According to statistics, the death rate from alcohol in Russia is more than 4%. This figure is much more than the death of people from military conflicts, AIDS, viruses combined. The total number of deaths from alcohol in the world is 2.6 million lives annually. Russia accounts for approximately 600 thousand people, it turns out that every year all the people of a small town die. A scary figure that tends to develop: the number of deaths from alcohol is growing year by year and this figure is not going to stop.

Causes of death from alcohol

The death rate from alcoholism is largely related to the economic component. If in the countries of Africa and Asia, people, starting to live better, are drawn into addiction, the inhabitants of Europe and Russia are increasingly indulging in drunken drunkenness due to a decrease in social status. In addition, alcohol in our country has always been a way to "cure emotional distress." They yelled at work - drink, scandals at home - get drunk, a celebration with friends - raise a couple of glasses.

Fact! The number of patients with alcoholism is growing, the growth rate is 1.5-2% annually. These figures include not only adults, but also teenagers from 14 years old. Due to one reason or another, every fifth citizen of Russia dies every year from alcohol dependence, toxication and pathologies.

According to official data, our country ranks fifth in the ranking of countries in terms of the amount of alcohol consumed per capita. But these are only indicators of statistics, which are frankly not complete enough. No one takes into account degraded patients who do not work, therefore they do not have any documents, and are not included in the population census list. They don't exist, but they die every day and every year. And how many people really died, drinking to death, no one will tell.

Experts believe that due to the complex social and economic component, in Russia over the past and this year, there has been an excess of mortality. The reason is the "rejuvenation" of alcoholics. Beer, cocktails, various alcohol-containing tonics attract a huge number of teenagers. Among the respondents aged 13-15, 65% already know the taste of alcohol very well, and 28% were ill from poisoning with low-quality alcohol.

Current position

The sharp increase in prices led to the fact that people began to buy low-quality alcohol more often, and mortality statistics also quickly went up. For six months of this year, 68% of patients got alcohol poisoning. On the day of death, approximately 1,400 lives are taken, and this number of deaths is precisely from alcohol.

Fact! Every year, up to 300,000 people suffer in road accidents caused by drunk drivers. More than half of them die, many remain crippled for life. 15% of the indicated number of people are children under the age of 10 years.

The numbers are really scary. Considering that drunk drivers are mostly young people aged 18-35, the situation is that in a couple of years there will not be a single sober citizen left in the country. In addition to the fact that addiction to alcoholic beverages leads to degradation and increased mortality, it is the cause of the birth of handicapped children, miscarriages in early and late pregnancy, casual sexual relationships and, as a result, abortions. And what abortions lead to in youth does not need to be explained - infertility.

The consequences of abuse are expressed not only in high mortality from alcohol:

Increased suicide rates among normally healthy fit people (62.1%);
In a state of intoxication, a huge number of murders are committed (72.2%);
From cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, 68% of all patients die;
Pathologies of the cardiovascular system, which appeared as a result of alcohol abuse, lead to death in 23.3%.

It should be remembered that anyone who has drunk low-quality alcohol can die. In terms of the number of poisonings, Russia also ranks first - last year about half a million such cases were registered, and 10% of patients died before the ambulance arrived. And these are people who have asked for help, have a family, relatives and are not malicious alcoholics. They just wanted to drink a glass of vodka or cognac, from which death occurred, and how many people die unidentified - this data is not provided by any statistical center.

To drink or not to drink?

If a person dies not from old age and a long illness, confirmed by medication, he is sent for an autopsy. Pathologists detect the presence of alcohol in the blood in 70% of the dead. Often, at the request of relatives or officials, this fact is not mentioned in the documents so that the death statistics of this particular region are not violated. Therefore, we do not know exactly how many people die because of alcohol.

Fact! On average, a Russian begins to taste alcohol at the age of 13. At the same time, only a third of the number are boys, the rest are girls. Every fifth person under the age of 14 drinks alcohol (vodka, beer, cocktails) every day. Sociologists will look for the reasons for the surge in alcoholism in this age group, we can only state the data: by the age of 20, such people are completely dependent on alcohol, they are distinguished by deviant behavior, a labile psyche and a complete lack of goals. That is, a person still lives, but as a person he dies .

