It's bad for your body to drink too much. From 2015 to 2019, drinking too much alcohol cut the lives of more than 140,000 people in the United States by an average of 26 years. This is called 3.6 million years of potential life lost (YPLL). Additionally, excessive drinking contributed to one in five deaths among people between the ages of 20 and 49. 2 In 2010, it was predicted that drinking too much booze would cost the economy $249 billion, or $2.05 a drink.
What kind of drink is that?
- 8 ounces of malt liquor (7% alcohol content).
- 5 ounces of wine with 12% alcohol.
- 1.5 ounces of 80-proof (40% alcohol content) distilled spirits or spirits (e.g., gin, rum, vodka, whisky). 4
People who are pregnant or younger than 21 years old and drink too much are considered excessive drinkers.
- Binge drinking, which is the most common form of drinking too much, means having four or more drinks in one sitting for women and five or more drinks in one sitting for men.
- Drinking a lot is known as heavy drinking.
15 or more drinks a week for men.
Most people who drink too much are not drinkers or hooked on booze. 5 What does
What is moderate drinking?
Some people should not drink booze, such as those who are:
- Less than 21 years old.
- Either pregnant or likely to be pregnant.
- driving, making plans to drive, or doing other things that need skill, balance, and awareness.
- Taking some prescription or over-the-counter drugs that might not work well with drinking.
- going through certain physical problems.
- They are trying to get sober or can't control how much they drink.
Health Risks in the Short Term
Too much alcohol use has instant effects that raise the risk of many health problems that are bad for you. These are most often caused by drinking too much and include the following:
- Injuries, like those that happen in car accidents, jumps, drownings, and burns. Violence, such as murder, suicide, sexual attack, and violence between close partners.