How many drinks is considered binge drinking?
CDC Podcast Running time = 3:59
Center For Disease Control, January 2012: Cup of Health Series
About 80,000 people die each year from complications related to drinking too much.
Rethinking Drinking
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The Things You Must Know About Alcohol Abuse
Abuse of alcoholic beverages is becoming a serious problem in the United States of America. Many youngsters are becoming a victim of this serious practice. What is alcohol abuse? According to the DSM-IV, alcohol abuse can be defined as the continued over use of alcoholic beverages even after knowing that they are harmful to health. Another term which is used in place of alcohol abuse is alcoholism. Many definitions for alcoholism exist. If you’ve been severely drunk three or more times, it may be considered alcohol abuse. Binge drinking, which means intake of greater than five and four drinks in men and women respectively, is also a form of the abuse of alcohol. In simple words, over use of alcohol which leads to harmful effects or even turns fatal is alcoholism.
How can you recognize alcohol abuse? It can be identified using a variety of symptoms, like an insatiable desire for more alcohol, inability to control the quantity of intake, requiring larger amounts of alcohol to get the same feeling, and other physical symptoms like vomiting, sweating, etc. Alcohol abuse can be considered to be a disease. For an alcoholic, alcohol becomes a basic need. He/she will not be able to survive without it. Even if their health is in disarray, they will not be able to quit drinking.
Alcohol abuse is chronic. The occurrence of alcoholism is decided by the genes as well as the lifestyle of the particular person. Even though alcoholism can be inherited through genes from your predecessors, the type of life you lead plays a telling role in deciding whether you are an alcoholic or not. The easy availability of alcohol is a factor that encourages alcohol abuse. As of now, no cure has been developed for alcoholism. The only means by which you can control yourself is to stay away from drinks. However, staying away from drinks alone does not mean that you are cured. An alcoholic is always vulnerable to a relapse.
Even though no specific cure is available yet, alcohol abuse can be treated. This is done by relating drinking to a bad experience which will build an aversion regarding drinking in your mind. Medication and counseling are used to treat alcoholism. Acamprosate, Disulfiram, and Naltrexone are the commonly used oral medications to treat alcohol abuse. These medicines have proved to be useful in many cases. However, there is no guarantee that a particular medicine will work wonders with anyone. It is a continuous process of treatment and evaluation.