Doctors are sounding the alarm: according to statistics, a young body gets used to alcohol much faster and is more difficult to cure. And in 79% of cases, binge alcoholism leads to the death of adolescents. This happens under the influence of alcoholic beverages, against the background of the consumption of which depression occurs.

Today, Russia is in a serious position: for every thousand deaths, a third occurs due to alcohol. In such numbers, people died only in the "violent 90s", when there was rampant crime and gunshot wounds. Age gradations are the same: of the total number of deaths, 55% died before reaching 35 years. From alcohol, a person does not die immediately, of course, not when poisoned by counterfeit products. First you want to be cheerful, then attachment sets in, and only then does alcohol become a necessary component in solving any problems.

Unfortunately, in our country there are no effective tendencies to motivate a person not to drink at all, as happens, for example, in Muslim countries. In different quantities and with different frequency, but we all drink. And the worst thing is that today those who die at the age of 35-45 exceed the death rate of older people in number. In fact, humanity is dying out, and all because the very culture of drinking has died, alcohol has become more accessible. And now a person with any income, regardless of age, can buy a drink.

26.12.2017 Narcologist Mikhail Konstantinovich Perekhod 0

The impact of alcohol on mortality in Russia

Almost every third death occurs directly or indirectly from alcohol. According to Rosstat for 2017, the decline was 750 thousand people, drunkenness was the cause of the death of about 300 thousand.

The most common cases - death occurs from alcohol intoxication. The body can no longer fight the consequences of ethanol poisoning, all basic functions fail and the person dies.

If the victim is not chronically addicted, the dose of alcohol can be small - 10-30 ml of pure alcohol, and for a systematic drinker - up to 100 ml. But even if you drink only on holidays, it is quite easy to die from intoxication, drunkards process alcohol much faster.

Experts distinguish three degrees of alcohol intoxication:

Easy. Signs - causeless joy, emancipation; impaired attention and coordination; red spots on the face and body; rapid breathing and pulse. At this stage, the dose of ethyl alcohol is up to 1.5 ppm.
Average. Signs - slow speech; unsteady gait; sharp, but inaccurate movements; loss of concentration; a person cannot orient himself in the area and in time; causeless irritability; pale skin; nausea, vomiting. The concentration of ethanol in the blood is up to 2.5 ppm.
Heavy. Signs - deep restless sleep; no response to pain and stimuli; convulsions; uncontrollable vomiting. Alcohol - up to 4 ppm.

Severe poisoning can only occur in novice drunkards, a chronic alcoholic is able to remain conscious and even maintain a dialogue even with an indicator of 6-7 ppm.

An acute period in some may occur even at 20 ppm.

Mild poisoning can also be from 1 glass of champagne if you are on a diet or have a history of serious kidney damage.

All three degrees of intoxication can lead to death. But, if in the first two cases it is more likely the result of the effect of alcohol on existing diseases, then at a dose of ethanol more than 4 ppm, death occurs from a lack of oxygen - hypoxia.

Alcohol as a cause of systemic lethal diseases

But, you can die without bringing the state to poisoning. Often the effects of alcohol are indirect. Ethanol affects the activity of all body systems, causing various diseases. The most common cause of death from alcohol is heart failure.

Systematic, 2-3 times a week, drinking alcohol causes:

Diseases of the heart and blood vessels. The vast majority of deaths (88–90%) of alcoholics are due to a heart attack. The heart cannot cope with the increased load, it cannot pump blood.
Alcohol causes increased adhesion of platelets, the resulting clots lead to death as a result of thrombosis. The walls of blood vessels under the influence of ethanol become permeable and brittle, the result is death from a stroke. And if thrombosis and pre-stroke conditions can be controlled, then death from alcoholic cardiomyopathy occurs instantly, while the person does not even suspect the presence of a painful condition.
Even small doses of ethanol cause atherosclerotic cardiosclerosis - a systemic disease in which heart tissue is scarred.
Brain. Alcoholism, like any drug addiction, is chronically addictive. First of all, it manifests itself in the cells of the brain. Alcohol causes the death of neurons, most often it leads to a systemic disease - alcoholic encephalopathy. But they can form: polyneuritis, epilepsy, edema, parkinson's syndrome, etc. All disorders of the brain sooner or later lead to death.

