The effects of alcohol consumption

The effects of alcohol consumption and the demographic crisis

One ??of the most serious problems of modern Russia is the demographic crisis: every year the country's population decreases by 750-800 thousand people and by the beginning of 2009 the population amounted to slightly more than 141 million people.
The situation is becoming especially difficult in the regions of Siberia and the Far East, where, if the demographic crisis trends continue, vast expanses of the country may be left without full-fledged human resources with all the ensuing consequences.
In the last 15 years alone, i.e. since the beginning of pseudo-economic reforms and a sharp decline in the standard of living of people, the population of Russia has significantly decreased, mortality from external causes over the same period has increased by 2.4 times.

Consequences of alcohol consumption (excess mortality):

The peculiarities of the demographic crisis in Russia, unlike in European countries, are not so much the low birth rate as the excess mortality among the working-age population and especially among men. The problem with the male population in Russia has been going on for the last 90 years: the civil war and forced emigration in the 1920s, the Great Patriotic War. These tragic events for Russia cost many tens of millions of human lives, mainly men, which, of course, had the most negative impact on the country's gene pool, but at that time we were saved by a relatively high birth rate.
In modern Russia, the life expectancy of men is about 60 years, and in Siberia and the Far East it does not even reach 57 (in 2005 it did not reach 53 years). Russia ranks a sad 136th in the world in terms of life expectancy for men, being in the same group as African countries.
The demographic crisis that began in the country in the early 1990s, aptly described by sociologists as the "Russian cross", continues, which is steadily leading the country to depopulation. Some hints of easing the situation in the last 2 years certainly give hope, but they have not yet had a significant impact on the ongoing demographic collapse in the country.
In the structure of the demographic crisis, the most acute issue is the decrease in the rural population due to a higher level of excess mortality, which indicates particular social tension among villagers.

Consequences of alcohol consumption for regions

In the regions of Siberia and the Far East, the demographic situation is similar to the all-Russian one, but the severity of the situation is due not only to excess mortality of the working-age population, but also to extremely high migration rates. Every year, 5 to 6 thousand people leave the region for other, more attractive regions, and it is mainly young, educated and promising labor resources that leave. This is a very painful symptom for the region, which also aggravates the unfavorable structural-age dynamics and the growing trends of the aging of the region's population. An analysis of the factorial determinacy of excess mortality in Russia allows us to single out the alcohol factor as one of the most significant and makes up at least 37% in the country as a whole, and in Siberia and the Far East this figure exceeds the 40% barrier, which in total annually takes more than 500,000 human lives, mainly people of working age.
It can be argued that there are close mutual connections between the level of alcohol consumption and life expectancy, especially in the male population. An increase in alcohol consumption immediately leads to a reduction in life expectancy due to an increase in mortality, and a decrease in consumption leads to an increase in life expectancy.
In the conditions of a natural experiment as a result of Gorbachev's anti-alcohol reforms, as well as other social phenomena, this conclusion was confirmed three times, and the relationship between alcohol consumption and life expectancy, especially in men, is actually mirror-imagecharacter.
This is also quite objectively confirmed by the fact that in places of imprisonment, the mortality rate of men of working age is almost 3 times lower than in freedom: men do not get drunk in prisons. In the structure of alcohol mortality in Russia, violent mortality occupies a special place - suicides, murders, traffic accidents, poisoning with alcohol and its surrogates. Note the sharp decrease in all these indicators in 1986-1988. The decrease in alcohol consumption immediately led to a decrease in violent mortality rates and the country saved more than 1.2 million human lives.

Consequences of alcohol consumption (suicides):

A high suicide rate in any country demonstrates the socio-psychological ill-being of the population and indicates mental maladjustment. According to the WHO, a level of 20 suicide cases per year per 100 thousand inhabitants is considered critical. The prevalence of suicides in Russia exceeds the critical level by 4 times, amounting to 80.0 per 100 thousand of the population in 2007, in 2003 this indicator exceeded the "norm" by 4.7 times. It is possible to note only one noticeable decrease in the number of suicides in Russia as a whole - 1986-1987, when the indicator decreased to 27.7, which was connected with the anti-alcohol campaign and convincingly confirmed the connection between the level of suicides and the intensity of drunkenness in the population.
Over the past 8-10 years, the country has maintained the tendency of increasing suicides in rural areas: if in urban settlements in 2007 this indicator was 65.40 per 100 thousand of the population, then among rural residents it was 105.40 and the tendency of growth is maintained. These circumstances indicate a severe socio-psychological crisis in the village, where social stress factors are closely intertwined due to the low quality of life of villagers and heavy drinking, which, according to the mechanisms of a vicious circle, aggravate each other and lead to degradation and depopulation of the population. More than half of suicides are committed under the influence of alcohol, and over the past 5 years in the regions this figure has a clear tendency to increase, especially among the rural contingent, amounting to 58% among city residents, and 62% among rural residents. At the same time, a very unfavorable tendency of growth of suicides of men in rural areas has been established: if the ratio of M:F in the city is 4.5: 1, then in the village it increases to 8.25: 1, i.e. there are 8 times more male suicides in the village than women.
Thus, there are the closest connections between drunkenness, alcoholism and suicide: the risk of suicide among those who abuse alcohol, i.e. drunkards increases by 5 times, in patients with chronic alcoholism by 10 times.

