It's not surprising to hear...or to be... someone who drinks, or drank as a minor. Those crazy teenage and college years are what memories are what made of, right? In these early years of life we don't always take the time to think about the long term consequences of our choices; instead we focus on having a good time our friends and forgetting about our troubles for a while.
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It's really too bad that the human brain works this way. A new study about long term consequences of alcohol consumption during the adolescent and early adult years gives us insight as to how alcohol abuse in the early years can contribute to health issues several decades later. The study was conducted by interviewing middle aged to older persons about their drinking habits during their earlier years and their current health status. The main conclusion was that drinking heavily or excessively in the earlier years was strongly correlated with more health problems in the later years. The study mentioned above suggests a strong correlation between early alcoholism and problems with mental health, depression, lack of social support and/or resilience, disability, and mortality. Additionally WebMD cites typical health problems associated with chronic drinking include anemia, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, dementia, depression, seizures, gout, hypertension, gout, nerve damage, and pancreatitis.
In the world of chronic pain, many of these problems can contribute to a patient's well being in a very significant way. People with chronic pain would be much better off if they didn't have to battle depression or struggle to find social support in their darkest hours. And they certainly need all the resilience they can muster!
In my humble opinion, alcohol consumption is best kept in the low to moderate range at all times. This is just another example of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.
Sources: WebMd; JSAD.com; Wikimedia
It's really too bad that the human brain works this way. A new study about long term consequences of alcohol consumption during the adolescent and early adult years gives us insight as to how alcohol abuse in the early years can contribute to health issues several decades later. The study was conducted by interviewing middle aged to older persons about their drinking habits during their earlier years and their current health status. The main conclusion was that drinking heavily or excessively in the earlier years was strongly correlated with more health problems in the later years. The study mentioned above suggests a strong correlation between early alcoholism and problems with mental health, depression, lack of social support and/or resilience, disability, and mortality. Additionally WebMD cites typical health problems associated with chronic drinking include anemia, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, dementia, depression, seizures, gout, hypertension, gout, nerve damage, and pancreatitis.
In the world of chronic pain, many of these problems can contribute to a patient's well being in a very significant way. People with chronic pain would be much better off if they didn't have to battle depression or struggle to find social support in their darkest hours. And they certainly need all the resilience they can muster!
In my humble opinion, alcohol consumption is best kept in the low to moderate range at all times. This is just another example of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.
Sources: WebMd; JSAD.com; Wikimedia
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