The drug can be removed from the metabolism, alcohol - never.
Spinal cord. Ethyl alcohol disrupts one of the main functions of spinal cord cells - the production of components of our immunity. One of the main diseases of alcoholics - hepatitis - arise, among other things, from the lack of ability to resist pathogens.
The situation is greatly worsened by constant smoking. Nicotine causes an increased level of blood leukocytes, agglutinated erythrocytes are not able to give full oxygen saturation. A pathological condition of the cells of the spinal cord develops. This provokes oncological and systemic diseases, pneumonia often occurs.
Liver. The systematic intake of alcohol leads to necrosis, scarring, fatty liver. The result is cholecystitis and cirrhosis. The hepatic vein fails and ruptures, the cirrhotic liver is unable to filter the blood, an attack of cholecystitis causes spasms of smooth muscles - this is a common picture of the death of an alcoholic from liver failure. Most often, liver disease is caused by beer alcoholism. For a chronic picture, it is enough to drink 1 liter of foam 4 times a week.

Pancreas. The affected liver does not work, part of its functions is taken over by the pancreas. But its tissues are also poisoned by ethanol, as a result, inflammation develops - pancreatitis. Its chronic alcoholic form leads to the release of a large amount of secretion, which, mixing with other enzymes in the duodenum, causes it to perforate.
Kidneys. Anything that the liver cannot filter out ends up in the kidneys. Derivatives of ethanol cause their pathological changes. In the body, the water-electrolyte and acid-base balance is disturbed, the entire excretory system suffers. As a result, death from alcoholism occurs as a result of acute renal failure.

Surrogate alcohol

Approximately one third of all alcohol-related deaths are due to poor-quality liquor. Most often, food ethyl alcohol is replaced with cheaper methyl alcohol.

You can only find out what the basis of alcoholic beverages is in the laboratory. Technical alcohol is an unrefined residue of many industries. It contains formaldehyde and formic acid. Both quickly enter the kidneys and cause an instant effect.

The surrogate acts on the optic nerve - a grid appears before the eyes; pupils dilate, practically do not react to light; first the eyes hurt, then blindness sets in.

You can die from methanol without even using it systematically. According to Rospotrebnadzor, about 25% of alcoholic beverages on store shelves are low-quality counterfeit goods. At the same time, expensive types of cognac, whiskey, vodka, etc. are most often faked.

The lethal dose of methanol is 10-30 ml, this amount can be contained in 0.5 liters of strong drink. The first sign of poisoning appears after 8-12 hours.

Symptoms of poisoning with methyl and methyl ethyl alcohol:

apathy is replaced by unmotivated aggression;
a sharp violation of coordination of movements;
acute headache;
convulsions;
girdle pain in the lumbar region;
bitterness in the mouth;
the presence of blood impurities in the urine;
respiratory failure, heart rhythm;
dry mucous membranes;
temporary or permanent blindness;
feeling of tightness in the chest;
cyanosis, the skin acquires a bluish tint;
loss of consciousness.

After comes an alcoholic coma and death. Due to the fact that the lethal dose of ethanol is very small, with the development of the first signs of poisoning, the victim should immediately call an ambulance.

A common advice for such poisoned people is to drink a quality drink based on ethyl alcohol. Such a deadly method is used at your own peril and risk everywhere. Most often, this causes death, and the drinker faces a sentence for murder.

The whole world suffers from low-quality alcohol. In the midst of the tourist season, there are often reports that vacationers in different countries have been poisoned by counterfeit goods. Therefore, Rostourism often advises to give up alcohol during a vacation abroad.

