The Effects Of Drug And Alcohol Use On Women’s Body: Alcohol abuse and misuse among women is on the rise. While any overuse of alcohol is dangerous to one’s health, women who drink have a higher risk of some alcohol-related illnesses than males.
Women should be aware of these health risks and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025. It dictates that adult women who belong to the drinking age group must decide to drink only after knowing its consequences full-well.
They can choose to drink in moderation by restricting the intake to one drink or less per day or not drinking at all.
Alcohol should be avoided totally by some people, such as those who are pregnant or may become pregnant. Unfortunately, however, the leading Houston drug rehab center has several patients who have made such drastic decisions about drinking and have thus made the worst decisions of their lives.
Statistics
Approximately 13% of adult females report binge drinking, which they do on average four times per month and consume five drinks every binge. About 18% of women of childbearing age (ages 18–44) binge drink.
In 2019, approximately 32% of female high school students and 26% of male high school students used alcohol. Female high school students (15%) were more likely to binge drink than male high school students (13%).
In 2019, 4% of women overall had an alcohol use disorder, while 8% of women aged 18 to 25 had one.
According to a recent study, 10% of pregnant women consumed alcohol, including 4.5% involved in binge drinking.
Pregnancy alcohol usage raises the likelihood of having a kid with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most severe kind of birth abnormality linked to intellectual impairments and birth abnormalities.
FASD can be wholly avoided if a woman does not drink while pregnant or tries to become pregnant. It is not safe to drink during pregnancy at any time. The risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, early delivery, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome are all increased by excessive alcohol consumption (SIDS).
Why Do Women Face Higher Risks?
For a variety of reasons, studies demonstrate that women develop alcohol-related issues earlier and at lower drinking levels than males.
Women weigh less than men on average. Furthermore, alcohol is primarily found in body water, and women have less water in their bodies than men.
This means that if a woman and a man of equal weight drink the same amount of alcohol, the woman’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) will be higher, placing her at greater risk of injury. Other biological changes could also play a role.
Biological differences in body structure and chemistry cause most women to absorb more alcohol and take longer to metabolize it. It means, women are biologically designed to drink more alcohol and take more drugs than their male counterparts.
Women have higher blood alcohol levels than males after drinking the same amount of alcohol, and the acute effects of alcohol occur faster and persist longer in women than in men.
Women are more vulnerable to the long-term harmful health effects of alcohol than men because of these distinctions.
List Of Diseases
Women who have problems with alcohol have a terrible impact on mental and physical health. Alcohol consumption and addiction can exacerbate pre-existing diseases like depression or cause new ones like severe memory loss, depression, and anxiety.
Let’s take a look at the other diseases drugs and alcohol cause on a woman’s body:
AUD
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a relapsing chronic brain condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or regulate drinking despite negative social, occupational, or health consequences.
Recovery is achievable regardless of the severity of AUD, which can range from mild to severe. This is why women must indulge themselves in healthy habits instead of consuming drugs and alcohol aggressively.
Liver Damage
Women who abuse alcohol on a daily basis are more likely than men who consume the same amount of alcohol to acquire alcoholic hepatitis, a potentially fatal liver disease caused by alcohol.
Cirrhosis can develop as a result of this drinking pattern. Moreover, women are more likely to have a higher death rate from alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis than men.
Heart Issues
Long-term alcohol abuse is a significant contributor to heart disease.
Even while women consume less alcohol over their lifetime than males, they are more susceptible to alcohol-related cardiac disease.
Heavy drinking can also damage the heart muscle and makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood.
Brain Disease
According to recent research, women are more likely than males to develop brain damage as a result of alcohol abuse. Furthermore, a growing body of data suggests that alcohol can interfere with normal brain development during adolescence and that the effects of alcohol on the brains of young girls and boys may differ.
In one study, young girls who binge drank had lower brain activity and performed worse on a memory test than their friends who drank moderately or abstained.
Similarly, young girls who drank heavily had smaller brain areas involved in memory and decision-making than teen boys who drank extensively.
Breast Cancer
Drinking alcohol has been linked to the development of breast cancer.
According to studies, women who drink roughly one drink per day have a 5 to 9% increased risk of breast cancer than women who do not drink at all. Furthermore, this danger rises with each additional drink consumed per day.
Pregnancy Abnormalities
Any drinking alcohol while pregnant can be dangerous.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can induce physical, cognitive, and behavioral impairments in children, all of which can be symptoms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).
Conclusion
Alcoholism affects more than simply the drinker. For example, heavy drinkers’ spouses and children may be subjected to domestic violence; children may be subjected to physical and sexual abuse and neglect, as well as psychological difficulties.
Women who drink while pregnant run the danger of harming their unborn children. Accidents and assaults involving alcohol can hurt or kill relatives, friends, and strangers.
Therefore, it is evident that drug and alcohol abuse has more risks on women than on men. If you want to know more about it, let us know in the comment section.
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