Health hazards associated with the excessive use of alcohol or with alcohol dependency include dramatic behavioral changes, retardation of motor skills, and impairment of reasoning and rational thinking. These factors result in a higher incidence of accidents and accidental death for such persons than for non-users of alcohol.
Nutrition also suffers and vitamin and mineral deficiencies are frequent.
Prolonged alcohol abuse causes bleeding from the intestinal tract, damage to nerves and the brain, psychotic behavior, loss of memory and coordination, damage to the liver often resulting in cirrhosis, impotence, severe inflammation of the pancreas, and damage to the bone marrow, heart, testes, ovaries, and muscles. Damage to the nerves and organs are usually irreversible. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in alcoholics and is 10 times more frequent than in non-alcoholics. Sudden withdrawal of alcohol from persons dependent on it will cause serious physical withdrawal symptoms. The use of illicit drugs usually causes the same general type of physiological and mental changes as alcohol, though frequently those changes are more severe and more sudden.