"Alcohol use disorder" is defined as "a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, having to drink more to get the same effect, or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking," according to the Mayo Clinic's.
If this sounds like you're experiencing any of the signs of an alcohol use disorder, which vary from inability to regulate how much you drink to deliberately throwing up social duties to pursue your drinking (for a complete list of symptoms, see here), you should modify your habits. According to research published in the journal Acta Psychiatra Scandinavica, alcohol use disorder was linked to a substantially shorter life expectancy.
Researchers from Sweden's Karolinski Institute analyzed over a million people's drinking (or non-drinking) habits from three European countries for the study. They found that those hospitalized for alcohol use disorder have a life expectancy of 47 to 53 years for men and 50 to 58 years for women. "People with alcohol use disorder have a life expectancy of 24 to 28 years less than the normal population," the researchers concluded.
According to the study, people with alcohol use disorders have a greater death rate from "all causes of death" than the general population, which includes "all diseases and medical problems, as well as suicide."
It's not the first study to highlight some of the potentially fatal consequences of excessive or even moderate alcohol consumption. According to a recent study published in the European Heart Journal, moderate drinkers may be putting their bodies at higher risk than they know. Starting in 1982, the research team looked at the drinking habits and heart health of more than 107,000 Europeans aged 24 to 97 and discovered that drinking only one "little" alcoholic drink per day significantly increased the risk of having an irregular heartbeat or "atrial fibrillation." Not only is this illness associated with dizziness and heart palpitations, but it's also linked to an increased risk of stroke.
A "small" drink, for the record, was defined as 330 milliliters of beer (approximately eight tablespoons), 120 milliliters of wine (about eight tablespoons), and 40 milliliters of spirits (2.7 tablespoons).
If you're not sure if your drinking has progressed to the point of being a problem, Robert Doyle, MD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the book Almost Alcoholic, says the best indicator is if you try to quit drinking for a length of time and can't.
He suggests abstaining from alcohol for a month. "If you find that difficult, you may have a problem. Alternatively, you may inquire about the opinions of those in your immediate vicinity. It's a serious issue if it's giving them distress."
After all, doctors indicate that using alcohol daily raises your chances of heart disease, infertility, osteoporosis, and liver damage.
Do not hesitate to seek professional help if you or someone you know may be suffering from an alcohol use disorder.