Awwwwkward... but, the reporductive system does suffer with alcohol use, too, showing up as a performance issue first. Share the YouTube video at or read the transcript.
Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens. Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking. Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore." Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Christoph Fisher Books. Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go." Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.
June is traditionally the
big month for weddings. I pulled three articles from my news archive
that demonstrate how alcohol use disorders can doom the "I do's"
years later.
Divorce is predictable (article)
Couples who drink together may not stay together
according to a study posted in the May 2013 issue of
Alcoholism:
Clinical and Experimental Research. The study concludes
that divorce is more likely, though not by as much, if the
couples drink about the same amount of alcohol, compared to
couples who don't drink, study lead author Fartein Torvik of
the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said.
The massive study included nearly 20,000 couples
in one county who were surveyed over a 15-year period. The
researchers found that heavy drinking by the men or women
increased the risk of divorce, even after adjusting to remove
"light drinkers." No determination was made about
alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism. The institute
found that even when they filtered out demographic factors and
mental distress, heavy alcohol use by one or both spouses was
a predictor for dissolution of marriage.
The likelihood of divorce was especially high
when only the woman drank. A different study presented at the
annual meeting of the American Sociological Society in January
concluded that men drink less after saying “I do” and
women drink more. That study noted that being married to a man
who is more likely to drink creates a new social environment
that may promote drinking among women.
Torvik noted in a statement about the Norwegian
study, "The risk of divorce is estimated to be tripled
when the husband's level of drinking is low and the wife's
drinking is heavy, compared with couples where both drink
lightly."
The research found that couples where neither
spouse drank had lower probability of divorce. "This
study demonstrated that both the level of alcohol use and
compatibility in alcohol use are important predictors of
marital dissolution," the journal wrote as a conclusion.
Women
drink more after marriage (article)
Men – or marriage – can drive women to
drink. Women consume more alcohol after they say “I do”
while men actually cut down after marriage, a January 22 study
found.
Men are more likely than women to hit the bottle
after a divorce, according to the survey into marriage and
alcohol conducted by sociologists at four universities. The
study was based on surveys of 5,000 men and women conducted
over 47 years.
Lead researcher Corinne Reczek, professor of
sociology at the University of Cincinnati, said, “Stable
marriage curbs men’s drinking, yet is associated with a
slightly higher level of alcohol use among women. Our findings
suggest that being married to a man who is more likely to
drink creates a new social environment that may promote
drinking among women.”
Reczek added, “Some research suggests that men
are more likely to cope with stressors in “externalizing”
ways such as drinking more alcohol, possibly contributing to
alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism. Women are more
likely to cope in “internalizing” ways such as depression
rather than alcohol abuse.
The study found that while husbands drank less
alcohol than single men and widowers, their consumption
increased sharply if the marriage ended. Reczek insisted that
men who fail to converge with their wives’ drinking habits
in marriage may set a trajectory towards divorce and continued
heavy drinking.
Men who cut back on drinking are more likely to
have a happier marriage.
The study findings were presented at the Annual
Meeting of the American
Sociological Association.
SEX (article)
Men who want to avoid taking erectile dysfunction drugs
such as Cialis might want to back off the booze. Drinking alcohol can
cause lasting damage to men's sexual performance even after
abstaining from the drinking, a newly published study suggests.
Researchers said men can suffer "brewer's droop"
for more than a year after giving up heavy drinking. Spanish
physicians asked personal questions of 109 men from nine different
treatment facilities over two years. The men were questioned while
they were heavy drinkers and when they had scaled back their intake.
The research found alcohol had a residual effect that lasted many
months.
Academics from Santo Tomas University in Colombia and
the University of Granada in Spain said their results “partially
contradict those of other authors who argued that alcohol causes
transient erectile dysfunction.” Results show that, overall, all
dimensions (pleasure, desire, arousal and orgasm) were moderately
impaired. Pleasure and orgasm were the two areas most significantly
impaired. After even two weeks of abstinence, no relationship was
found between drug abstinence and improvement in sexual functioning.
Writing in the January online “early view” of the
Journal
of Sexual Medicine, they noted: “It does not seem to be just a
temporary problem, because erectile ability was still affected after
a year and, according to the results, did not seem likely to improve
just with [alcohol] abstinence.”
The researchers also found that heavy drinkers tended
to enjoy sex less than those who only drank moderately, and were less
likely to want sex.
They wrote: “Alcohol users were found to have lower
pleasure scores. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies
have related alcohol consumption with impaired sexual pleasure.”
The research backs up years of speculation about alcohol use
disorders and how they affect male performance and overall
reproductive health.
Alcohol acts a fairly efficient chemical solvent to dissolve adhesives, oil residue and paint. It's also fairly effective at dissolving jobs, respect, self-esteem and bank accounts. These three unrelated studies demonstrate how alcohol dissolves relationships as well. The last of the three articles is purely a physiological side-effect from alcohol consumption, the first two articles show how the physical/psychological/sociological/legal/professional/financial consequences of alcohol misuse will dissolve a relationship. Sometimes, it's easy to blame the other spouse for "driving us to drink." In fact, that drink might be driving him or her out.
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