When one hears the word alcohol addiction, immediately a picture of a man will appear in one’s mind. This is how the typecast of alcohol addiction on each society. However, there is now a change in this kind of stereotype as more and more women are having cases of alcohol addiction. However, there’s still a particular stigma with regards to women and alcohol addiction. Denial always come with this type of stigma. For a man, it is easier to admit alcohol addiction than for a woman. Therefore, the death rate from alcohol addiction, percentage-wise, in women who have alcohol addiction is higher than it is in men.
In terms of the usage of alcohol, women appear to be more vulnerable to many adverse consequences. Regardless of drinking the same quantity of alcohol, women have the capability to get higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood as compared to men. Research also says that women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol-related organ injury and to trauma resulting from traffic crashes and interpersonal violence. In addition, women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men. Generally, women have minimal body water than men of the same body weight, so that women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood after drinking the same amounts of alcohol. In addition, women appear to eliminate alcohol from the blood faster than men. Since alcohol is mostly metabolized in the liver, this certain finding may be attributed to the higher volume of a woman’s liver per unit lean body mass as compared to men.
What damages does alcohol do to women? After consuming less alcohol and over a shorter period of time, women developed alcohol-induced liver disease easily unlike men. To add, alcoholic hepatitis and death from cirrhosis are more likely to affect women than men. Animal research suggests that women’s increased risk for liver damage may be linked to physiological effects of the female reproductive hormone estrogen.
Many factors have been associated with women’s vulnerability to alcohol addiction. Genetic factor is one of the primary reason that is s aid to cause alcohol addiction. Studies of women who had been adopted at birth have shown a significant association between alcoholism in adoptees and their biological parents. In addition, antisocial personality (e.g., aggressiveness) in biological parents may foretell alcohol addiction in both male and female adoptees. However, potential links between genetic and environmental influences require further study. Moreover, results of a big nationwide survey illustrate that more than 40 percent of persons who started taking in alcohol beforereaching the age of 15 were diagnosed as alcohol dependent in a certain point in their lives. Percentage rates of lifetime dependence minimized to approximately 10 percent among those who started drinking at age 20 or older. Women’s alcohol use has been connected to physical abuse in the point go adulthood. However, there are also other related problems that comes with alcohol addiction. One study found that notably more women undergoing alcohol addiction treatment experienced brutal partner violence (e.g., kicking, punching, or threatening with a weapon) compared with other women in the community.
Alcohol addiction is more dangerous on women than in men