You’ve had a bad stomach for a lot of years, but you’ve never gotten to the bottom of it.  You used to enjoy hot taco sauce with no problems as a kid.  Now you have trouble with most things you eat.  You’ve always just thought it was your age catching up to you, making things more sensitive.  But what about the four very stiff drinks you have every day?  Can drinking really make long term problems in your digestive system?

Digestive System Takes Hits With Alcoholism

You know, nearly everybody takes their body for granted a lot of the time.  You just go about your business each day, and it takes care of itself without a whole lot of input from you.  It has built in systems for cleaning, feeding, repairing, restoring, and growing itself.  Overall, the human body is pretty resilient.  However, treating your body poorly can really catch up quickly. 

It may seem like an obvious statement when you think about it, but alcoholics are at a clear risk for chronic digestive problems.  Alcoholism involves ingesting abnormally large quantities of alcoholic beverages.  Vomiting and diarrhea are well-known symptoms of intoxication.  But the more chronic damage and diseases may be misdiagnosed or brushed off in an alcoholic.

Tissue Inflamation With Heavy Drinking Causes Much Damage

Tissue inflamation is a fairly common side effect of heavy drinking.  Many tissues in the body are susceptible to this including the digestive system.  Unfortunately, tissue damage as a result of chronic inflammation can either result in a slow recovery or a permenant condition. 

Pancreatitis is the inflamation of the pancreas, usually seen in people who’ve been drinking heavily and steadily for at least five to seven years.  By the time the person gets medical attention for the problem, it has most often become a chronic condition. 

Inflamation of the stomach lining can lead to a host of uncomfortable problems.  Vomiting, indigestion, peptic ulcers, and even bleeding in chronic cases of inflamation.  A person with even one of these problems could experience frequent pain after eating, weight loss, and nutritional depravation. 

Chronic Problems and Family History Need Your Attention With Alcoholism

A person with a family or person history of digestive problems will need to pay close attention to the effects alcohol has on their body.  If you have digestive problems and consume a lot of alcohol, you may be making an already bad problem worse.  Or, you may think your symptoms are just related to something you ate or your hangover last night.  It could instead be the sign of chronic problem that is much bigger than you realize.

Serious chronic tissue damage is a sign that your drinking has to stop.  You are slowly killing your body each day.  Some conditions can be reversed if caught early and treated properly.  However, there comes a point of no return with some things (like the liver and pancreas).  The most important thing is to find a way to stop drinking now.

Get Your Health In Better Shape With Alcohol Rehab

If you need to stop drinking now, you know things are out of control.  An alcohol rehab center offers real hope for you.  It’s not enough to just stop being drunk all the time.  Going to alcohol rehab can help your body heal from the damage its endured.  Alcohol treatment may sound like it’s just about the drinking itself.  But well-trained alcohol treatment professionals know that nearly every part of the body has taken some damage along the way.  An alcohol rehab center can not only help you quit drinking, it can help you restore your health.

Alcohol use is socially popular and often seen as relatively harmless in moderate amounts.  However, people who develop heavy drinking patterns can do damage to their liver in various ways.  Evidence of this damage may not be obvious at first, so it pays to learn about the signs and symptoms.  A world class alcohol rehab center can provide treatment for serious alcohol problems that include liver disease. 

How Alcohol Addiction Affects The Liver

The liver is a toxin filter for the human body.  It works tirelessly keeping out things that would harm the body if allowed to build up.  When a person eats and drinks in a fairly normal way, the liver has a very good chance of staying healthy for a lifetime. 

Alcohol and drug use is knowingly putting toxins into your body.  For that matter, medicine is a foreign substance to the body.  But it’s all about the cost-benefit analysis.  For healthy people, a small amount of alcohol once in a while can very likely be managed by the liver without a problem.  Of course, anyone taking medication or having health problems needs to clear this with their doctor or completely avoid alcohol.  But for those who can drink and act responsibly, the enjoyment of occasional light alcohol use outweighs any realistic health risk. 

However, this is not the kind of drinking done by someone abusing or addicted to alcohol.  By definition, their use far surpassing light and occassional.  Problem drinking is also connected with poor judgment - think DUI, bar fight, MIP, assault, etc.  When you drink that much, you also expose yourself to various levels of liver damage.  After looking at the following information, you might start to really appreciate what your liver does for you every day.

Three Types of Liver Disease Linked With Alcohol Addiction

The first sign of heavy drinking affecting your liver is called fatty liver.  Fat cells in the liver begin to swell in response to the high level of toxicity.  According to Hazelden, this condition can come on after just a few days of heavy drinking.  The good news is that this problem is reversible when the person stops drinking.

Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver.  This can be caused by viruses, bacteria, and other infectious substances.  However, constant exposure to toxins like alcohol can also bring on hepatitis.  Hepatitis can cause symptoms common with many illnesses like fever, loss of appetite, nausea, and abdominal pain.  The symptoms that may tip someone of to liver damage include mental disorientation and jaundice (yellowish skin).  If someone’s liver is already weakened in some way, hepatitis can kill a person.  Again, when a person stops drinking, alcohol-induced hepatitis can be reversed.

The worst possible liver disease is cirrohosis.  Unfortunately, this condition is not reversible with abstinence.  Liver cells are replaced by scar tissue, causing permanent damage.  The liver can’t even handle the average body-filtering needs of the human body at this point.  When a person reaches this stage of liver disease, they have already been drinking heavily for years.  They have poisoned their own body to the point of self destruction.  Sadly, some people at this stage still cannot stop drinking. 

Drug Rehab Helps People With Cirrohosis of the Liver

As you can see, alcohol rehab centers cannot overlook the importance of physical health.  It’s not enough to just shoot for abstinance.  It’s important to understand the physical damage that’s already been done and what could still happen if drinking continues.  Comprehensive treatment gives the person a more complete understanding of their situation.  This is the kind of expert alcohol rehabilitation care you can expect at The Orchid Recovery Center for Women.