Alcoholism In Women
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Alcoholism is a disease that affects countless people all over the world. It has the power to destroy lives, break up families and kill many victims of it. It also all unique in it’s the one disease that the victim can actually be blind to having. Despite the fact that it is so prevalent in American society, many do not know that there are many distinctive issues that face women specifically. Alcohol abuse and Alcoholism can affect a person in a variety of ways, including brain and liver damage. For women, they are not only more susceptible to these diseases but they have separate issues including issues of their reproductive systems and pregnancy. Before diving into the issues that women face with alcohol, it is important to first understand what alcoholism actually is and how it affects the body.
Being an alcoholic is not a choice but a disease. It is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States behind tobacco and diet/activity patterns. It kills 100, 000 deaths a year (McGinnis & Foege). Alcoholism is determined through many definitions. Strong urges to drink; not being able to stop drinking once you have begun, tolerance to alcoholic beverages and a physical dependence to the drug are all signs of alcoholism. There is a strong sense of denial as well as despite the chemical dependence to alcohol, many alcoholics do not believe that they are in fact addicted and believe they can “stop” at any time”. This attachment to alcohol never goes away and even if the person stops drinking completely; they will always be addicted to the substance and must abstain from having even one drink. While alcoholism is an inherited gene, it is only one factor in determining whether or not a person will himself become an alcoholic. Other factors include age and lifestyle.
The difference in men and women come from the fact that women have less water in them then men. Alcohol in both men and women goes through the digestive track and is dispersed through the water in the body. Men, on average, way more than women and have more water in there body (“Alcohol: Women’s Issue). It’s the water that dilutes the alcohol running through our bodies and since women have less water more of the alcohol gets to there brain and other organs like there liver. Women also eliminate alcohol from their blood stream faster then men. “This finding may be explained by womens higher liver volume per unit lean body mass, because alcohol is metabolized almost entirely in the liver” (NIAAA, 1999)
One of the major concerns of alcohol abuse and alcoholism is alcohol-induced brain damage. The ability to be susceptible to alcohol-related brain damage is linked with a wide variety of ways. Age, gender, nutrition and the persons drinking history and the person’s vulnerability in specific brain regions can all affect how susceptible a person is (Oscar-Berman, Marinkovic, 2003) . About half of the nearly 20 million alcoholics in the United States seem to be free of cognitive impairments. In the remaining half, however, neuropsychological difficulties can range from mild to severe. For example, up to 2 million alcoholics develop permanent and debilitating conditions that require lifetime custodial care” (Oscar-Berman, Marinkovic, 2003). Abuse of alcohol has been shown to actually shrink the part of the brain that handles both learning and memory. “The shrinkage observed seems to be more extensive in the cortex of the frontal lobe, which is believed to be the seat of higher intellectual functions” (Oscar-Bernman, Manokovic, 2003). Some of the problems that can come include alcohol-induced persisting amnesic disorder as well as dementia. Dementia can affect many aspects of mental functions including memory functions (Oscar-Bernman, Manokovic, 2003).
Studies have shown that there are greater degrees of cognitive dysfunction in alcoholic women then alcohol men even when the alcoholic men had been heavily drinking for several more years. (Hommer, 2003) “These results suggested that the central nervous system (CNS) in women, like other organ systems, is more vulnerable to alcohol—induced damage than the CNS in men” (Hommer, 2003). “Long-term alcohol abuse has been shown to literally shrink the region of the brain associated with learning and memory in several brain imaging studies, with at least one group of researchers finding women to be more susceptible to this effect than men.” (Flannery, 450 ) It was found that while male who abused alcohol, sober for three weeks, showed signs of brain “shrinkage” compared with healthy men, the difference between alcoholic and healthy women was much greater. This shrinkage shows the killing off of brain cells in the brain. (Hommer, 2003)
Alcohol has also shown to cause an issue in women’s menstrual cycles. “Alcohol markedly disrupts normal menstrual cycling in female humans and rats. Alcoholic women are known to have a variety of menstrual and reproductive disorders, from irregular menstrual cycles to complete cessation of menses, absence of ovulation (i.e., an ovulation), and infertility”. (Emanuele, Emanuele, Wezeman, 2002). It has also been linked with early menopause in women. (Emanuele, Emanuele, Wezemen, 2002). According to Emanuele, Emanuele, & Wezemen, alcohol damage, at the wrong time, can create permanent tissue damage, which can in turn leave a woman infertile. “A study of healthy nonalcoholic women found that a substantial portion who drank small amounts of alcohol stopped cycling normally and became at least temporarily infertile” (Emanuele, Emanuele, Wezemen, 2002). According to Emanuele, Emanuele and Wezemen, studies on female rats have been used to show how alcohol can affect the female’s growth through puberty. According to their studies, the vaginal openings in the female rats were delayed, during puberty, when alcohol was administered to them.
One problem of alcohol abuse that affects women is the issue of drinking and pregnancy. Drinking while pregnant can lead to problems for the child such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome affects the baby’s facial features including small eyes, an exceptionally thin upper lip, a short,