Accidental and criminal deaths

The given statistics of this year showed that there are more deaths from the mental influence of alcohol in Russia.

Female alcoholism is a frequent reason for suicide. An extreme craving for self-flagellation, which a psychologist did not help to survive, a feeling of worthlessness or an alcoholic husband - lead to a desire to leave this world.
An overdose of alcohol causes a feeling of impunity, this leads to heroic deeds. Often the alcohol syndrome becomes the cause of accidents, as a result of careless behavior in the forest, on the water.
The age of those who died from such adventures most often does not exceed 25 years. Adolescent nihilism plays a big role here. A young man, even in a sober state, is not able to fully adequately assess the degree of danger; alcohol taken dulls the instinct of self-preservation. The result is an unmotivated craving for rash acts.
The cause of many deaths - ethanol causes attacks of aggression, as a result of criminal disassembly of drinking buddies, with stabbing.
A chronic alcoholic in a period of severe delirium is not able to control anger, rage, and the spouse becomes uncontrollable. The victim of such actions is most often the wife.

95% of the world's criminal crimes that have resulted in death or serious consequences are somehow related to drinking.

Lethal dose of alcohol

According to the Narcological Union, a large number of deaths from alcohol in Russia is due to low awareness. Two years ago, the association developed a bulletin that helps calculate the lethal dose depending on gender, weight, and the length of time you have taken alcohol.

However, even experts do not undertake to assume how much you need to drink in order to get poisoned. Ethanol is a nerve agent and its effect on the central nervous system depends on many factors.

As a general rule, it is considered that one bottle of strong alcoholic drink with a capacity of 0.5 liters contains about 200 ml of pure ethyl alcohol. Studies have shown that for a person of average weight, 3 such bottles drunk in 90 minutes are fatal.

This statement does not apply to chronic alcoholics or everyday drinkers. Scientists have calculated the dose for someone who drinks no more than once every six months.

According to the World Health Organization, one and a half liters of beer or four bottles of wine drunk without a snack will be fatal for a non-drinker.

General statistics of mortality due to alcoholism

Health care institutions keep annual statistics of deaths from alcohol. Such data are collected for the subsequent development of a strategy for combating various diseases.

The information is based on the diseases that caused death. As a percentage of the total number of deaths of alcoholics, the picture is as follows:

53% died as a result of heart disease;
as a result of damage to the kidneys and liver - 36%;
as a result of vascular and brain diseases 7%;

The remaining 4% died from systemic damage to 2-3 or more organs.

The most common cause of death from alcohol is a heart attack. And in case of an accident - hypothermia.

First aid for an alcoholic in critical condition

Often death can be avoided if the victim is helped quickly. The first step should be to call the ambulance service. After you need:

Give the victim plenty of oxygen. Open windows or take the victim outside;
Do not give medication to the victim. An anesthetic tablet can cause convulsions, enterosorbents will stop vomiting and lead to more severe poisoning.
Try to calm the violent one. It is necessary to select everything that can harm, restrict access to windows, water, fire.
If there is uncontrolled vomiting, foam - turn the person on the right side.
If the victim is conscious, give him clean boiled water to drink, induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue.

The first symptom of methanol poisoning is sudden onset of blindness. In this case, a person’s life will directly depend on the arrival of an ambulance.

Any psychotherapist will tell you that the best soothing thing is conversation. If the victim professes Orthodoxy, prayer will have a psychological effect. Speak with the patient in an even, confident tone until the ambulance arrives. Panic and hysteria can bring death closer

Alcoholism is the biggest social problem in the world. Due to the high toxicity of alcohol, it provokes severe poisoning and leads to the development of irreversible consequences in the human body.

Mortality from alcohol is mainly associated with accidents, dangerous situations and diseases of the physical and mental plane.

Causes leading to death from alcohol

Alcohol intoxication.

