It’s the liver’s job to break down alcohol, so if you drink more alcohol than the organ can process, it can become badly damaged, leading to liver disease. Excess alcohol consumption is linked to high blood pressure, and over time, this strains the heart and can lead to cardiovascular disease, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. It’s essential to seek alcoholism treatment as soon as you recognize that you have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol to avoid the short and long-term dangers of binge drinking, alcohol abuse, and addiction. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge drinking as a pattern https://approvedcars.theaa.ie/severe-hepatic-steatosis-a-cause-of-sudden-death/ of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration above 0.08 grams per decilitre.

What are the Risk Factors of Binge Drinking?

• The public health concerns about young adult binge drinking have helped to motivate refinement of its definition.
• Drinking to a level of .12 g% BrAC does not affect next-day test-taking performance, but does affect some neurocognitive measures and mood state.
• Heavy alcohol use can disturb the endocrine system, disrupting the hormones that help maintain the body’s stability and health.
• It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider.
• The younger adults in this sample (18–25 years) evinced the highest rate of binge-drinking episodes in the year 2001, whereas individuals older than 55 years had the lowest rate of binge-drinking episodes (Naimi et al., 2003).

Because of the differences in male and female alcohol metabolism rates, it is possible that greater tissue injury is produced in females who consume alcohol in binge-like patterns. Furthermore, in an aging population already riddled with polypharmacy, there is heightened potential for toxicity during an alcohol binge (Figure 4). Also, pre-existing comorbid conditions such as cardiovascular disease, renal failure, or steatohepatitis may predispose binge drinkers to accelerated tissue injury. Table 3 summarizes the definitions of alcohol abuse and dependence from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Short-term effects and health risks of binge drinking

• When alcohol is not fully metabolised, it passes into the brain, disrupting the delicate balance of neurotransmitters that regulate its functioning.
• The start of freshman year, in particular, can be a time when a lot of heavy drinking occurs.
• If you’re having a hard time shifting your focus from internal to external, consider the quality of your inner self-talk.
• Alcohol is the most widely used substance among America’s youth and can cause them enormous health and safety risks.
• Among pre-teens and teenagers, 2.0% of 8th graders, 5.4% of 10th graders, and 10.2% of 12th graders engaged in binge drinking in the previous two weeks.
• However, alcohol use only ever numbs or mutes these emotions in the short term, rather than helping the person to effectively deal with the root cause of these feelings.

These are periods of short-term memory loss, where you wake up the next day and can’t remember what happened the night before. Most epidemiological reports indicate that men account for the majority of binge drinkers (Cranford et al., 2006; Wechsler et al., 1994; Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995). The CAS study found that approximately 50% of the male and 39% of the female students were binge drinkers, with the BRFSS study concluding that men accounted for 81% of all binge-drinking episodes (Naimi et al., 2003). Furthermore, bingers in the BRFSS study were less likely to report any college education compared with nonbingers, although the opposite outcome also has been reported (Dawson, Grant, Stinson, & Chou, 2004; Slutske, 2005). Binge drinking behavior and heavy drinking patterns can lead to serious consequences, and continued frequency can lead to the development of an alcohol use disorder, which can become a life-threatening condition on its own. Alcohol use can strain relationships, with one of the most common consequences of binge drinking being relationship conflict, as long-term effects of binge drinking increased intoxication reduces judgment capabilities.

Binge drinking vs alcoholism

The truth is other people are usually far less focused on you than you believe. Therefore, drinking more water won’t necessarily protect you from a hangover the next day. The only sure way to reduce or avoid a hangover is to drink less alcohol. Whether you decide to set a hard limit or not, make a habit of following Sobriety up every alcoholic beverage with a non-alcoholic one.