When you were in college, did you and your buddies spend the week days planning how you would get totally trashed Friday night? Even now, do you look forward to a vacation where you will spend the nights - and days - drinking away? If so, you might be a binge drinker.
Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on an occasion during the past 30 days. Binge drinking is reported by one in six adults in the United States. Those who binge drink generally do so a lot, and with high intensity.
Most binge drinkers are not alcoholics, so why is it bad? According to this report, binge drinking is alcohol abuse and leads to more than half of the estimated 80,000 average annual deaths and three quarters of $223.5 billion in economic costs resulting from excessive alcohol consumption in the United States.
Bad things can happen when people consume lots of alcohol in one sitting, such as unintentional injuries (e.g., car crashes, falls, burns, drowning), intentional injuries (e.g., firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence), alcohol poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy. A pattern of binge drinking in the long term can lead to high blood pressure, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, liver disease, neurological damage, sexual dysfunction, and poor control of diabetes.
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