The lethal dose of ethanol is 250-400 g, depending on age, physical condition and the food in the stomach. The time factor also influences, taking into account the period during which alcoholic beverages were taken. The smaller it is, the lower the chances of survival.

The dose also depends on addiction. Alcoholics addicted for years can drink large amounts and survive.

Intoxication occurs due to the toxic effect of ethanol and is an overdose, i.e. a state in which the body cannot cope with the amount of alcohol consumed. This can lead to respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and coma.

Poisoning with low-quality alcohol or methanol.

Sometimes, in pursuit of revenue, unscrupulous manufacturers use hazardous raw materials and substitutes that are toxic and lead to serious poisoning, even death.

There are cases when they are sold under the guise of ethanol, indistinguishable in their appearance and taste. The lethal dose of this substance is only 30–100 ml. Once in the stomach, it breaks down into formaldehyde and formic acid, which are highly toxic.

Symptoms of poisoning may not appear immediately, but after several hours, which makes methanol even more dangerous for humans - if help is not provided in time, death occurs.

Use in conjunction with medications.

Some drugs, when taken with alcohol, change properties. Ethanol multiplies the action of drugs that affect blood clotting. This can lead to the development of massive hemorrhages, including in the brain, and the most dangerous conditions leading to death.

When taken together with aspirin, gastric bleeding may begin.

You can not drink alcohol along with medications that affect the central nervous system, because. severe respiratory depression may occur. Ethanol and vasodilators lead to acute heart failure.

In other cases, alcohol can become an indirect cause of death - with hypothermia, murders, drunken fights, accidents, fires, etc.

Statistics of deaths from alcohol in Russia

According to statistics, there are more than 5 million alcohol-dependent people in Russia, which is 3.4% of the population, while only half are registered.

Intoxication due to alcohol is the cause of 3% of deaths in the Russian Federation.

However, these data do not fully reflect the picture. Often in the column "cause of death" there is a diagnosis associated with diseases, even if a large concentration of ethanol is found in the blood of the deceased. There is evidence that about 25-30% of deaths, one way or another, are associated with alcohol.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, 500,000 people die from alcohol every year. According to statistics, the largest percentage of deaths are accidents (about 30%).

Alcohol is also a cause of systemic lethal diseases:

oncology (22%);
liver cirrhosis (17%);
cardiovascular diseases (14%);
others (18%).

Alcohol kills every third man and one in six women in Russia.

The number of deaths from alcohol poisoning varies by region. The leaders in this indicator are the Kirov, Yaroslavl, Arkhangelsk and Kostroma regions, the Republic of Mari El. Despite the fact that the most "drinking" are Magadan, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Buryatia, Komi and Sakhalin.

In some regions, the death rate due to alcohol abuse is zero. These are Chechnya, Astrakhan, Rostov regions, Kalmykia, Khabarovsk Territory, as well as Sakhalin and Magadan, despite the leading positions in the ranking of "drinking" regions.

The implementation of a set of measures aimed at reducing , explains the improvement in statistics for 2016 compared to 2009. The number of deaths from drunkenness decreased from 68.7 to 58.6 thousand, with a decrease in the volume of alcohol consumed from 14.3 to 10.3 liters . per capita.

In 2017, another quarter fewer people died compared to the previous year. This is due to the ban on the sale of ethanol-containing additives and non-food alcohol-containing products.

Death from poisoning or alcohol abuse: statistics in the countries of the world

Alcohol addiction and high mortality from alcoholic beverages are a national problem not only in Russia, but also in many other countries. The World Health Organization cites figures of 2.5 million deaths annually. The European Region and Central Africa stand out in particular.

The states with the largest number of liters of pure ethanol consumed per year are Lithuania (16.2), Belarus (15), Latvia (12.8), Poland (12.2), Estonia (11). The most "little drinkers" are Pakistan, Libya, Kuwait and Mauritania, where each inhabitant accounts for only 100 ml per year.

