CDC: 1 In 10 Adult Deaths In US Caused By Excessive Drinking

An anonymous reader writes: According to new research from the CDC, 9.8% of deaths in working-age adults (22-64 years old) in the U.S. from 2006 to 2010 were "attributable to excessive drinking." This makes excessive drinking the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. The study included deaths from medical conditions, such as liver disease and alcohol-induced strokes, as well as deaths from alcohol-related events, like car accidents, homicides, and fall injuries. However, it did not account for cases where excessive alcohol consumption was a factor in contracting conditions like AIDS, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, so the count may actually be higher. Many western states with low population spread out over a large area showed the highest alcohol-related death rates, while states from the east coast and the midwest tended to be on the lower end of the spectrum. The study also tracked years of life lost, which is higher for alcohol-related deaths than for most other types of death. Researcher Robert Brewer said, "One of the issues with alcohol that is particularly tragic is the extent to which it gets people in the prime of their lives."

Comments

Re:Self Medication

[DNS-and-BIND]

Medication is used to treat diseases. Feeling like a fuck-up isn't a disease, and even if it was alcohol would probably be one of the last medicines a physician would prescribe. It's the opposite of a medicine, it's a poison in fact.

I don't buy the smoking/drugs thing because hundreds of years ago (much less thousands) they didn't have pills or pot. And they didn't chew on mushrooms, either. They just had lives. So you can call it something, I call it getting drunk, but jeez medication is a pretty damn far cry no matter how many people before you parroted it.

Re:So....far more than guns

[CanHasDIY]

Tools for death cause death in exactly the same way that tools for construction cause construction:

It wasn't nearly as easy without them, and we know how much firearm prevalence increases suicide prevalence

Except, you know - Japan.

And don't give me that "fuh fuh culture fuh fuh" crap, we're talking pure statistics here, and the numbers say increased gun ownership does not equate to increased suicide rates.