Alcohol can certainly be a danger in a number of circumstances, not the least of which is drinking and driving. While texting draws the brunt of media attention in the modern world, intoxication at the wheel still leads to its share of serious and often fatal automobile collisions around the country, and everyone who drinks should do so responsibly.
One doesn’t need to crawl into the driver’s seat, however, in order to endanger their health with alcohol. A recent report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes both the health danger created by alcohol and how health professionals often are not providing the proper warnings about the threat to patients.
Officials with the CDC carried out a study that looked at self-reports of persons admitting to having a conversation with a doctor about the danger of consuming too much alcohol. The research, which utilized the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compile findings, discovered that five out of six adults have not received a warning about alcohol consumption from their doctor, and only a third of the binge drinking population has been privy to a similar conversation.
This despite the fact that health insurance usually will cover counseling and screening. The CDC notes that these can reduce a person’s drinking by one quarter.