The table shows how many deaths caused by alcohol abuse are registered per 100,000 deaths (according to the World Health Organization for 2017):

Place	Country	Total number of cases per 100,000 deaths, thousand	Among men, thousand	Among women, thousand
1	Salvador	17,56	38,97	1,02
2	Russia	14,87	26,12	5,25
3	Estonia	12,31	20,97	4,58
4	Guatemala	10,6	21,07	1,80
5	Nicaragua	8,7	18,16	0,55
6	Latvia	8,27	14,84	2,69
7	Lithuania	8,18	13,50	3,57
8	Belarus	8,18	13,50	3,57
9	Denmark	7,51	12,04	3,14
10	Finland	7,47	11,86	3,22

WHO has calculated the number of deaths directly related to alcohol. The real figure, taking into account the development of dangerous diseases, suicides, accidents, etc. would be much higher.

The data show a significant difference in mortality among gender groups.

Statistically, men drink (and die from alcohol) more.

For example, when ranking countries by fatalities among the female half of the population, El Salvador, which ranks first in total mortality, retreats to 28th, and Russia is the leader.

Thus, alcoholism and the mass death of people associated with it took on the scale of a worldwide disaster. Many states are implementing a policy to reduce the terrible statistics.

The main measures are aimed at restricting the population's access to alcohol-containing liquids, increasing the price level, prohibiting advertising and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Death due to alcohol consumption remains common. How many die from alcohol? What are the causes of death? What happens to the organs of those who drink alcohol?

How many people die from alcohol in Russia

The number of official alcoholics in the country is 6 million, drinking fellow citizens are even more. How many die from alcohol? According to unofficial statistics, this is 1/3 of male deaths and 1/6 of female deaths. Official data is not so sad - in the conclusions about death in 3% of cases, alcohol was named as the root cause. Many crimes happen thanks to alcohol, among them suicides and murders. During the year, only 50,000 fatal poisonings with low-quality alcohol occur in the country - approximately the same number of people live in some regional centers.

Direct and indirect causes

Drunk citizens become the culprits on the roads, not only drunk drivers die, but also innocent motorists and bystanders.
In addition to instant deaths provoked by alcohol, people who drink die from serious diseases that occur while drinking alcohol.
How many die from alcohol? 25% of deaths from cardiovascular pathologies, the majority of deaths from cirrhosis of the liver and pancreatitis are "hardened" alcoholics.
Alcohol can also lead to instant death - if you drink a liter of vodka quickly, it can cause alcohol poisoning.
In drunken companies, quarrels often occur, ending in stabbing and brutal murders.
If a sober person is simply offended, then alcohol releases base instincts, brutal murders occur, where the closest relatives and friends become victims.
Drunk citizens are more likely to become victims of accidents, they have impaired coordination and speed of perception. For this reason, being under a degree, you can die from electricity or fire, drown in a pond, freeze.
Drunk people tend to get into fights, but the "fighters" of them are bad.
Drunk people are many times more likely than sober people to die under the wheels of cars, trains and trams, fall on the rails in the subway.

Mortality from alcohol is high, people who drink voluntarily poison their own bodies and refuse to be treated for addiction. In such a situation, even the best medicine is powerless.

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What happens to organs

A lethal dose for a young healthy man of average build is a quickly drunk bottle of vodka. If a person is distinguished by good health, then for some time such “experiments” may end in banal poisoning. But the mechanism of destruction of internal organs is launched, and another “fortress experiment” leads to the fact that the ambulance is forced to declare death.

With a sharp increase in ethyl alcohol in the blood, the heart rhythm goes astray, the heart stops pumping blood, the organs die from oxygen starvation - this is called sudden coronary death. About 20% of these deaths occur in citizens who have never suffered from heart disease. If the drunkard suffers from diseases of the cardiovascular system, then death comes like a bolt from the blue - from a relatively modest dose of alcohol.

Often death occurs on the second day after drinking alcohol.

Deficiencies in the cardiovascular system often affect young people who do not know about it. For this reason, many young men die - for them, the expansion of peripheral vessels caused by alcohol, which leads to a decrease in perfusion pressure, is fatal. For such people, a sauna or just hot water in a state of intoxication turns out to be fatal - the heart stops.

