Alcoholism and Aging

Alcoholism comes with many issues. Life Transitions regarding Alcoholism and Aging can cause senior challenges. High levels of alcohol in the body can result in headaches, severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion. Drinking excessively, even on a single occasion, increases a person’s risk of detrimental heart effects. If threat of illness does not detour the consumption of alcohol think of what it does to your skin. Alcohol dehydrates the skin, depriving it of the moisture and nutrients it needs to keep the complexion looking radiant, supple and youthful. Deprivation of moisture increases the appearance of wrinkles, dryness and sagging skin. Alcohol is a diuretic which means it actively draws water away from the body, significantly lowering the body’s water level causing dehydration. Dehydrated skin can look dry and unhealthy both in color and texture. It causes increased redness or flushing of the skin, acne, blotchiness, puffiness and rosacea. Women are more vulnerable than men to many of the medical consequences of alcohol use. Alcoholic women develop cirrhosis, alcohol induced damage of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy) and nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy) after fewer years of heavy drinking than do alcoholic men. Brain shrinkage is related to heavy drinking in both men and women. If the drinker is not worried about appearance and the fact that dementia is a real threat due to drinking; let’s delve into the other problems that it causes. To begin with drinking too much can weaken the immune system, making the body a much easier target for disease. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than those who do not drink too much. Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows the body’s ability to ward off infections – even up to 24 hours after getting drunk. Sustained over drinking is known to affect the brain, heart, liver, and pancreas. Extended use of excessive alcohol is known to cause certain types of cancer. Let’s look at this per organ and then we will talk about cancer.

Brain: Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination.

Heart: Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing problems including:

• Cardiomyopathy – stretching and drooping of heart muscle
• Arrhythmias – irregular heart beat
• Stroke
• High blood pressure

Liver: Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems and liver inflammations including:

• Steatosis, or fatty liver
• Alcoholic hepatitis
• Fibrosis
• Cirrhosis

Pancreas: Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion. I said that we would get to cancer; so here we are. Evidence indicates that the more alcohol a person drinks – particularly regularly over time- the higher his or her risk of developing an alcohol-associated cancer. Even those who have no more than one drink per day and people who binge drink (those who consume 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more drinks for men in one sitting: have a modestly increased risk of some cancers. Based on data from 2009, an estimated 3/5% of cancer deaths in the U.S. (about 19,500 deaths were alcohol related. Types of cancer cited:

• Head and neck cancer, including oral cavity, pharynx and larynx cancers.
• Esophageal cancer, particularly esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, people who inherit a deficiency in an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol have been found to have substantially increased risks of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma if they consume alcohol.
• Liver cancer.
• Breast cancer: Studies have consistently found an increased risk of breast cancer in women with increasing alcohol intake. Women who consume about 1 drink per day have a 5 to 9 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer than women wo do not drink at all.
• Colorectal cancer.

A real threat to the Alcoholic is something called Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS) or referred to casually as “wet brain” is a severe, life-threatening brain disorder that is caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Look for my next blog on this syndrome.

Read more from LaVona: End of Life Coping Guide to Losing your Senior Loved One >>

Here are more resources to help you learn more regarding Life Transitions Alcoholism and Aging:

• National Library of Medicine (NLM) study of Alcoholism and Aging Life Transitions – Effects of age and life transitions on alcohol and drug treatment outcome over nine years
• National Library of Medicine (NLM) Facts on Seniors Aging with Alcoholism
• Golden Placements Adult Services – Life Transitions Short Term Memory Loss
• Golden Placements Adult Placement Services – WKS disorder – What happens when you drink?

LaVona Tomberlin, Senior Placement Specialist

LaVona is a Senior Placement Specialist at GPS. She loves writing about improving the lives of Elderly working in private care and in-home care for over 36 years. Geriatrics, Memory Care. Plus holds Master of Psychology Behavioral Health with the goal of advocating for those who needed a voice. Helping the families to make good decisions and to relieve their stress in uncertain times makes life worthwhile.