Even occasional binge drinking could harm your health

As the festive season draws closer, many people have started planning holiday activities that usually involve taking a lot of alcohol. Binge drinking can harm a person’s health even when only done occasionally.

Medically, binge drinking can also be related to addiction in the forms of dependence, harmful use of alcohol and alcohol or drug abuse. It is also described as the consumption of alcohol beyond or above your regular amounts taken in a short period of time.

You can know that you are binge drinking if the consumption of alcohol interrupts your daily routines, disrupts your physical and mental wellbeing in a short period of time or progressively worsens over time, causing organ and system dysfunction or other complications.

Binge drinking is when you drink enough alcohol to bring your blood-alcohol content up to the legal limit for driving.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 percent, or 0.08 grammes of alcohol per decilitre, or higher.

For a typical adult, this pattern of alcohol misuse corresponds to consuming four or more drinks for females, or five or more drinks for males in about two hours.

According to Dr Ignatius Asasira, a public health advocate at Makerere University, alcohol, like food, usually undergoes metabolism, which happens in the liver. In the case of binge drinking, you take in more than the usual amount of alcohol so the body fails to metabolise it. This in turn results in failure of the kidney to eliminate the toxins contained therein. The wastes are then deposited in the liver and the kidneys, causing cell injury.

How big is the problem?

Globally, harmful use of alcohol is the third largest contributor to global burden of disease after unsafe sex and childhood underweight. In Uganda, people aged between 18 to 38 years and those above 65 years engage in binge drinking more often.

In the rural setting, one in every three women is physically abused by their partner and the highest risk factor to this is associated with alcohol and drug abuse.

“About 62 percent of men and 32 percent of women are affected by alcohol use disorders such as dependence, addiction and alcohol abuse. By the end of March this year, about 40 percent of the mental health cases that were received at the Alcohol and Drug Unit at Butabika National Referral Hospital were linked to alcohol and drug abuse,” Dr Asasira says.

The signs and symptoms

Binge drinking affects people differently. The most important tell-tale sign is if your alcohol use is causing trouble for you at work, at home, at school, or the community.  Other signs include drinking early in the day and sometimes on an empty stomach, drinking more than you planned, drinking more often than usual, needing more alcohol to get the same effect such as sleep, feeling defensive about your drinking, suffering blackouts and gaps in your memory after drinking, among others.

Complications

Dr Henry Sekyanzi, a general practitioner at Mulago National Referral Hospital, says the short term effects of binge drinking can include sleepiness, dehydration, blackouts, irregular heartbeat, hypertension, low blood sugar, acute inflammation of the pancreas, stomach and liver, as well as depression of the gag reflex which can cause one to choke on their vomit.

The psychoactive substance is associated with more than 200 disease conditions and does not only affect the individual but the family and community at large according to Dr Asasira. The higher the consumption, the greater the impairments and the subsequent deadly consequences such as burns, drowning, falling and accidents

“Binge drinking is not only expensive but can be deadly since alcohol affects virtually all tissues in the body. It can cause memory problems and mental health problems including psychosis, anxiety, mood swings, depression, shorter attention span, and a deficit in decision making both at home and your workplace,” he says.

Vision

Alcohol dependence also impairs one’s hearing and reduces the quality of their vision. It is also associated with poor motor control and slower reaction times, which could result in injuries and fractures from accidents and falls.

People who drink heavily, especially on an empty stomach usually develop peptic ulcers and also increase their risk of becoming obese explained by increased body mass index (developing a beer belly).

With too much alcohol consumption, one gets too much lipid accumulation which causes sweating, fatigue, heart-related conditions, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and faetal alcohol syndrome for women who drink when they are pregnant.

“Alcohol misuse, including repeated episodes of binge drinking, over time contributes to liver damage and other chronic diseases. It also increases the risk of several types of cancer including head and neck, esophageal, liver, breast, and colorectal cancers,” Dr Sekyanzi says.

Alcohol addicts often develop swollen legs as a result of the heart and liver starting to fail, leading to fluid accumulation in the lower limbs. Alcohol can also be fatal, especially if one gets alcohol poisoning, which can lead to vomiting, seizures, a coma, and death.

Within the community, Dr Asasira remarks, binge drinking increases the likelihood of unsafe sexual behaviour.

“People who binge drink have risky sexual behaviours and are at the risk of getting sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and other sexually transmitted disease (STD) as well as unplanned pregnancies,” he adds.

Excessive consumption of alcohol also causes miscarriages, preterm births or stillbirth in pregnant women, or foetal alcohol spectrum disorders in their babies.

Caution

Note that according to the National Alcohol Control Programme in Uganda, a minor is someone below the age of 21 because according to research, they can neither make proper decisions involving alcohol nor handle its side effects.

Many people who drink think that they are not addicted and are safe but with time, alcohol will affect your body. It is also important to know that it is not a crime to drink alcohol in Uganda if you are not a minor, but its after-effects are very dangerous.

How to prevent binge drinking

● To avoid getting peptic ulcers, do not drink alcohol on an empty stomach.

● Eat some food while you drink. This will help you drink more slowly.

● Alternate alcoholic drinks with nonalcoholic ones, especially water.

● Choose to have alcohol free days to help you detoxify.

● Have a limit of how much you take in a given period of time. Spread the drinks throughout the week other than having to drink too much in one go. If you drink, experts recommend an average of no more than one drink per day for women and two for men.

● Regular exercise remarkably decrease one’s cravings for sugar and alcohol according to Dr Ignatius Asasira, a public health advocate at Makerere University. He, therefore, recommends exercising regularly in order to prevent binge drinking.

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