{"id":7391,"date":"2019-10-04T09:32:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T09:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/?p=7391"},"modified":"2020-07-15T11:59:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T11:59:29","slug":"what-are-the-dangers-of-binge-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/what-are-the-dangers-of-binge-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the dangers of binge drinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header><div class=\"contained\"><div><div><\/div><div class=\"content\"><h1>What are the dangers of binge drinking?<\/h1><a href=\"#recoveryModal\" class=\"btn submit\" data-toggle=\"modal\">Reach out now, we can help<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/header><div id=\"crumbs\" class=\"contained\" data-is-podcasts=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\">Home<\/a>  \/  <\/div><h3 data-date='04 October 2019' class='article-title'>What are the dangers of binge drinking?<\/h3><div class='info'><span>04 October, 2019<\/span><span>Articles, News<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Alcohol is one\nof the leading causes of health issues around the world, including in the\nUnited States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that\nabout 88,000 people die every year from alcohol-related causes, which include\nacute problems like car accidents and chronic problems like liver cancer.\nExcessive drinking is the cause of 10 percent of deaths among working-age\nadults, between 20 and 64 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is on the rise in the US, but it is not the only cause of alcohols impact on health. Heavy drinking and binge drinking contribute towards deaths and chronic health problems associated with alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is the Definition of Binge Drinking?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The liver can\nmetabolize about one serving of alcohol per hour. Serving sizes for alcohol\ninclude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One 350ml bottle\nof beer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One 150ml glass\nof wine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One 45ml shot of\nhard liquor<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drinking more than one serving of alcohol per hour increases the likelihood that the person will become intoxicated. The legal limit is 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC). At this point, it is no longer legal to drive nor operate heavy machinery. People who are drunk in public are also at risk of being cited or arrested for public indecency, depending on how drunk they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binge drinking\ninvolves consuming multiple servings of alcohol in a short period of time,\ngenerally in less than an hour or two. The basic definition of binge drinking\nis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Four drinks\nor more in two hours for women<\/li><li>Five drinks\nor more in two hours for men<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the\nCDC, binge drinking is a huge problem in the US. Adolescents and young adults,\ntypically high school and college students, are most often associated with\nbinge drinking problems, but middle-age and older adults are binge drinking\nmore often as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 90 percent\nof American adults reported binge drinking at least once in the past month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The average\nbinge is about eight drinks per occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binge drinking\nis most common among adults ages 18-34, although older adults ages 65 and older\nare binge drinking more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Men are twice as likely as women to binge drink, although women are binge drinking more frequently as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When adolescents\ndrink alcohol, it is more likely to be via binge drinking than other forms of\nproblem drinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binge drinking increases the risk of alcohol poisoning, which can cause spontaneous death. If a person is suffering from alcohol poisoning, call for help immediately. They need emergency medical attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other effects of\nbinge drinking, which can be harmful to health, include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Loss of coordination, leading to falls<\/li><li>Poor impulse control<\/li><li>Reduced decision-making skills<\/li><li>Illness from hangover the next day<\/li><li>Low body temperature<\/li><li>Seizures<\/li><li>Dehydration<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is a Blackout?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>A blackout is a general term for a loss of memory, and the most common cause is a rapid increase in blood alcohol levels. This is sometimes called alcohol-induced amnesia. Problems forming new memories and blackouts are consequences of a rapid increase in BAC, most often caused by binge drinking. However, the effect of alcohol on memory can vary among different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually, a person&rsquo;s BAC must reach 0.14 percent &ndash; almost twice the legal limit &ndash; to induce a blackout. When sober, memories are formed after sensory input is processed in the short-term memory via a process called transfer encoding, then moved through a similar process into long-term memory. When a person remembers something, their brain retrieves the memory from long-term storage and puts it into short-term memory while the individual re-experiences the event. Scientists have known for a long time that alcohol interferes with transfer encoding and retrieval between short-term and long-term memory storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two\nforms of alcohol-caused blackouts: complete and partial or fragmentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>En block<\/em> (complete)\ninvolves total memory loss until the body&rsquo;s BAC lowers and memory processing\nreturns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Partial <\/em>(fragmentary)\nmeans that the person may not immediately remember what happened, but certain\ncues can trigger memories to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a huge difference between blacking out and passing out. When a person passes out, they lose consciousness and are in a state similar to being asleep, although they are not likely to respond to stimuli like being spoken to or touched. When a person blacks out, they may continue to make decisions, hold conversations, and even continue to drink. They appear to be conscious, but they will not remember what happened. This is extremely risky, as the person may attempt to drive, have sex, or perform other risky behaviours that can lead to permanent harm and even death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the blackout, the person will be able to remember events before their BAC reached very high levels, and drinking too much inconsistently will typically not damage these memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who Is at the Most Risk from\nAlcohol Blackouts?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Women are at\ngreater risk of blacking out than men, and young adults are at greater risk of\nblacking out compared to older adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Differences in\nhormones, body composition, and physical size mean that women cannot drink as\nmuch alcohol as men before becoming intoxicated. This is why the definition of\nbinge drinking is different between genders. Because women become drunk on less\nalcohol, they are also at greater risk of blacking out because their BAC rises\nfaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically,\nadolescents and young adults are more likely to binge drink, and when they do,\nthey are more likely to drink more alcohol per binge. However, they also do not\nhave as much experience drinking in moderation or drinking consistently, so\nthey are more likely to overestimate how much they can consume or underestimate\nhow much they have already consumed. This is very risky and puts young people\nat serious risk of experiencing legal, financial, academic, and personal\nconsequences, such as illness, mood disorders, sexual assault, physical\nviolence, and hospitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adolescents and young adults are still developing, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Consuming a lot of alcohol can damage the brain while it is forming, so young people who binge drink and experience blackouts are more likely to have memory problems for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are Binge Drinking and Blacking\nOut Signs of Addiction?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>While medical\nprofessionals agree that binge drinking is not the same as alcohol use\ndisorder, drinking too much frequently increases the risk of developing alcohol\ndependence and compulsive behaviours around alcohol consumption. Blackouts were\nonce considered one of the three main indicators of AUD, but blacking out is\ncurrently understood to be related to a rapid increase in BAC, not heavy\ndrinking or AUD, which is characterized by a tolerance to and dependence on\nalcohol, making it harder for the body to respond to certain levels of alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a person understands that blacking out is very dangerous, they may stop drinking, or they may be more careful to moderate their drinking. People who experience consistent blackouts from drinking too much may have AUD. They need medical treatment for this condition, including supervised detox and <a href=\"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/types-of-addiction\/alcohol-abuse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">rehabilitation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">RESOURCE<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alcohol.org\/effects\/dangers-of-blackouts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">https:\/\/www.alcohol.org\/effects\/dangers-of-blackouts\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the dangers of binge drinking? Reach out now, we can help Home \/ What are the dangers of binge drinking? 04 October, 2019Articles, News Alcohol is one of the leading causes of health issues around the world, including in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-articles","category-uncategorized","entry"],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"medium":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1-300x223.jpg",300,223,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false],"large":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false],"alm-thumbnail":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dangers-of-Binge-Drinking1.jpg",304,226,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>What are the dangers of binge drinking?Reach out now, we can helpHome \/ What are the dangers of binge drinking?04 October, 2019Articles, News Alcohol is one of the leading causes of health issues around the world, including in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that about 88,000 people die every year from alcohol-related causes, which include acute problems like car accidents and chronic problems like liver cancer. Excessive drinking is the cause of 10 percent of deaths among working-age adults, between 20 and 64 years old. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is on the rise&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/category\/news\/articles\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Articles<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/author\/admin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssdev.co.za\/crossroads-old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}