How Easier Women Get Drunk
Category : Women Health, Women Lifestyle
A woman’s addiction to alcohol, pills and other narcotics has long been a wink-wink topic – one that garners a few smirks, rarely taken seriously. The focus has always been on men, who traditionally have had higher rates of substance abuse.
There have been plenty of different studies dealing with the abuse of these substances; however the subject hasn???t been viewed from the point of gender. Women’s addiction to alcohol, pills and other narcotics is rapidly approaching the “standards” of men, who traditionally have had higher rates of substance abuse. According to a 10-year research effort from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, more than 20 million girls and women in the United States abuse drugs and alcohol and 30 million more are addicted to cigarettes.
According to the study, which is published in a book called Women Under the Influence, similar biological factors also increase the risk of other drugs. The study also shows that due to a combination of physiological and psychological factors women become addicted more easily than men, in order to lose weight, relieve stress or boredom, improve their mood, reduce sexual inhibitions, self-medicate depression, and increase confidence.
The study documents how women, pound-for-pound, not only get more drunk or higher faster then men, but also become addicted more easily.
Part of the problem is that women generally get intoxicated more easily than men. “The impact of one drink on a girl is roughly equivalent to the impact of two drinks on a boy, so girls who are keeping up with the boys are actually subjecting themselves to far worse consequences,” said Susan Foster, director of policy research at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
According to Foster, each single drink hits a woman like a double. A woman’s body contains less water and more fatty tissue ??? which increases alcohol absorption ??? compared to a male body. And women have a lower activity level of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which breaks down alcohol. “When it comes to chemical dependency, a lot of people go unreported because of the issue of denial,” says Barry Kerner, physician in chief at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Conn., which specializes in psychiatric illnesses and addictive disorders, says twincities.com.
The findings are the first to show gender differences in the effect alcohol has on brain “shrinkage” that is common in all long-time heavy drinkers or alcoholics. Women who drink to excess experience more brain damage and sooner than males who drink the same amount and may experience even more severe long-term effects than men, according to two new research studies.
Previous studies have shown that women are also more prone to liver and heart damage than male alcoholics.
Drinking also may be associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. After reviewing epidemiological data on alcohol consumption and the incidence of breast cancer, Longnecker and colleagues reported that risk increases when a woman consumes 1 ounce or more of absolute alcohol daily. Increased risk appears to be related directly to the effects of alcohol.
Menstrual disorders (e.g., painful menstruation, heavy flow, premenstrual discomfort, and irregular or absent cycles) have been associated with chronic heavy drinking. These disorders can have adverse effects on fertility. Further, continued drinking may lead to early menopause.
I think the government should considering their regulation as The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their minimum-age for purchase and public possession of alcohol to 21. States that did not comply faced a reduction in highway funds. As a result, the U.S. is considered to have a uniform drinking age of 21, the strictest in the Western world. Most other countries with minimum drinking ages set the limit at 18. Should the United States lower the legal drinking age?
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