Adults drinking deaths have apparently been affecting more people as each year passes. According to a new study, adults drinking deaths on average affects 88,000 deaths per year in the U.S. from 2006 to 2010, and now, one in ten adult deaths are due to alcoholism.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the report on the adults drinking deaths.
According to NBC News, a new government study has been released stating that a striking one in 10 deaths in working-age adults may be because of consuming too much alcohol. The study on adults drinking deaths has been conducted in between the years 2006 and 2010.
Through the study on Preventing Chronic Disease, adults drinking deaths was found to be mostly due to excessive use of alcohol. These include binge drinking, heavy weekly alcohol consumption and drinking while underage or pregnant. The lives of those who died were found to be shortened by about 30 years.
Some of adults drinking deaths were due to the long-range effects of chronic alcohol consumption at a rate of 15 or more drinks a week for men and 8 or more drinks a week for women.
According to Mandy Stahre, a CDC researcher during the study on adults drinking deaths and is now an epidemiologist with the state of Washington, the new data is very concerning.
Stahre said about 70% of those adults drinking deaths were working-age adults between the ages of 20 to 64. Stahre stated, 'We're talking about a large economic impact, people who are contributing to society. They're in the prime of their lives, whether they're building up careers or midcareer. A lot of attention we tend to focus on is maybe college drinking or just drunk driving. This really talked about the broadness of the problem.'
Stahre added of the adults drinking deaths study, 'We looked at deaths from 2001 to 2005 and those numbers were high also. So it's been going on for at least the past 10 years. It's the third leading cause of preventable death. I don't think it gets a much attention as tobacco which is the leading cause.'
Meanwhile, David Jernigan, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said that the new numbers on adults drinking deaths will most probably be a cause for surprise on most Americans. He said, 'When people think about alcohol problems, they think about addiction and motor vehicle crashes, but this shows that there are many ways to die from alcohol. The big problem isn't the addicts, but the binge drinkers who so far outnumber those who are addicted. Anybody can have a problem if they drink to excess on a single occasion. You don't have to be addicted to crash your car into a tree or fall into a pool or off a hotel balcony.'
It may be hard to get out of the statistics of the growing number of adults drinking deaths, but Dr. Charles O'Brien, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Studies in Addiction says that there may be hope and a way for those addicted to alcohol to actually beat alcoholism.
Dr O'Brien said that along with counseling, a way to avoid being part of adults drinking deaths is if patients try a monthly shot containing a drug called naltrexone. The drug reportedly blunts the alcohol high by blocking the opioid receptors in the brain.
According to USA Today, another big change in how specialists treat heavy drinkers and prevent further adults drinking deaths is to focus on simply reducing the drinks instead of going cold turkey. O'Brien said, 'If you reduce your drinking from heavy to moderate, you can greatly improve your health.'
Scientist William Kerr with the Alcohol Research Group, a national research organization, agrees that current government policies may be now be strengthened with regard to alcohol regulation. Kerr said, 'It's important to think about what might be done to reduce this (death) toll, and think about government policies that might reduce availability and increase the price of alcohol that is known to impact drinking in general and binge drinking.'
Adults drinking deaths disturbing new data still has the Distilled Spirits Council taking issue on recommendations by the CDC. The CDC study reportedly only increased alcohol taxes, and limited hours for alcohol sales and density of retail alcohol outlets. Lisa Hawkins, the council's vice president, said in a statement, 'Repeatedly, studies have shown that alcohol abusers are affected little by price.' She added that moderate alcohol consumers are the ones most affected by the price.
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