Binge drinking has serious risks. 
 
 Binge drinking is associated with many health problems,8–10 including the following: 
 
 Unintentional injuries such as car crashes, falls, burns, and alcohol poisoning. 
 
 Violence including homicide, suicide, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. 
 
 Sexually transmitted diseases. 
 
 Unintended pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage and stillbirth. 
 
 Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. 
 
 Sudden infant death syndrome. 
 
 Chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and liver disease. 
 
 Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, and colon. 
 
 Memory and learning problems. 
 
 Alcohol dependence. 
 
 Binge drinking costs everyone. 
 
 Drinking too much, including binge drinking, cost the United States $249 billion in 2010, or $2.05 a drink. These costs resulted from losses in workplace productivity, health care expenditures, criminal justice costs, and other expenses. Binge drinking was responsible for 77% of these costs, or $191 billion.2 
 
 Preventing binge drinking 
 
 The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends evidence-based interventions to prevent binge drinking and related harms.11 Recommended strategies include: 
 
 Using pricing strategies, including increasing alcohol taxes. 
 
 Limiting the number of retail alcohol outlets that sell alcoholic beverages in a given area. 
 
 Holding alcohol retailers responsible for the harms caused by illegal alcohol sales to minors or intoxicated patrons (dram shop liability). 
 
 Restricting access to alcohol by maintaining limits on the days and hours of alcohol retail sales. 
 
 Consistently enforcing laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving. 
 
 Maintaining government controls on alcohol sales (avoiding privatization). 
 
 Screening and counseling for alcohol misuse. 
 
 References: 

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 PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Binge drinking could be making you sick – but not in the way you think. 
 
 In addition to throwing up or suffering from a massive hangover, new research from Loyola University’s School of Medicine suggests drinking excessive amounts of alcohol “significantly disrupts the immune system.” 
 
 The study subjects, who had a median age of 27, were given four or five shots of vodka depending on their weight. At 20 minutes after “peak intoxication,” their immune systems showed increased activity. But two and five hours after maximum intoxication, the opposite proved true – the subjects’ immune systems were less active than they were when they were sober. 
 
 Researchers say that while there is plenty of research on how binge drinking impacts behavior and decision-making, there is little on the effects of a lot of alcohol on the immune system. 
 
 Dr. Majid Afshar, who led the research, says he is planning a follow-up study that will focus on the recovery of burn victims who had alcohol in their system upon arrival at the hospital versus patients who didn’t. 
 
 But it’s something you might want to consider before over-serving yourself this New Year’s Eve. 
 
 To read more about the study, click here. 
 
 Must Read Today’s Top Talkers 
 
 

 MAYWOOD, Ill. (Dec. 26, 2014) – Binge drinking in young, healthy adults significantly disrupts the immune system, according to a study led by a researcher now at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. 
 
 Depending on their weight, study participants drank four or five shots of vodka. Twenty minutes after reaching peak intoxication, their immune systems revved up. But when measured again, at two hours and five hours after peak intoxication, their immune systems had become less active than when sober. 
 
 The study by Majid Afshar, MD, MSCR, and colleagues is published online ahead of print in Alcohol, an international, peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 Binge drinking increases the risk of falls, burns, gunshot wounds, car accidents and other traumatic injuries. One-third of trauma patients have alcohol in their systems. 
 
 In addition to increasing the risk of traumatic injuries, binge drinking impairs the body’s ability to recover from such injuries. Previous studies have found, for example, that binge drinking delays wound healing, increases blood loss and makes patients more prone to pneumonia and infections from catheters. Binge drinkers also are more likely to die from traumatic injuries. The study led by Dr. Afshar illustrates another potentially harmful effect of binge drinking. 
 
 Drinkers generally understand how binge drinking alters behavior. “But there is less awareness of alcohol’s harmful effects in other areas, such as the immune system,” said Elizabeth Kovacs, PhD, a co-author of the study and director of Loyola’s Alcohol Research Program. 
 
 The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as drinking enough to reach or exceed a blood alcohol content of .08, the legal limit for driving. This typically occurs after four drinks for women or five drinks for men, consumed in two hours. One in six U.S. adults binge drinks about four times a month, and binge drinking is more common in young adults aged 18 to 34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
 Dr. Afshar led the study while at the University of Maryland, where he completed a fellowship before joining Loyola. The study included eight women and seven men with a median age of 27. Each volunteer drank enough shots of vodka – generally four or five – to meet the definition of binge drinking. (A 1.5 oz. shot of vodka is the alcohol equivalent of a five-ounce glass of wine or 12-ounce can of beer.) Dr. Afshar and colleagues took blood samples at 20 minutes, two hours and five hours after peak intoxication because these are times when intoxicated patients typically arrive at trauma centers for treatment of alcohol-related injuries. 
 
 The blood samples showed that 20 minutes after peak intoxication, there was increased immune system activity. There were higher levels of three types of white blood cells that are key components of the immune system: leukocytes, monocytes and natural killer cells. There also were increased levels of proteins called cytokines that signal the immune system to ramp up. 
 
 Two hours and five hours after peak intoxication, researchers found the opposite effect: fewer circulating monocytes and natural killer cells and higher levels of different types of cytokines that signal the immune system to become less active. 
 
 Dr. Afshar is planning a follow-up study of burn unit patients. He will compare patients who had alcohol in their system when they arrived with patients who were alcohol-free. He will measure immune system markers from each group, and compare their outcomes, including lung injury, organ failure and death. 
 
 Dr. Afshar is a pulmonologist, critical care physician and epidemiologist. He is an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and in the Department of Public Health Sciences of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. 
 
 Loyola’s nationally recognized Alcohol Research Program investigates such issues as how heavy drinking hinders the body's ability to recover from burns and trauma, how alcohol abuse damages bones, and whether teen binge drinking can increase the risk of mood disorders later in life. 
 
 Dr. Afshar’s study is titled “Acute immunomodulatory effects of binge alcohol ingestion.” In addition to Drs. Afshar and Kovacs, co-authors are Stephanie Richards; Dean Mann, MD; Alan Cross, MD; Gordon Smith, MPH; Giora Netzer, MD; and Jeffrey Hasday, MD, all of the University of Maryland. 
 
 The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and University of Maryland.
– If you're set on doing some heavy pouring to ring in the new year, you've probably already resigned yourself to a recovery hangover tomorrow. But binge drinking—defined by the CDC as having five or more drinks in two hours if you're a guy, four or more if you're a woman—can also "significantly disrupt" the immune system, CBS Philadelphia reports. In a small study published in the journal Alcohol, researchers gave either four or five 1.5-ounce vodka shots (depending on the subject's weight) to eight women and seven men with a median age of 27. At 20 minutes after "peak intoxication," immune system activity ramped up, but that effect was temporary. At the two-hour and five-hour marks, the immune system slowed, with blood samples showing a reduction in two types of white blood cells key to immunity; there was also an increase in proteins that tell the immune system to cool it. Choosing two hours and five hours after peak intoxication wasn't a haphazard decision: Those are the typical times when patients arrive in the ER or other trauma centers for alcohol-related injuries, according to the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the University of Maryland. The research is a new clue into the effects of binge drinking, which is already known to keep wounds from healing as quickly, increase blood loss, and up the risk of contracting an illness or an infection from catheters. The Loyola University researcher leading the team next wants to examine burn-unit patients with alcohol in their blood to check their immune systems and see if they're more at risk for lung injury, organ failure, or even dying compared with their teetotaling counterparts. (Heavy drinking may not always mean alcoholism.)