April 18th isAlcohol Prevention Daythe World Alcohol Abuse Prevention Day announced by Collaborating Center on Alcohol and Public Health Policy Research of the World Health Organization.
In Italy, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Iss), the Italian Society of Alcoholology (Sia) and the Italian Association of Territorial Alcohol Clubs (Aicat) join it to promote the culture of preventionawareness and individual and social responsibility, also in light of the ever-growing scourge of road accidents due to alcohol abuse, especially among new drivers.
The situation in Italy
According to the newly published annual analysis of alcohol consumption in the country byNational Alcohol Observatory of the ISS, are overall 36 million consumers (77.4% of males and 57.5% of females). About 10.2 million consumes alcohol everyday And 5 million has alcohol consumption that they exceed the guidelines usually. They are, however, 3.7 million the binge drinker, i.e. those who drink to get drunk (more than 6 units of alcohol in a short period of time). Alcohol consumption among minors is one of the most worrying ones. In 2022, 650 thousand under-18s consumed alcoholic beverages and 104 thousand practiced binge drinking.
The ITISAN 2023 Report of the ISS indicates that in our country alcohol is the third factor due to risk of disease and premature death after smoking and arterial hypertension. According to the PASSI 2021-2022 survey also conducted by the ISS, 4% of interviewees between 18 and 21 years old had drove after consuming alcoholic beverages while in this age group the permitted blood alcohol threshold is zero.
In the USA
The American NIAA, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism proclaimed April as Alcohol Awareness Month to provide up-to-date information on the effects of its abuse on health and society.
«This month is an excellent opportunity to talk about this problem with i young providing them with the knowledge needed to handle situations involving alcohol – said neurobiologist George Koob director of the NIAA -, because those too who normally would not be attracted to alcohol may give in to the psychological pressure of the group. In the USA, alcohol-related deaths are 178 thousand per year and before the age of 21 its abuse is one of the main preventable causes of death (road accidents, homicides, binge drinkingfalls, burns, drownings and suicides)”.
The example in the family is fundamental
Adults play a key role in shaping young people’s attitudes towards alcohol protecting them not only from the serious problems that abuse causes on individuals, families and the community, but also from serious consequences this has on their brain.
It is proven that when the adults demonstrate responsible behavior regarding alcohol consumption and in the family they maintain anti-consumption behaviors on the part of minors, teenagers are less likely to drink too much even when they grow up.
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Prevention is central because they are multiple health problems which can cause alcohol abuse: in Italy they are estimated 770,000 alcohol consumers with related harm to health, of which only 8.2% was clinically intercepted.
«An Anglo-Canadian study just published on Nature Communication indicates that alcohol abuse, together with diabetes and nitrogen dioxide (an indicator of air pollution from traffic), also constitutes one of the main causes of increased risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease – underlines the President of the Italian Society of Sin Neurology Alessandro Padovani of the University of Brescia -. As we indicated in the Manifesto One Brain One Health which summarizes the Italian strategy for Brain Health 2023-2031 today we are exposed to various cumulative risk factors which require a holistic approach that considers them all. So not just the already known ones hypertension, diabetes and obesity, but also lifestyle factors such as exercise and alcohol consumption. Basically they are the same conclusions as the Global Burden of Disease Study conducted for 10 years by the WHO to derive indications of good health policy: health is a matter of the individual rather than of the community and it is the events of his life, from possible head traumas to incorrect and modifiable lifestyles, that determine the risk of disease not only of the nervous system”.
Tags: Alcohol abuse increases risk Alzheimers Parkinsons Italy million people drink drunk
