Binge drinking wreaks health havoc

[12 October 2007 - 14h27]

Nowadays when teenagers and young adults go out drinking at weekends their aim is to get drunk and get drunk quickly. This phenomenon known as binge drinking in English and in French as biture express began in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries but has now spread to the more southern countries of Europe.

According to the French Escapad Survey on Health and Alcohol Consumption, 2.3% of young people aged 17 admitted to “binge drinking” at least ten times in one month! Which says something about the scale and gravity of the situation. In Europe as a whole, one in five young people between the ages of 15 and 24 regularly consume more than 5 alcoholic drinks in the course of a single evening. Which is precisely the accepted definition of what constitutes “binge drinking”. And in young adults this translates into a blood alcohol concentration of 1 g/litre for men and more than 1.65 g/litre for women!

According to American researchers, this practice is likely to lead to a particularly high risk of cardiac problems. “Heavy drinkers” in fact show particularly high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a marker for assessing the risk of heart disease. The higher the CRP level, the higher the risk.

According to the French National Academy of Medicine, binge drinking “can result in grave consequences, notably ethylic coma which can be fatal, and cases of which have been identified in children as young as 12 years old.”. Not forgetting, of course, the risk of accidents associated with alcohol and drunkenness. Finally, a very recent study suggests that high consumption of alcohol at a young age can lead to impairment of grey matter in various regions of the brain.

The only reassuring news is that the French National Academy of Medicine states that “the phenomenon is still far less widespread in France than in many other European countries”. However, the reference standard is high: in the United Kingdom, for example, 23% of young people aged 16 admit to being drunk on 3 or more occasions during the last month. And in Denmark the figure is no less than 26%!

Source : INPES, Actualités No. 34 ; European Commission; 2007 American Heart Association, 2007; French National Academy of Medicine, September 2007

>> Cet article est aussi disponible en français

© 1996-2012 Destination Santé SAS - All Rights Reserved. No information contained on this server can be reproduced or retransmitted without prior written consent of Destination Santé. Offenders will be prosecuted in consideration of articles L 122-4 and L 335-3 of the Code of Intellectual Property, allowing up to two years' imprisonment and a 150,000 euros fine.