The National Center on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism writes that drinking too much increases your chances of being injured or even killed. Consider for example that "alcohol is a factor in about 60% of fatal burn injuries, drownings, and homicides, 50% of severe trauma injuries and sexual assaults, and 40% of fatal motor vehicle crashes, suicides, and fatal falls." And heavy drinkers have an increased risk of liver disease, heart disease, sleep disorders, depression, stroke, bleeding from the stomach, sexually transmitted infections from unsafe sex, and several types of cancer. In a news release on March 4, 2013,
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada reported, Unhealthy drinking widespread around the world, CAMH study shows.
In a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Canada it has been found that "alcohol is now the third leading cause of the global burden of disease and injury, despite the fact most adults worldwide abstain from drinking." This research was part of the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study. In the study it was also found that North Americans in general, and Canadians in particular, drink more than 50 per cent above the global average. Dr. Kevin Shield, the lead author of the study, has said, “Alcohol consumption has been found to cause more than 200 different diseases and injuries. These include not only well-known outcomes of drinking such as liver cirrhosis or traffic accidents, but also several types of cancer, such as female breast cancer.”
The global burden of disease and injury which is attributable to alcohol has been found to be large and growing. In 2010, alcohol was found to be responsible for 5.5 per cent of this overall burden, which was third after high blood pressure and tobacco smoking, among 67 risk factors overall. Dr. Jürgen Rehm, a study author, has commented, “The amount of unrecorded alcohol consumed is a particular problem, as its consumption is not impacted by public health alcohol policies, such as taxation, which can moderate consumption.” Dr. Shield has said, “Improving alcohol control policies presents one of the greatest opportunities to prevent much of the health burden caused by alcohol consumption. To improve these policies, information on how much alcohol people are consuming, and how people are consuming alcohol is necessary, and that is exactly the information this article presents.”
