Last updated on December 18, 2013 at 13:00 EST  Your Health Can
Be Affected When Around Heavy Drinkers  February 7, 2011
Compared to people who didn’t have heavy drinkers in their
lives, 3,000 New Zealanders who did had lower scores on standard
measures of general health.  Chronic pain, anxiety and
depression symptoms, and overall satisfaction with life were
found with those with a family member, friend or colleague who
drank heavily, Reuters Health reported.  The findings, reported
in the journal Addiction, did not prove that being around a
heavy drinker was the root of study participants’ problems. The
average effect was similar to what has been seen in studies of
people caring for someone with a disability, according to lead
researcher Dr. Sally Casswell, of Massey University in Auckland,
New Zealand.  Casswell told Reuters Health by e-mail, the study
is just “a snapshot at one point in time, so… some other
explanation is possible. It’s possible,” she notes,” that people
with poorer well-being are more li