Deficiency Diseases of the Nervous System Secondary to Alcoholism

Abstract

Alcoholics often eat nothing for days at a time, and when they do eat, their diet tends to be high in carbohydrate and low in vitamins. The alcohol adds still more carbohydrate, setting the stage for thiamine deficiency. Although nutritional diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems develop in a relatively small proportion of alcoholics, the number of patients thus affected is large, simply because alcoholism is so prevalent.