Alcohol addiction is synonymous to saying it’s a man thing. This is how the pigeonhole 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. This kind of stigma promotes denial. For a man, it is easier to admit alcohol addiction than for a woman. This is the reason why there is a higher percentage of women than men in terms of death rate.
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 capacity to achieve 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 damage and to trauma resulting from traffic crashes and interpersonal violence. In terms of the metabolizing of alcohol inside the body, there is a big difference between men and women. In general, women have less body water than men of the same body weight, so that women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood after taking in equivalent 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? Compared with men, women develop alcohol-induced liver disease over a shorter period of time and after consuming less alcohol. 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. To add, antisocial personality (e.g., aggressiveness) in biological parents may predict alcohol addiction in both male and female adoptees. However, probable interactions between genetic and environmental influences require further study. Moreover, fallouts of a large nationwide study show that more than 40 percent of persons who initiated taking in alcohol before age 15 were diagnosed as alcohol dependent in a certain point in their lives. Rates of lifetime dependence lowered to approximately 10 percent among those who began drinking at age 20 or older. Physical abuse during adulthood has also been associated with women’s alcohol use and related problems. A certain study has found out that significantly more women undergoing alcoholism treatment experienced severe partner violence (e.g., kicking, punching, or threatening with a weapon) as compared to other women in the community.
Alcohol addiction is more dangerous on women than in men
