Alcohol misuse accounted for 35,823 deaths in 2017, an increase of nearly 46 percent over almost two decades, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of mortality data.
The data, which come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that alcohol-related deaths have climbed steadily from the 19,469 deaths recorded in 1999. Deaths from misusing alcohol did not decline at any time since that period, and they included not only alcohol poisonings but also alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis. They do not include deaths from accidents people have while they are drinking, because in these instances, the cause of death would be drowning, a car accident, or a fall.
Deaths from such heavy drinking patterns are contributing to thelower life expectancy trend that has been observed in the U.S. in recent years, an issue compounded by opioid overdose deaths and suicides. These alcohol deaths are still lower than those caused by opioids such as heroin, which were responsible for 47,600 deaths in 2017, and suicides, which accounted for 47,173 deaths. When combined with deaths from accidents where people have been drinking, however, they climb to 88,000 deaths a year, federal reports show.
“I consider alcohol the elephant in the room when it comes to the drug abuse issues that have been surfacing,” said Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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Alcoholism is more prevelant than drug addiction, yet all the emphasis seems to be on treatment for drug addicts. There doesn't seem to be the concern for alcoholics with all the help and assistance in so many different ways for drug addicts. Alcoholism is just as health wrecking, home wrecking, and complete life wrecking as drug addiction. There needs to be more than AAA, although they are very helpful but they don't put alcoholics through detox, etc., which is necessary before long term treatment and if you don;t have insurance that will pay for it, you are out of luck.
ReplyDeleteI get there are things that harm/kill us, but Capitalism is hard to eliminate since it makes the economic engine of our country AND world turn.
ReplyDeleteUntil the value of greed is no more, its a lather/rinse/repeat cycle!!!