Pathologists are often at a loss what to write in the conclusion: alcohol intoxication or heart disease. Under the influence of relatives, sudden death from a heart attack or stroke under the influence of alcohol is often qualified as a consequence of a disease or heart disease, although alcohol became the trigger for death. In such cases, medical care is late, not only alcoholics, but also quite respectable people who celebrate the holiday with strong drinks fall into the risk group.

Ethyl alcohol is officially named the cause of the development of sixty serious diseases with an acute onset. Under the influence of alcohol, not only heart diseases develop, but also oncology, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and the psyche. Of particular danger is delirium - delirium tremens, accompanied by hallucinations.

Under the influence of delirium, alcoholics jump from rooftops, throw themselves out of windows - such patients do not want to kill themselves, they flee from frightening hallucinations.

Often the cause of death is acute pancreatitis, causing abscesses, bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract and phlegmon. Death occurs as a result of poisoning by the pancreas' own products. Severe pain characteristic of this disease causes pain shock, adrenal necrosis and vascular collapse. The situation with the pancreas is aggravated by the fact that alcohol is eaten on holidays with fatty, fried, spicy dishes.

Alcoholics tend to get sick with all kinds of infections, this also increases their mortality rate. It is safe to say that without alcohol the patient would have lived much longer. People with poor health with alcohol abuse die young, among centenarians in the history of mankind, not a single alcoholic has been noted. It is impossible to say exactly how long an alcoholic lives, it depends on how strong the body is, how much it can withstand constant alcohol poisoning.

The unexpected departure from the lives of young and seemingly healthy men - in most cases, alcohol is behind this. All hidden pathologies and chronic diseases are exacerbated and intensified under the influence of alcohol, leading to the rapid development of the disease or sudden death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is responsible for alcohol consumption statistics at the global level. The organization conducts a large-scale study of this problem every five years. The last policy report on this topic was published by WHO in 2014.

In the European tradition, there is no such stigma as "sick with alcoholism." It is customary for them to talk about "people who have problems with alcohol." The figure is called 10-15% of people from the entire population who have such problems of varying severity.

There is no narcological registration of alcoholics in Europe, therefore it is impossible to name the percentage of patients with alcoholism in our understanding of this phrase.

Europeans are the most drunk people in the world. It is logical to assume that in countries with a large amount of alcohol consumed, a greater percentage of people dependent on alcohol and shorter life expectancy. However, statistical data show that there is no rigid relationship between these factors.

Indirect factors influence the transformation of alcohol consumption into its abuse, namely:

The standard of living of people.
The culture of drinking.
Types of alcoholic beverages that the population mainly consumes.
Attitude towards alcoholics.

Alcoholism, according to generally accepted opinion, is characteristic of social groups with low status, education and income. Of course, alcoholism affects well-off members of society, for example, those belonging to show business and the entertainment industry. However, these cases are isolated and, like any exceptions, only confirm the general rule. A high standard of living is associated with a well-paid job, certain obligations, and an appropriate circle of acquaintances. Taken together, these factors do not initially suggest alcohol abuse.

The culture of drinking that exists in European countries also prevents people from sliding into abuse. There it is customary to drink in bars and pubs, while drinking does not become an end in itself, but accompanies spending time in a pleasant company.

It should also be borne in mind that alcohol in European countries is not cheap and is several times higher than the cost of domestic alcoholic beverages.

This applies to both regular vodka and branded drinks. The high price puts up barriers to drinking. Connoisseurs of quality alcoholic beverages drink a little.

The types of alcoholic beverages consumed have an impact on the alcoholization of the population. In theory, over long periods of time, alcoholism can be formed by drinking beer, wine, any other drink. However, the abuse of hard liquor makes the formation of alcoholism faster and more aggressive. For example, in Moldova, with one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption (mainly in the form of wine), life expectancy is one of the highest in Europe.

