What is Binge Drinking?

In layman’s understanding, binge drinking is too much drinking – an act of consuming alcohol up to the point that the drinker is no longer capable of standing, much less walk. Binger would or may pee in the pants and throw right anywhere, but would not remember anything once sober again. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, though, binge drinking is having several drinks, (5 drinks for men and 4 for women) within a short period of time.

Compared to what health experts define as moderate drinking, the amount of alcohol that is health-friendly (1 for women and not more than 2 for men per day), average bingers put down 8 drinks in just 2 hours. Not surprisingly, the more aggressive young binge drinkers consume more than 8 drinks on average!

There is no safe level in binge drinking. And it constitutes not just embarrassing acts as a result of uncontrolled physical, mental and emotional reaction to too much alcohol in the body. Bingeing also puts the binger in serious risks such as violence against others, car crashes, sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancies, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and infant death syndrome, and alcohol dependence. In the long run, a binger can suffer from chronic illnesses such as stroke, heart disease, liver disease, and cancer. If you have been bingeing, and is experiencing symptoms related to any of the mentioned diseases, see your physician.

Benefits of alcohol intake, according to studies, can reach up at the level of improving longevity. Professionals, wearing Dickies scrubs and Adar uniforms, would even recommend alcohol intake in order to mend some stomach problems. However, bingeing or drinking heavily undermines all advantages.

CDC reports drinking too much led to more than 79,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. But since, binge drinking is not recognized as a problem, there has been a significant rise in the number of bingers in the country. Today, however, CDC points to binge drinking as huge public health problem.