lauraandersen4

I'm sure this has been stated before but a previous post prompted me to give a couple of stats re: women who drink.

I was in cancer research designing, carrying out and analyzing lab and clinical trials for over 3 yrs and did my fair share of reading journal articles. I'd be more than happy to provide anyone interested with the sources for more info than I provide here if you PM me.

Bottom line is this:

There is generally a 1:3 rule statistically stating that women who are heavy drinkers for say 5 YEARS have on average the same physical consequences (ie organ damage) as men who have been heavy drinkers for 15 YEARS!!!

AND while moderate drinking = 1 drink/day in the US, 2 in the UK, heavy drinking for women is generally considered anything over 2 drinks/day... or 4 drinks/day more than 2-3 days/week.

For men, heavy drinking starts at 3 drinks/day and generally takes 3 times the amount of time it takes females to reach the same physical, often harmful and sometimes deadly consequences. And women who have more than 2 drinks/day increase their risk of breast cancer by 51%.

Sure this is common knowledge, but can't hurt to put it out there. I can't speak for seeing the liver damage first hand but I definitely have seen plenty more than my share of cancer patients... die.

thirtybubba

Okay, so I am absolutely scr-d. Unless by "drink" you are referring to 750ml of 120+ proof, in which most days for the last five years I ran under that limit.

But what I really would like to know is how come people in the UK get to drink twice as much before the damage kicks in? Possibly the first time I wished I wasn't American...

lauraandersen4

LOL I don't know why UK standards are different. I was wondering the same thing. I do know due in part to their health care system - gov't contol - their survival rates often aren't anywhere near ours in the US though.

Unfortunately lol... drink - 1.5 oz of the hard stuff, 5 oz of wine (actually think some have it as 4 oz in the UK though) or 1 beer. At least in 1 article, physical organ damage for women, all are damaging, but spirits are less damaging than wine and wine is less damaging than beer. I have no idea how they actually can say that unless it is only the case because beer is most frequently consumed followed by wine followed by spirits. I put no stock in that article... doesn't make much sense to me and the research is a bit shoddy

Dee74

I believe there's a fairly robust campaign to change the UK guidelines.

It's also worth mentioning the UK guidelines have slightly different wording

They also recommend that you have up to 2 alcohol free days a week (preferably more) and abstain for 8 hours after a big night out.

D

tallcactus

LOLROTFLMAO,
So are you telling me that after all my binge drinking years, I'm screwed, gonna have a higher % of cancer? Well how many more years do I have?
Totally unbelieveable and dishearten to hear.

Dee74

OK oops

that should be abstain for 48 hours.
time for a break. LOL.

D

Sikkisirus

DEE is right, there is a shake up towards alcohol here in the UK. Part of it is to try to cut down on teenagers as young as 13 binge drinking. Its a real problem here. I go to the supermarket and im mobbed by teenagers wanting me to get them booze. Of course I decline but there are plenty other irresponsible morons who get it for them.

NEOMARXIST

Obviously it ain't rocket science to know that if your drinking a shed-load of booze then it ain't gonna be as good for you as a run around the park.

I was a heavy binger and I know that the levels I was drinking at were obviously detrimental to my health and I had watched countless documentaries about it and such like. I also attended a drink-drivers awareness course to reduce my driving-ban to 18months and we did a whole afternoon on alcohol damage and saw a cirrhotic liver etcetc.

However this had absolutely no bearing whatsoever; I still went out afterwards and got wasted as per usual. Of course I was aware that binging at my levels was gonna be bad for me but I didn't care, I just wanted to feel that Buzz of getting wasted. The same as I knew that mixing cocaine with booze (which I used to do to massive amounts over 3 day binges for 3 years every weekend) produces cocaethylene which is supposedly much harsher on the liver and heart etcetc; I couldn't care less as the euphoria from the buzz was Amazing and I thought F*ck it; were all gonna die one day anyway and you get a sort of perverse kick in knowing that you are living fast, on the edge and trashing the old body; all part of the experience of getting mashed up.

What got me to stop was an indescribable moment of clarity/gut feeling/Indescribable mental low, where I thought I just cannot keep doing this to myself and wasting my potential in life to Booze. I can't describe the feeling I felt after my last binge but it was such a terrible low feeling that it was enough to make me want sobriety more than I want to get high (which don't work no-matter what I take anyway, like it used to back in the day). Sure it's good to know I ain't abusing my body anymore but that does not keep me from picking up again. Instead an indescribable feeling after every binge that was knocking me down lower and lower mentally and emotionally.

splendra

thanks for bring this up (((lauraandersen)))) I wonder if this post would get even more attention in the women in recovery forum here.