Medical Is alcohol the most destructive drug on the planet?

[fluidistic]

Alcohol has ruined the life of my father (had a Ph.D., wife and 3 children, lost all of this and never got any job after falling into alcohol) and has greatly affected me and my brother/sister. He's currently in very, very bad shapes and suffer from an advanced Barrett syndrome (hope I typed it correctly). He's currently 53 years old. The father and mother of my girlfriend died at 54. So did the sister of my father (last year) and now I learn that Borek's father too... Going to start hating this number.

 

[Evo]

More here.

The minimum dose of alcohol that must be consumed for serious liver injury to become apparent in men is 5-6 standard drinks daily for 20 years. For women, the minimum dose is one-fourth to one-half that amount.

http://www.montana.edu/wwwai/imsd/alcohol/Vanessa/vwliver.htm

 

[fluidistic]

Responding to Evo: standard drink=200 ml of beer? So that means around 1 liter of what... 6% of alcohol? Just want to make things clear :)

 

[BobG]

Back to reality, this was not alcohol alone. Anyone have research to back that this damage this quick can be just alcohol consumption? Unless she was consuming lethal amounts of alcohol daily, which would make anything lethal.

Acetaminophen is probably one of the scariest and deadliest over the counter drugs there is. Much deadlier than alcohol, meth, or heroine. In the US it's known as Tylenol.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/sec21/ch326/ch326c.html

Alcohol alone could not have caused the damage that woman had in that time frame unless she had pre-exisiting problems or it's possible she was mixing alcohol with acetaminophen or other drugs. Let's stay realistic, although long term alcohol abuse can cause health problems, it cannot cause these problems in this short of a time frame by itself.

The main danger of acetaminophen is liver damage. Generally, that takes about 7 to 10 grams in a single dose. With people that consume a lot of alcohol, acetaminophen can cause liver damage with as little as 4 to 6 grams a day. Extra-strength acetaminophen comes in doses of 500 mg and the recommended dosage is just two, but people with severe hangovers will sometimes take twice as much as the recommended dosage. (At least that was the practice of my ex-wife - drinking binges a few times a week, 4 tylenols in the morning for the hangovers, and 3 or 4 cans of diet coke a day. She eventually changed to a healthier style of living by giving up the diet cokes.)

I could see the combination of the two (alcohol with acetaminophen for resulting hangovers) doing some severe damage much more rapidly than just damage from alcohol alone.

 

[Evo]

Responding to Evo: standard drink=200 ml of beer? So that means around 1 liter of what... 6% of alcohol? Just want to make things clear :)

I would guess that an average drink in the US would have a jigger of alcohol, 40 proof. 1 jigger = 1.5 fluid ounce (~44 ml)

So, we're talking 7-8 ounces of 80 proof alcohol (40% alcohol by volume) per day every day for 20 years.

So a couple of beers every night is not what we're talking about here. However, if you drink, please let your doctor know as you could have conditions for which you should not drink, and never mix drugs, even over the counter ones, with alcohol. /end disclaimer

 

[fluidistic]

Thanks Evo for the clarification. I'm glad I asked for it, seems like I was "dead wrong".
I do not drink alcohol (might happens once per year) and usually try to avoid to take pills unless I'm ill.