How really cares? This is a food and wine group...not the AA newsgroup! ;-)

"Jasbird" > wrote in message
...
> <http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,,1731158,00.html>
> Alcohol-related illness soars as 1 in 18 addicts get treatment
>
> Sarah Boseley, health editor
> Wednesday March 15, 2006
> The Guardian
>
> Alcohol-related illness will soar in the next decade, experts
> said yesterday as campaigners warned that only one in 18 people
> with a drink problem get treatment.
>
> Hospitals are already seeing dramatic rises in cases of liver
> damage, doctors said. "As a nation, we are drinking more than
> for 90 years and there is a lag between consumption and
> cirrhosis," said a report from the British Society of
> Gastroenterology. "Already we have seen a 350% increase in
> cirrhosis between 1970 and 1998, and this figure is 900% for
> those under 45 years of age."
>
> Elwyn Elias, a gastroenterologist based at University Hospital,
> Birmingham, and president of the society, said: "There is a 20
> to 30 year lag between what people drink and hospitals filled
> with the consequences. Binge drinking can have a sudden effect,
> but you can also kill yourself in 20 years, by drinking what
> some people consider a reasonable amount.
>
> "The evidence is that drinking fell away in the 1930s and 1940s
> but it's been climbing since the 1960s and there's no sign of a
> plateau."
>
> The society's warnings came as Alcohol Concern called for urgent
> action to address the under-funding of alcohol treatment
> services.
>
> Two years after the government launched its alcohol harm
> reduction strategy, only a small proportion of the people who
> need treatment are getting it - even though every £1 spent on
> treatment for alcohol addiction saves the NHS £5 in dealing with
> alcohol-related illness and injury.
>
> Alcohol kills 22,000 people every year, said the charity. "Every
> year alcohol services help thousands of problem drinkers turn
> their lives around, but the reality is that only one in every 18
> people who need help get access to treatment," said Srabani Sen,
> the chief executive.
>
> Deaths from diseases of the digestive system have risen by a
> quarter in the last 10 years, according to the society.
>
> The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing and accounted
> for 14,000 deaths in 2000. Oesophageal cancer has increased by
> 50% in the last 20 years, and the mortality rate from liver
> cancer has increased by 50% in 10 years. Britain's survival
> rates for gastric, pancreatic and colorectal cancers lag behind
> the rest of Europe, the report says.
>
> Alcohol Concern says that 8.2 million people in England have an
> alcohol problem, and about 1.1 million of those are dependent on
> alcohol.
>
> Some 1.3 million children are affected by their parents' alcohol
> problems. Alcohol misuse costs the economy £18bn a year.
>