution to be taken by Pregnant Women to avoid Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Given to learn that consuming alcohol causes birth defects the safest choice will be to restrain from drinking. But the question of practicality and awareness crops up in dealing with the issue of alcoholism. Those who are light or occasional drinkers can as well stop drinking learning the dangers caused by alcohol abuse on their little ones. The point here is about dealing with heavy drinkers, who also consume illegal drugs without knowing the adverse effect it can have on their child. In addition to addictiveness, ignorance can cause more damage. Leave alone the efforts taken to stop a pregnant woman from consuming alcohol; is she aware that heavy alcoholic consumption puts her child under the risk of FAS for life time?

Following the safety levels of drinking is sure to help, but nothing like not consuming it at all, where you rule out even the remote chance of occurrence of FAS and also given that the effects of moderate consumption of alcohol is yet to be found.

Do you find drinking pleasurable, given that your child will suffer for her life?