Take Binge Drinking off the Memorial Day Calendar

Memorial Day barbecues are coming up, a time for people who don’t usually drink that much to binge drink to welcome summer. But two new studies about binge drinking should give you pause about tossing back that fourth or fifth beer at a party. A quick refresher: Binge drinking is drinking quickly enough to reach impairment level (0.08 blood alcohol level) within 2 hours. For men, that works out to about 5 drinks in 2 hours; for women, about 4 drinks in 2 hours. The obvious risk of binge drinking is that judgment and motor skills are impaired, leading to drinking and driving or other risky behaviors. One new study focused on young people who binge drink. Conventional wisdom says that drinking a lot in youth helps a person build tolerance to alcohol, making them less likely to abuse it. But the University of Chicago study looked at long-term habits of young binge drinkers, first in their 20s and then examined them six years later to rank them for high, intermediate or low levels of alcohol addiction symptoms. Drinkers who reported getting the most pleasure from alcohol in their 20s were the most likely to fall into the high group with more symptoms of alcohol addiction. Another study shows the potential alarm from even a single session of binge drinking. In that study in Massachusetts, researchers gave subjects enough alcohol to raise their blood alcohol levels to 0.08 within an hour. They then sampled their blood every 30 minutes for 4 hours and again 24 hours later. Binge drinking led to a rapid increase of endotoxins in the bloodstream. Endotoxins come from bacteria leaking into the gut and then getting into the bloodstream. They can produce an immune reaction leading to inflammation, fever and tissue destruction. Women showed more evidence of endotoxins than men. This sort of damage can lead to alcoholic liver disease. Earlier studies have shown this level of damage from chronic drinking. This is the first to show such a response from one episode of binge drinking. Those two studies should give pause for those who think they drink because ‘it’s summer/it’s a holiday.’ Or that they only binge drink once or twice a year. Every episode can be priming your body for more damage or for greater alcohol dependence or abuse. If your alcohol use is concerning you or your loved ones, we can help. Stepping Stone Center can help. Call 866-957-4960 and our intake counselors can get you the help you need. Make the change now, before it gets worse.