Alcohol

Alcohol Use and Patterns

[Page 12]Behind only caffeine, alcohol is the second most commonly used drug among both youth and adults in the United States. Excessive alcohol use is typically defined as heavy drinking (drinking more than two drinks per day on average for men, or more than one drink per day on average for women) or binge drinking (drinking five or more drinks during a single occasion for men or four or more drinks during a single occasion for women). Excessive alcohol use is associated with a range of health problems and injuries. Recent data from the United States show that more than half of the population 12 years and older drank alcohol in the past month. About 7 percent reported drinking heavily, and 23 percent reported binge drinking. Every year there are about 79,000 deaths caused by excessive alcohol use. Excessive alcohol use is considered the third leading lifestyle-related cause of death for people in the United States.

Alcoholism, or alcohol dependence, can occur following excessive alcohol use. Typically, alcoholism includes the following four symptoms: craving (a strong need or urge to drink), loss of control (not being able to stop drinking once drinking has begun), physical dependence (withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety after stopping drinking), and tolerance (the need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to get “high”). The risk for developing alcoholism is influenced by a person's genes, lifestyle, and environment.

Alcohol use can have an important and negative impact on the health of both men and women. Men are more likely than women to drink to excess. Excessive drinking is associated with negative short-and long-term health outcomes including injuries. Many of the negative health outcomes linked to excessive drinking specifically among men may also be linked to the fact that men are often more likely than women to take other risks such as driving fast, or driving without a seat belt. If a person engages in these risky behaviors while also drinking excessively, the risk for injury and death becomes much more likely.

There are important differences between men and women that impact how alcohol affects the body. Women's body structures, water composition, and chemistry cause them to get more drunk from alcohol than men because it takes longer for women to break down the alcohol and metabolize it. Even when men and women drink the same amount of alcohol, typically the woman will have a higher alcohol level in her blood than the man. This is also because women's bodies typically contain less water than men's bodies. When alcohol enters the body to mix with the water, if there is less water, the alcohol concentration will be higher. As a result of these differences, the recommended drinking limits for women are lower than the recommended drinking limits for men.

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