Finally, the attitude towards people with alcoholism in Europe is characterized by humanity and the promotion of their inclusion in the surrounding life. For this purpose, there are groups of Alcoholics Anonymous, various trainings and psychotherapeutic courses that help addicted people not to feel like useless outcasts. A high level of socio-psychological assistance to patients with alcoholism prevents the occurrence of relapses and promotes the socialization of patients with alcoholism, they are helped by:

Apply for a job.
To start a family.
In hard situations.

In general, it can be noted that in Europe the problem of alcoholism is not considered paramount. European society is more concerned with the treatment of somatic diseases, which are caused by the use of alcohol in any quantities.

Situation in Russia

It is a deep delusion that people drink more in Russia than anywhere else. They drink a lot, but at the same time there are countries where they drink more. An erroneous opinion about the extreme spread of alcoholism in Russia is formed against the background of the general situation with the use of alcohol, which in Russia has its own local specifics:

The listed nuances of drinking alcohol in Russia determine what is called the national drinking habit.

With regard to alcoholism, it is difficult to talk about objective figures. First, not all countries maintain official records of alcohol abusers.

Secondly, even where it is conducted, for example, in Russia, it is difficult to understand how much the official figures reflect the real picture: after all, apart from those registered in the narcological dispensary, a significant part of the abusers do not fall into this statistics.

In societies where alcoholic beverages are openly available, the percentage of people seeking medical help for addiction has been shown to be stable at 2%. The indicator may fluctuate at the level of statistical error from country to country.

The percentage of people who have "problems with alcohol", i.e. abusers who have not yet sought medical help due to addiction is stable and ranges from 10% to 15%. This indicator is universal and is true for all countries and societies in which alcohol is freely available.

If we translate these percentages into the number of people using the example of Russia, we get the following picture. The first figure, representing those registered with or seeking treatment for addiction, is 2.8 million. The second figure, indicating the number of people who have "problems with alcohol" or abuse alcohol, is 14-21 million people.

For the European Union, with a population of 500 million, these figures are 10 million and 51-76 million, respectively.

Despite the fact that the first lines in the leaders in alcohol consumption are confidently and traditionally occupied by European countries, the attitude of European residents to alcohol is heterogeneous and differentiated by country.

Consider the states that are in the top five with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Data based on 2014 WHO report.

Belarus:

The country with the most drinking population: 17.5 liters of alcohol equivalent per capita per year.
26.5% of the population drink alcohol.
The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 34.7%.
Life expectancy - 72.1 g.

16.8 liters of alcohol equivalent per year.
32.2% of the population drink alcohol.
The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 33.1%.
Life expectancy - 81.4 g.

Life expectancy - 73.9 g.
The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 30.9%.
36.7% of the population drink alcohol.
15.4 liters of alcohol equivalent per year.

15.1 liters of alcohol equivalent per year.
19.3% of the population consumes alcohol.
The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 30.5%.
Life expectancy - 70.5 g.

14.4 liters of alcohol equivalent per year.
7.9% of the population consumes alcohol.
The proportion of deaths associated with the consequences of alcohol consumption is 8.9%.
Life expectancy - 68.7 g.

The top ten countries with the highest alcohol consumption also included other countries in central and eastern Europe:

Ukraine (13.9 l).
Andorra (13.8 l).
Hungary (13.3 l).
Czech Republic (13 l).
Slovakia (13 l).

Economically developed countries are ranked in the following positions:

18th place - France (12.2 liters).
23rd place - Germany (11.8 liters).
25th place - Great Britain (11.6 l).
42nd place - the Netherlands (9.9 l).
48th place - USA (9.2 l).
141st place - Israel (2.8 l)

When people talk about death from alcoholism, they mean a complex of causes associated with alcohol abuse. It:

Accidents - 29.6%.
Oncological diseases - 21.6%.
Cirrhosis of the liver - 16.6%.
Cardiovascular diseases - 14%.
Other reasons - 18.2%.

On average, 4% of deaths worldwide every year are caused by excessive alcohol consumption. This corresponds to 2.5 million people.