Heavy drinking (to blame) _______________ for up to 33,000 deaths a year in the UK. The NHS (tyo spend) _______________ more than £164m treating alcohol-related conditions.
Heavy drinking health risks at a glance (to be) _________
Liver damage
Osteoporosis
Pancreatitis
Shrivelled sex organs
Heart disease
Stroke
Dementia/ brain damage
Damage to unborn child
Increased risks of some types of cancer
Too much alcohol can (to irritate) ______________ the stomach, leading to sickness and nausea, and can (to lead) ______________ to temporary impotence in men.
Alcohol (to have) ___________ a dehydrating effect, and the traditional hangover (to arrive) ____________ partly as a result.
Long term drinkers can (to suffer) __________ liver damage, as the liver (to be) ______ the organ that (to process) ______________ the alcohol and (to remove) ___________ it from the body.
There (to be) _____ three types of damage - fatty liver, in which fat (to deposit) in the liver, impairing its function, alcohol hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver which can (to cause) ___________ severe symptoms and (to lead) ___________ in some cases to alcoholic cirrhosis, which can eventually (to cause) _______________ liver failure if the drinker (not to stop) _________________.
The first two stages (to be) __________ usually reversible, whereas cirrhosis (to have) _______ no cure.
Heavy drinkers can (to suffer) __________ from chronic gastritis - essentially a daily recurrence of hangover style nausea and sickness. They can also (to suffer) ____________ damage to the oesophagus.
Pancreatitis (to be) _____ a common problem in heavy drinkers - this (to be) _____ an extremely painful condition which (to be) _____ hard to treat, and sometimes fatal.
Brain damage (to be) _____ also possible in some cases - alcoholic dementia (to find) ______ often ___________ in very long-term drinkers.
Heart disease and stroke
However, it (to be) ______ damage to the heart and circulatory system that (to place) __________ many drinkers at risk. Drinking over the recommended limits (to be) _____ one of the most common causes of high blood pressure, which can (to contribute) _______ to heart disease.
Drinking heavily (to be) _____ also likely to greatly increase the calorific intake, perhaps leading to obesity, which also (to increase) ________________ these health risks.
Regularly drinking more than three units of alcohol a day (to increase) ____________ the risk of a type of stroke called haemorrhagic stroke.
It can also (to contribute) __________________ to osteoporosis, (to lead) _________ to muscle weakness, (to make) _____________ skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema worse.
In men, there (to be) likely ______ a loss of libido and potency, shrinking of the testicles and penis, reduced fertiliy, loss of pubic hair and if cirrhosis (to be) _____ present, increased breast size and loss of body hair.
In women, ovulation may (to cease)____________, and breasts and sexual organs (to shrivel) _________.
Many cancers (to be) _______ alcohol-related, particularly those of the mouth, oesophagus, liver, stomach, colon, rectum, and perhaps breast cancer in women.
Harming unborn children
Heavy drinking, even in one-off binges, by pregnant women can (to harm) _________ their unborn child.
It can (to lead) __________ to miscarriage, low birth weight, and, in the worst cases, to foetal alcohol syndrome, a group of defects which can (to include) ___________ lowered IQ, facial malformations and growth deficiencies.
Many studies (to find) ________________ suggestions that (to moderate) __________ alcohol drinking, for example one or two units a day, can (to have) ________ a protective effect against in particular heart disease.
This has yet to be conclusively proven, as it (to be) _______ not clear whether it (to be) ______ the alcohol, or some other ingredient in the drink, which is having the effect.
Alcohol linked to thousands of deaths
Drink (to blame) _________________ for many suicides, murders and falls
Almost half of all unnatural deaths (to relate) ___________________ to alcohol, a study (to find) _______________.
Research carried out by doctors in Sweden (to suggest) _____________ that 44% deaths caused by accidents or other events (to link) to drinking.
These (to include) ___________ deaths from suicide, falls, traffic injuries, asphyxia, intoxication and murder. They (to link) ____________ to drinking.
The doctors (to examine) ____________ deaths in Sweden over a five-year period. They (to divide) __________ deaths into natural - those that (to cause) ______________ by disease or illness - and unnatural - those that (to be) ________ event-related.
They (to find) that 29% all unnatural deaths (to associate) ___________________ with alcohol.
However, they (to estimate) ____________ that the figure may (to be) ______ as high as 44% and may (to be) _________ even higher in countries with 'softer' alcohol laws than Sweden.
