Women drinkers on a dangerous high, percentages say.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A new study, published in the American Journal of Public Health this month, shows that while men’s binge drinking increased 4.9 percent between 2005 and 2012, women’s rates rose by a much steeper 17.5 percent.
The study did not delve into possible causes behind the jump, nor did it segment the research into age groups, reported News Ledge. Future research will look at any causation or correlation for the increase.
For the study, researchers defined binge drinking as more than five drinks for men, and more than four for women. In one sitting. The Center for Disease Controlconsiders more than 15 drinks per week for men and eight for women to excessive drinking.
The CDC attributes 88,000 deaths each year to alcohol, and a study in the online journal of Epidemiology revealed people indulging in binge drinking are at a 70 percent higher risk for heart attacks.
One answer to curbing binge drinking may be marijuana, reported The Guardian. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 5.8 million American women have some sort of alcohol disorder and 26,000 women die from alcohol related causes annually. But deaths related to cannabis are so rare that German researchers claimed to find the first two cases last year, according to the British publication.
The Guardian also noted the societal benefit of using marijuana instead of alcohol — drunk driving kills 30 people every day in the U.S., but ever since Colorado legalized marijuana, car crash fatalities have been on the decline.