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Alcoholism, risks and 1

ALCOHOLISM, RISKS AND DISEASES.
José Daniel Udave Madrazo.
English Composition.

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Alcoholism, risk and 2
Abstract.
This paper talks about diseases or risks to health, relationships, life quality and economical problems caused by alcohol abuse to the person who drinks a lot and for the people who cares about him. I also made emphasis on dangers caused by adrunken individual.

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Alcoholism refers to any condition that result in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences. Modern medical definitions describe alcoholism as a disease and addiction which results in a persistent use of alcohol despite negative consequences.( From: The American Medical Association"Definitions" http://www.ama-assn.org/ ama1/pub/upload/mm/388/alcoholism_treatable.pdf).
There are many consequences to alcohol abuse, including economical problems caused by the need to purchase alcohol despite of other needs, besides alcohol beverages are most of the times an expensive thing to buy.
There are many diseases caused by abnormal alcohol consumption, and also alcoholism can trigger someillness that in fact, does not have a direct relation with it, but for now I am going to list the direct effects caused on the liver.
A) Abnormal liver conditions.
1) Fatty liver: Fatty liver, also known as fatty liver disease (FLD), steatorrhoeic hepatosis, or steatosis hepatitis, is a reversible condition where large vacuoles of triglyceride fat accumulate in liver cells via the process ofsteatosis. Despite having multiple causes, fatty liver can be considered a single disease that occurs worldwide in those with excessive alcohol intake and those who are obese (with or without effects of insulin resistance). The condition is also associated with other diseases that influence fat metabolism.
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Morphologically it is difficult to distinguish alcoholic FLD fromnon alcoholic FLD and both show micro-vesicular and macrovesicular fatty changes at different stages. (From http://www.fatty-liver.net/)

2) Hepatitis: Alcoholic hepatitis is a syndrome of progressive inflammatory liver injury associated with long-term heavy intake of ethanol. The pathogenesis is not completely understood. Disease that is sufficiently severe to cause an acute development ofencephalopathy is associated with substantial early mortality, which may be ameliorated by treatment with glucocorticoids.
Alcoholic hepatitis usually persists and progresses to cirrhosis if heavy alcohol use continues. If alcohol use ceases, alcoholic hepatitis resolves slowly over weeks to months, sometimes without permanent sequelae but often with residual cirrhosis.

3) Cirrhosis: Cirrhosisis a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrous scar tissue as well as regenerative nodules (lumps that occur as a result of a process in which damaged tissue is regenerated), leading to progressive loss of liver function. Cirrhosis is most commonly caused by alcoholism, hepatitis B and C and fatty liver disease but

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hasmany other possible causes. ( From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrhosis )
With the principal direct-caused diseases listed above, now I am going to talk about dependence.
Dependence is divided in two categories, psychological and physical, in order to be cured, both of them need complete convincement of the subject and stop drinking alcohol totally.
1) Psychological: This applies when theneed to consume the substance comes from the thoughts of the individual, his or her body does not need it, but he really wants it. For me, this is the worst dependence because physical dependence can be controlled with medication while psychological can not, it needs a lot of help from others and self esteem.
2) Physical: Physical dependence causes the so known withdrawal symptoms, like head...