Consequences of alcohol consumption: suicide attempt due to alcoholic psychosis

Consequences of alcohol consumption: suicide attempt due to alcoholic psychosis

Consequences of alcohol consumption (criminal aggression):

The extremely high rates of criminal aggression in the country are also largely alcohol-related, with direct correlations between the level of alcoholism and the likelihood of committing poorly motivated aggression. This is probably why the murder rate in the Russian Federation is almost 25 times higher than similar indicators in European countries (24.9 per 100 thousand and 1.1), while in the regions the murder rate is almost 50 times (!) higher than the murder rate in Europe (49.1 and 1.1, respectively, 2007).
According to researchers, about 90% of murders and serious bodily harm are committed while intoxicated, of which 62% are committed under atypical forms of intoxication due to the use of alcohol substitutes, when the killer often amnesiacs his behavior and cannot clearly inform the investigator about the motives for his aggression.
Alcohol excess mortality in Russia and the regions is also supported by fatal poisoning due to the use of low-quality alcohol. Despite some decrease in mortality over the last 2 years for this reason, the situation cannot be considered satisfactory: compared to 1990, mortality from alcohol poisoning in the regions is almost 5 times higher. At the same time, an ominous tendency is observed, when death occurs not from drinking and consumption of a lethal dose of alcohol, but from moderate degrees of alcohol intoxication, which indicates the extremely low quality of alcoholic products, which in fact can disintegrate.be considered as one of the variants of biological weapons.
The alcohol factor makes its destructive contribution to the demographic crisis and deterioration of public health through alcohol-induced somatic pathology, including diseases of the circulatory system, hepatitis, cirrhosis, pancreatitis and other diseases. Diseases of the circulatory system (DCS), as a cause of death in Russia, are more than 3 times higher than similar indicators in economically developed countries. Along with the generally accepted risk factors for CSD in the world such as atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, obesity, smoking, in our country there are additional specific risk factors: high consumption of strong drinks, low standard of living and poor nutrition, social stress, high crime and corruption.
In Russia in the wild 90s, a profitable business was established for the production of synthetic alcohol from petroleum products, its shipment to Poland, where it was flavored, poured into beautiful bottles and officially shipped to Russia under the name "Royal". How many thousands of human lives did the use of this infection cost the country? - one can only guess!
The country still has a high level of consumption of counterfeit alcoholic products, especially those produced from non-food alcohols (hydrolytic, synthetic), which in addition to fusel oils contain highly toxic ketone aldehyde and ethylene polymers, which have a pronounced cardiotoxic effect and are not determined by the existing GOST in the country. According to independent experts, more than 60% of all alcoholic products are made from counterfeits. It is the high consumption of counterfeit alcohol that turns the risk factors for the development of CVD into risk factors for death, as well as a colossal increase in other alcohol-related somatic pathologies.

Consequences of alcohol consumption: the result of a binge

Consequences of alcohol consumption for human health:

