Drinking dry spell: Taking a booze break An estimated 95,000 people die every year from alcohol-related causes Tags: ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – March 2021 officially marks one year of the pandemic and more Americans seem to be drinking away the pain. Alcohol hits our neurochemical pathways, releasing endorphins that make us feel good, but how much is too much? At what point does wanting a drink turn into needing as drink? An estimated 95,000 people die every year from alcohol-related causes, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. “I’ve had all these negative feelings about myself and ... alcohol numbed that,” Traci Barnes, owner of Rise Above Café, told Ivanhoe.