Everybody knows that if you smoke, you shorten your life expectancy. But now researchers have found another fairly common addiction that can shorten your expected lifespan even more than smoking. And the commercials on TV for these products don’t point out this inconvenient fact.
According to research at University Medicine Greifswald, Germany, if you are a woman hooked on alcohol (alcohol dependent: AD), that unfortunate addiction shortens your life expectancy even more than a tobacco habit.
Drinking seems to contribute more to very early death more than other main risk factors such as tobacco smoking, warns researcher Ulrich. “For example,” he says, “smoking-related death cases are more due to cancers which seem to occur later in life than many alcohol-attributable causes of death do.
Furthermore, drinking can also contribute to other risky behaviours such as smoking, becoming overweight, and obesity. Alcohol is a dangerous product and should be consumed only within guidelines, no more than 12 grams for women on occasion and no more than 24 grams for men.”
The German study analyzed the drinking habits and health of more than 4,000 people for 14 years.
“First, we found that annualized death rates were 4.6-fold higher for females and 1.9-fold higher for males compared to the age- and gender-specific general population,” says John.
“Second, we found that the mean age at death was 60 for females and 58 for males, both of which are about 20 years lower than the mean age at death among the general population. None of those deceased had reached the age of life expectancy.
Third, having participated in inpatient AD treatment was not related with longer survival compared to not having taken part in treatment, meaning that it did not seem to have a sufficient protective effect against premature death.”
http://easyhealthoptions.com/womens-health/this-shortens-your-life-more-than-smoking/
