| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
Binge and purge: Alcohol poisoning kills 6 a day
Health News
Like the great Ozzy Osbourne once sang, “wine is fine but liquor is quicker.” This is what the six people who die every day of alcohol poisoning from binge drinking in the United States are finding out. The CDC study – released on Tuesday – that made this startling discovery also found that the average of 2,221 casualties a year are not necessarily who one would expect. “Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is a lot of binge drinking going on by people who are post college-age,” study co-author Robert Brewer told the press. “We were surprised that the majority of these deaths are not among college students, whom we typically associate with binge drinking,” CDC deputy principal director Illeana Arias added. “These are preventable deaths … Alcohol poisoning is killing people across the lifespan but particularly men in the prime of their lives.”
As it turns out, three in every four people who died between the 2010-2012 period that the study covered were white males aged 35-64, while only 5.1% were aged 15-24; i.e., were teenagers or college students. Moreover, less than a third of the deceased were considered alcoholics. On the other hand, popular prejudice was actually confirmed in the fact that American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest rate of alcohol poisoning deaths per million people. Additionally, the Great Plains, the West (including New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, and Oregon), and New England were the regions with highest death rates. “Living in geographically isolated rural areas might increase the likelihood that a person with alcohol poisoning will not be found before death or that timely emergency medical services will not be available,” the study’s authors wrote.
Binge drinking is “strongly influenced by state and local laws governing the price and availability of alcohol, as well as other cultural and religious factors,” the study said. “That’s one of the reasons why we think alcohol-poisoning deaths are such an important indicator of the work we need to do to prevent binge drinking,” Brewer said. “If we could eliminate binge drinking, we would dramatically reduce the risk of alcohol poisoning.” According to Arias, better guidelines and protocols are needed to prevent binge drinking. “Alcohol poisoning deaths are a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers of drinking too much alcohol,” she said. “These are preventable deaths … Alcohol poisoning is killing people across the lifespan but particularly men in the prime of their lives.”
Alcohol poisoning occurs when a person ingests more alcohol than the liver can filter, leading to high concentrations of alcohol in the blood, and potentially causing breathing and heart rate problems, as well as other complications that can result in coma or death. And there is always the possibility of passing out and choking n your own vomit, the way of John Bonham and Bon Scott. And it doesn’t even have to be your own vomit, as was the case of Eric ‘Stumpy Joe’ Childs – though they can’t actually prove whose vomit it was; you can’t really dust for vomit.
Alcohol poisoning is a common consequence of binge drinking, which the CDC defines as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in a span of two or three hours, or a level of 0.08% blood alcohol. “Once one gets above that level of consumption, the risk of death from alcohol poisoning really goes up,” Brewer said. Worse still, previous research by the agency found that the majority of the 38 million-plus Americans who are binge drinkers by their own admission reported drinking approximately 8 drinks in two or three hours about four times a month. In addition to the loss of human life, alcohol-related deaths cost the U.S. about $223.5 billion in lost workplace productivity and accidents.
Related Read:
Binge drinking most likely to kill middle-aged Americans, CDC says.
Alcohol poisoning kills 6 people a day.
Deadly Drink: Alcohol kills six americans a Day.
The post Binge and purge: Alcohol poisoning kills 6 a day appeared first on Health-News.com.
Source: http://www.health-news.com/medical-news/binge-purge-alcohol-poisoning-kills-6-day
