Touted for relaxing health benefits, alcohol is a lot more dangerous than most people believe. About 100,000 Americans die from alcohol-related deaths each year. Alcohol destroys the liver, heart, pancreas, arteries, throat, stomach, and brain. It causes cancer, heart disease, strokes, and generally depresses the immune system. Each year, fetal alcohol syndrome permanently damages as many as 12,000 babies born to pregnant women who drink.
Alcohol is also a cause of many accidents.
Forty percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related. Alcoholics are 16 times more likely to die in falls and 10 times more likely to be fire victims. 47 percent of industrial injuries are alcohol-related. Of that number, 8.1 million are alcoholics. One in four hospital admissions are alcohol-related, as are 20 percent of all suicides.