Senior Health Issues and Alcohol
April, 2009 marks the 22nd year of Alcohol Awareness Month.
Tarzana Treatment Centers is participating with a series of articles meant to inform and educate the general public about alcohol abuse, dependence and treatment. Considering that over 21 million Americans meet the criteria for alcohol abuse and over 53 million admit to past-month binge drinking, not to mention the many loved ones affected by each, our efforts are worthwhile.
Some issues that come with aging may be slowed or even reversed by simply abstaining from alcohol use. Of course it depends on the amount of alcohol a person consumes before they abstain. Recovery from alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence will have a more dramatic effect on senior citizens than if they only occasionally drink.
Taking interactions with medications into account, it is probably a good idea for seniors to abstain from alcohol consumption anyway. Add to that a habit of more than 1 drink per day, and the progression of physical or mental health problems can accelerate.
Much worse, alcohol dependence places an added burden on vital organs that are already deteriorating. Alcoholic senior citizens suffer higher rates of problems with the heart, liver, and pancreas, along with more severe depression and dementia.
Senior citizens can benefit from alcohol detox and treatment the same as anyone else. Using this information can help to convince an older family member to enter treatment so their golden years can indeed be golden.
The following paragraph is from a report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. If you are a senior citizen with an alcohol problem, or know someone who is, please read the report.
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The potential for drug interactions increases with greater reliance on prescription drugs, multiple prescriptions, difficulty in correct self administration, and age-related changes in physiology and is further aggravated by the use of alcohol (Williams 1988). For example, Abrams & Alexopoulos (1987) emphasize that alcohol abuse among older persons can mimic and/or contribute to major depression. Also, Larsen and colleagues (1987) discovered that some apparent dementia in older patients is actually a form of drug-induced cognitive impairment, reversible in the absence of the drugs. Thus, it is likely that reduction of alcohol consumption could improve treatment outcomes among the elderly.
— Source: http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa02.htm —
Tarzana Treatment Centers in Los Angeles makes a daily effort to find treatment news articles that we can share with our readers in the alcohol and drug treatment community. The external content was found among other articles of equal informational and educational quality.