It's not often that people think of alcohol as a serious health problem.
People more often associate alcohol with social problems but rarely is it discussed as strictly a health problem, except when talking about deaths that result from drinking and driving.
But earlier this month, a new study by Centre of Addiction and Mental Health revealed that alcohol is now the third leading cause of disease and injury in the world, despite the fact that most adults don't drink. The research was conducted as part of the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study and published in the journal Addiction this month.
This shouldn't be much of a surprise, but people don't really associate alcohol with health problems. People often focus on the social problems caused by alcohol, such as violence, crime, abuse and decreased work performance.
Rarely do we see any public service announcements that warn about the serious health problems caused by alcohol, including heart disease, liver damage, brain damage and cancer. People who smoke cigarettes often smoke knowing in the back of their mind the damage they are causing to themselves. But when people drink, they rarely think about any serious damage to their health other than the hangover they might feel the next day.
There's an article in this week's paper about a local mechanic who turned his life around for the better after he gave up the bottle. It wasn't until after his wife died because of alcohol-related complications and after he suffered from two alcoholic seizures that he quit. It just goes to show that alcohol causes many serious problems for people that people just don't think of.
According to the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health, Canadians drink 50 per cent more than the global average. More than 80 per cent of Canadian adults drink booze and data released by Statistics Canada shows that alcohol consumption has increased in recent years.
Alcohol use is associated with acute injuries, trauma, violence and several chronic diseases. Research indicates that an increase of consumption and harmful drinking patterns are directly associated with increases in alcohol-related dangers, but the issue just hasn't been publicized like it should.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health recently released a report that compares each Canadian province on its alcohol policies. The report concludes that while Canada is a world leader in effective tobacco control and that while many jurisdictions take action and devote resources to target unhealthy eating and a lack of physical exercise, significantly less attention is paid to alcohol, particularly as a health issue.
We agree, that given alcohol's status as the third leading cause of disease and injury worldwide, that at least an equal amount of attention should be applied.
