Most people know that excessive drinking is bad but don’t really know the definition of excessive drinking. That’s because the standards vary according to body weight, the size of the glass and the amount of the pour. One drink filled to the brim may equal three smaller glasses, and thus, the person who claims to have had two glasses of wine at dinner may, in fact, be consuming triple that amount.
Ethyl alcohol is the ingredient found in wine, beer and liquor. It’s created when yeast, sugars and starches ferment, and has been part of the world’s diet for thousands of years.
When alcohol is consumed, it affects just about every body function. The central nervous system is depressed, the liver gradually metabolizes it, and the rest circulates in the body. How it will affect each individual is a matter of vital statistics; age, race, ethnicity, sex, weight, fitness levels, consumption speed, food intake, drug tolerance and family history.
The standard size for a drink is 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol, or the equivalent of 12-ounces of beer, five ounces of wine, eight ounces of malt liquor or a 1.5-ounce shot of 80-proof liquor.
How do you measure up?
Americans are drinkers, but surprisingly, are far down the list of the world’s biggest alcohol consumers. If you are an American and claim to have a glass of wine with dinner each night, you are in the top 30 percent of per capita alcohol consumption.
Having two glasses puts you in the top 20 percent of imbibers. That escalates quickly – if you have two bottles of wine with dinner, you would break into the top 10 percent, but just barely. The heaviest of heavy drinkers – about 24 million adults – have an average consumption of 74 alcohol drinks per week. According to the Washington Post, that’s 4.5 bottles of Jack Daniels, three 24-can cases of beer, and 18 bottles of wine per week. That comes out to 10 drinks per day.
Those heavy drinkers are putting down roughly half of America’s alcohol consumption per year. They are balanced out by the 30 percent of Americans who don’t drink at all and the additional 30 percent who have one drink per week or less.
The Grim Statistics
The National Institutes of Health’s Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that as of 2013, 86.8 percent of people age 18 and older had consumed an alcoholic beverage at some point in their lifetime. Of them, 70.7 percent had a drink in the past year, and 56.4 percent had a drink in the past month.
Most people who drink handle it responsibly. That alcohol abuse is rampant among the minority who cannot should come as no surprise to anyone who has even a casual observance of society. About 1.3 million adults received treatment for alcoholism at a facility in 2013, and 73,000 adolescents had treatment.
The death toll is worse. Nearly 88,000 people (62,000 men and 26,000 women) died from alcohol-related causes as of 2013, making it the third-most preventable cause of death in the United States. Some 10,000 deaths were attributed to alcohol-impaired driving, one-third of all road deaths.
Alcohol abuse costs the United States more than $200 million annually and is responsible for countless family issues, school problems, health consequences and severe social problems for nearly everyone who goes over the limit.
An Alcohol Abuse Disorder (referred to by its initial, AUD) is a medical condition that confirms a formal diagnosis of a patient drinking causing harm or distress. It is usually divided into two disorders, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence.
There are several sub-classifications that define the Alcohol Abuse Disorder. Binge drinking is a pattern that brings the blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 or more, which is achieved after approximately four drinks for women in two hours and five drinks for men in that same time. Binge drinkers are defined as those who have had five or more alcoholic drinks in the same period on at least one day in the past 30 days.
A heavy drinker is one who the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the creators of the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, defines as drinking five or more drinks on five or more days in the past 30 days.
The low-risk drinker is a woman who has no more than three drinks on any single day or no more than seven drinks per week. For a man, a low-risk drinker is someone who has no more than four drinks on any single day and no more than 14 drinks per week.
Health Benefits of Alcohol
Balancing out the negative effects of over-consuming alcohol are the benefits of moderate consumption. The report Dietary Guidelines for Americans defines moderate consumption as one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. This level of consumption can decrease the risk for heart disease, lowers the chances of ischemic stroke (in which the brain’s arteries are narrowed or blocked, reducing blood flow) and makes it less likely that you’ll get adult-onset diabetes.
In Western countries, where cancer, stroke, heart disease and diabetes are the leading causes of death, studies have consistently shown that alcohol may lower mortality for men and women. There are any estimated 26,000 people per year who are alive because of moderate alcohol consumption.
While alcohol consumption is an individual choice, how much constitutes abuse may be a foreign concept to most Americans. Given the consequences of excessive drinking, it behooves us to take another look at our consumption and adjust it accordingly if we wish to live a fuller, healthier life.