Alcohol leading killer in Finland
Finnish adults now have a pretty brazen #1 killer -- alcohol poisoning. The Finnish government said that alcohol is now the leading killer of Finnish adults. Alcoholic consumption reached an all-time high last year in the Nordic nation according to Finnish officials.With alcoholism being a disease that affects millions worldwide, it's alarming that so many afflicted alcoholics can seek help and take control of the disease -- but perhaps just as many cannot do that. In Finland, more than 2,000 people between the ages of 15 and 64 were killed by alcohol poisoning or illnesses caused by alcohol consumption last year, according to the Finnish government.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-11-2006 @ 10:01PM
John said...
I find this very interesting. My father is 100% Finnish and he is an alcoholic as are all of his full siblings (there is one half-sibling on his father's side and he does not drink at all). Two of my dad's full-siblings are recovering alcoholics but my dad and one sister are not.
My dad's mother was an alcoholic as were most of her relatives and almost all of them died of alcohol related illnesses. This was here in the United States and not in Finland which makes me think there may be a genetic predisposition for alcoholism in people of Finnish descent. Not that other nationalities don't have instances of alcoholism but based on my family experience and this article, it seems that the likelihood of becoming an alcoholic is higher for Finnish people.
There are five siblings in my family and 3 of us do not drink at all because we feel the risk is too great given our family history. The other two are social drinkers but I worry at which point it will become something to do for fun and something to do out of necessity. I don't think anybody sets out to become an alcoholic, it sneaks up on them.
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