This article defines binge drinking and its health effects. It explains how much alcohol consumption is considered binge drinking and the dangers associated with it.
During the festive season and other times of celebration, alcohol often flows freely. But how much is too much? In short, what counts as ' binge drinking ,' and what are the potential health effects ? Most people understand binge drinking as 'drinking to get drunk,' said Dr. Ryan Marino, a toxicologist and associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. But the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) offers a more precise definition.
Binge drinking refers to when a person consumes enough alcohol within about two hours to raise their blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08% or higher. That's at least 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood, and for average adults, it's about four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men. In the U.S., a standard drink contains 0.6 ounces (14 grams) of pure alcohol; that translates to about 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. The binge-drinking threshold is lower for women because their bodies generally have more fat and less water than men of the same weight. Because alcohol dissolves in water, not in fat, women therefore reach a higher BAC than men after drinking the same amount. Notably, there's a behavior that's even more extreme than binge drinking, known as high-intensity drinking. The NIAAA defines this as drinking at levels two or more times the thresholds for binge drinking — so 10 drinks or more for men, or eight or more for women, within about two hours
Binge Drinking Alcohol Health Effects BAC High-Intensity Drinking
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