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Alcohol overuse causes 140,000 American deaths annually. Why is it so undertreated? (www.vox.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

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Medications can help the 1 in 12 people who suffer from alcohol use disorder. But most will never be treated.

There is something that kills more Americans every year than drug overdoses, than guns, than car accidents. It’s legal, doesn’t require a background check to buy, is widely advertised, and if you’re 21, you can probably buy it at your corner store. It’s called alcohol.

While cold beers, glasses of wine, and hard liquor cocktails are often treated as end-of-the-workday or weekend indulgences, alcohol is technically a psychoactive, addictive drug, one linked to over 50 fatal conditions, including heart disease; breast, pancreatic, and stomach cancers; liver disease; hypertension; and stroke. It contributes to the death of 140,000 people in the US annually, making it one of the leading causes of preventable death in the country.

More and more research supports the conclusion that even light drinking — that is, less than 15 drinks a week for men or eight drinks a week for women — can contribute to an increased risk for heart disease and cancers. More recent medical recommendations in countries like Canada have increasingly tightened, moving toward the idea that there is no truly safe level of alcohol consumption.

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[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Smoking it still is terrible for your lungs though.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes of course. A lot of things in life involve a balancing act of weighing pros and cons, and then trial and error.

I was one of the unlucky few who experienced suicidal thoughts when they put me on sertraline, but it's a substance that helps more people than it harms, so it's not the first thing I'd mention if someone were depressed.

I see weed as similar. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of how it makes me feel, and there are some risks and side effects (relatively minor compared to alcohol, of course), but it helps far more people than it harms. It's really improved the quality of life for my husband with his PTSD, for example, and its side effects are actually far less unpleasant than the four meds he was on prior to the provider prescribing cannabis.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way advocating banning weed. All drugs should be legal anyways. What someone wants to do with their body is none of my business, as long as it doesn't harm me or others.

I should have clarified that alternative use of marijuana is a better substitute than smoking weed or drinking alcohol. I just don't like that a lot of people assume smoking it daily is somehow healthy for you.... it's like smoking tobacco, it's bad period. It's a vice so by all means do it how you want but there seems to be this underlying myth that people think it's not harmful at all.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just don’t like that a lot of people assume smoking it daily is somehow healthy for you

Literally no one thinks inhaling smoke is healthy. This isn't a thing people believe. It's just such a red herring when introduced in a conversation about the ravages of hard drugs like alcohol.

It's like pointing out that both carrots and snickers contain sugar.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

You apparently haven't been following along with the conversation....a LOT of people think it's completely fine. The trees subreddit was filled with people like this. They're logic was that they're not smoking tobacco and it's fine because no one has linked smoking marijuana with lung cancer.

[–] sndrtj@feddit.nl 2 points 10 months ago

The difference is that, there are ways of consuming cannabis that don't involve smoking. Edibles are a thing, and so are vaporizers (tiny convenction ovens that vaporize the cannabinioids but don't produce any nasty combustion products).

With alcohol, there is no "safer" way of consuming it. The psychoactive compound itself is physically far more damaging than THC is.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 10 months ago

Yes. Edibles all the way.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Dry vaping seems to not bring many health issues with it - at least none that I know of.

Also tinctures or inferior edibles are an option
Why inferior? Time to take effect, hard to dosage correctly and THC is metabolized differently when solved in fat.
As alcohol solution you can dosage per drop and it hits practically immediately - pretty much as fast as alcohol orally does

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Isn't vaping it not burning the plant but just vaporizing the oils? I have no clue on that, if so I'd say it's probably way safer than burning the plant.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Yep, exactly

[–] smooth_tea@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Terrible is a bit relative. Cannabis smokers have a smaller chance of developing lung cancer and a higher lung capacity than non smokers. But yes it has downsides.