. This can make people dothings that they would not do when they are sober, this a is common sign of an alcoholic. Test have shown that long-term drinking like that of an alcoholic can lead to a measurableloss of thinking ability. Over time heavy drinking can also cause permanent damage to thecentral nervous system. Research has shown that there seems to be an associationbetween alcohol and cancer, with heavy drinkers having the highest risk. Drinkers seem toget cancer more frequently than non-drinkers. Scientists believe that alcohol weakensbody tissue and makes them more susceptible to cancer causing substances. Alcohol isconsidered a factor in over seven thousand cases of cancer a year. Alcohol hurts heavydrinkers health in general, consuming large amounts of alcohol over a long period of timeharms their bodies and shortens their life. On average, heavy drinkers are taking twelve tofifteen years off their lives. How People Become AlcoholicsIt is believed that there are many different ways a person can become a alcoholic. Alcoholalone does not cause alcoholism, if it did everyone who drank would be any alcoholic. There are a number of factors that lead to alcoholism. The way most scientists think youbecome an alcoholic is through genetics. Because of genetics people tend to inherit aninability to handle alcohol, just like other people inherit other diseases from their parents. This is the reason that alcoholism seems to run in families from generation to generation. This is why some people become alcoholics from the first time they drink, because of thegenetics they become hooked from the start. Experiments testing the genetic factor havebeen conducted by taking children of alcoholics at birth and placing them in non-alcoholicfamilies, despite having no exposure to the alcoholic parents the children had a four timeshigher risk of becoming an alcoholic than children of non-alcoholic parents. Anotherreason people become alcoholics is th...