As the daily dose of alcohol consumed increases, the risk of developing CVD (diseases of the circulatory system) in men due to hypertension increases by 3 times, in women - by 1.5; in men due to ischemic stroke by 2 times, in women by 2.5 times; in men for hemorrhagic stroke - 4 times, in women - 13.5 times. These data confirm that excess mortality in Russia from CVD diseases is more than 30% due to drunkenness and alcoholism.
No less significant is the mortality of the population from alcoholic liver disease and, accordingly, chronic alcoholism. In the regions, mortality from alcoholic hepatitis has increased since 1990 by almost 30 times, and from chronic alcoholism by 7 times. These data convincingly demonstrate the close cause-and-effect relationship between violent mortality rates, alcohol-related mortality rates from hepatitis, cirrhosis and CVD and the severity of the alcohol situation in the country and the region, which in its totality indicates the scale of the alcohol factor in the depopulation of the population.
According to the regional pathological anatomy bureau, out of 10,255 autopsies conducted over the past 5 years in regional healthcare facilities, alcoholism with visceral lesions ranks 4th in the mortality structure, accounting for 10.9% in 2007. This figure has increased by 2.8 times over 5 years.
Patients with chronic alcoholism and alcohol abusers create a large burden on the activities of medical institutions: about 30% of male patients and 10% of women in city hospitals have a painful dependence on alcohol. It is drunkenness and binge drinking that are often the true reasons that lead to a hospital bed, especially in trauma and general therapeutic departments, not to mention toxicology, where intensive care units have long resembled the acute department of a drug addiction clinic. There are huge economic costs behind all this.
The conducted correlation analysis of violent mortality rates over 30 years and the incidence of alcoholic psychoses, which most objectively reflect the scale of alcoholization of the population, confirms what has been said, on the one hand, and on the other, testifies to the colossal role of social conditions in society, which can both contribute to a decrease in alcohol mortality and its growth (example 1986-1987, default 1998). These data most convincingly indicate to us another important way to combatdepopulation of the population and improvement of the quality of life of people and their health is the state program of combating drunkenness. No less important is the fact that due to mass drunkenness the country is losing its intellectual potential. The critical situation with the mental health of children is almost directly related to drunkenness and the growing number of patients with chronic alcoholism. The problem of social orphans remains acute, of which there are already more than 1 million in Russia and the state does not have time to open boarding schools and social rehabilitation centers for minors. Among this contingent, more than 75% have mental disorders, and this is our future and our labor force.
In the regions, high rates of prevalence (morbidity) of alcoholism among women and adolescents remain.
The problem of beer alcoholism is a real danger for young people, leading to early alcohol addiction, fatty degeneration of the liver, male infertility. At the same time, persistent and sophisticated beer advertising continues to involve more and more young people in beer madness with the formation of early alcoholism.

Consequences of alcohol consumption (mental illness):

All of the above indicates that the country has crossed a critical threshold and it will be impossible to change the situation without active government intervention.
The dynamics of the growth of mental pathology among adolescents is such that the problem of conscription into the army is already becoming acute. In the regions over the last 15 years there has been an unprecedented decline in the educational level of young people, which is most clearly determined by the results of conscription for military service: not only do more than 30% of conscripts have an exemption from conscription due to mental pathology, but the socio-psychological profile of those who are called up raises concerns in terms of their successful adaptation to strictly regulated military service: about 30% have a low level of neuropsychic stability, 24% had been brought to the police before conscription, 15% led an antisocial lifestyle, 20% were brought up in single-parent families and more than 50% have only primary education. Studies of the mental health of adolescents, conducted in one of the relatively favorable regional centers, using a continuous method, showed that 47% of them have mental disorders and need treatment and rehabilitation measures. In the origin of these disorders, the alcohol factor again plays a key role: drunkenness of parents and poor nutrition of children, neglect and lack of conditions for full-fledged education at school, etc.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that the scale of deaths due to mass drunkenness, gradually increasing degradation and deterioration of health indicators, especially in villages and towns, are not fully realized by the country's population, or are realized as a natural process. There is no social order for sobriety and a healthy lifestyle in the country. The population's tolerance of drunkenness and drunken mortality leads to a gradual but steady erosion of the nation's intellectual potential, and largely feeds the restraint and tolerance of the country's leadership and most regions to this problem. Alcohol - a positive worldview is largely supported in the country by the media, especially television. Today, there is not a single feature film that does not show drinking alcohol; through films, the population is essentially taught how to drink at home, as at work. Society as a whole has practically withdrawn from solving such a pressing and strategically significant problem, which today already poses a real threat to the security of the state and the intellectual potential of the nation. The current scale of drunkenness and alcoholism, their social and medical consequences should be considered the main obstacle to the successful development of Russia.
Thus, the high alcoholization of the population of modern Russia and its regions is not only the main causal factor of excess mortality and depopulation, but also makes a decisive contribution to the deterioration of the quality of life of people, mental and moral health and in fact poses a real threat to national security and the future of our state.
A way out of this situation is possible only through the development of a scientifically sound comprehensive economically sound alcohol policy of the state, since the alcohol situation is extraordinary and requires immediate action.

Fathers, fathers, how can this be, fathers
We have missed our Fatherland while drinking
Houses and fields have suddenly become empty
Discord, discord sweeps in all directions
And what about Rus'?

(Vasily Zabello)