Healthy Living: 88,000 people die of alcohol-related causes in US every year

A shocking new study is out about alcohol abuse in America. Its published in the Journal of American Medical Associations "Psychiatry" and it reveals that 1 in 8 American adults, more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, now meets the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse disorder or alcoholism.

The study shows the rate of alcoholism rose by 49 percent in the first decade of the 2000s and the biggest increase in alcohol disorders were found among African Americans, women and seniors.

Researchers are calling it a health crisis on par with the current opioid epidemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 88,000 people a year die of alcohol-related causes, more than twice the annual death toll of opiate overdose.

KUSIs Sandra Maas was joined by Judith Adams, a licensed marriage and family therapist from Sharp McDonald Center.