QUORA article : " When will alcohol kill the alcoholic ? "

Profile photo for Marylyn Dranos Marylyn Dranos · Follow Studied at University of Nevada, Las VegasJan 23 When will alcohol kill the alcoholic? [I have an uncle, a man who over the course of the last twelve years grew from a functional, successful businessman, someone I could finally recognize, into a shell of a man lying in a bed in a hospital, his liver completely destroyed. He was a man who didn't quite represent the commonly held preconceived opinion of an alcoholic. He didn't drink so he could get out of doing his job. He didn't drink so he could get in trouble. He simply had his "dinner drinks" – an evolution from two glasses of wine, to a bottle, to two bottles, to a bottle plus his liquor of choice. For a long time, he was the model of health. He functioned normally. He made everyone concerned with his condition make a fool of themselves, telling them, as he did so frequently, that evidently, his stress reliever of choice was a lot of alcohol. That all changed, apparently, in an instant – his skin yellowed, his belly bulged out in grotesque fashion, he became forgetful, confused, the doctors informed us his liver simply didn't work – he died six weeks after he came out of the hospital. Still, no one expected him to deteriorate so rapidly. The thing is, alcohol does not simply wait a certain number of years and then just botch the body in some final, apocalyptic rampage—it is quietly and insidiously killing you from the inside out for years and sometimes even decades before that final, fatal disaster. Of course, aside from my uncle's liver failure, chronic abuse of alcohol can lead to heart problems like cardiomyopathy, can result in irreversible brain cell death and subsequent cognitive degeneration and dementia, can progressively weaken an individual's immune system and make them more prone to dangerous infections and even cancer, can bring about the painful and usually fatal inflammation of the pancreas known as pancreatitis, and on and on. Thanks to a guide on the topic that a person mentioned to me upon learning of the passing of my uncle because I recognized that indeed I was repeating his pattern of life, I was educated on the different tactics available whereby one can reverse an extensive series of harm from drinking before one gets to the point of no return. Literally, this home doctor book helped me to heal the liver, improve cognitive abilities, and completely cure the dependency within a period of ten months! Now I don't just make excuses in my mind that I'll quit later or that I'm just not bad enough to need help with anything. I take care that I understand the reality of the progressive damage that alcohol causes—that begins with an understanding of the capacity of the body to heal just as well as it can destroy you, as long as organ failure is avoided, as well as the need to participate in regular liver enzyme tests and other health screenings to identify damage as quickly as possible, as well as an awareness that my dependency on alcohol is a progressive disease that only gets worse with the years.] 798.4K views View 614 upvotes View 15 shares 1 of 65 answers 91 comments from Ted Smith and more