[Closed] Horizon binge drinking

I've always reckoned hangovers often decide whether you drink much after 25.

As in my experience, if they start to decimate you, there's no real way to continue drinking a bottle of Vodka every Friday. If you can handle them,good luck.

Yes, frightening to see the graphs at the end. I spent quite a few years of my youth drinking waaaaaaay too much and shudder to think on the damage I could have done.. Recently though not drinking much (young kids) but seeing a possibility of getting more freedom as they get older, Mrs dt's and I were thinking we should consider our drinking habits.

If you're getting the DTs you should probably cut down a bit, yes.

I deliberately didn't watch it.
Ignorance is bliss.

Kinda wish I hadn't watched i want to enjoy my weekend binge guilt free

Yes I saw, it. No. I'm on my second glass of wine.

Not seen it yet. So whats the gist. Keep drinking all week 😆

I've got some beers in to build up the courage to watch it tonight on i-player.

Does it conclude that binge drinking is not very good for you by any chance?

Blobby, yes it turns out it's quite bad. But so is having the daily max. As Mrs Dt's predicted, moderation.

Well obviously it's just best to stay pissed all the time, shirley??

That's my philosophy anyway.

I bet my granny can't remember the last time she went without a couple of gin and tonics and she's had a cracking innings.

That's scientific enough for me. *cracks open a beer*

Recently decided to go T total, i didn't drink at home, so the only thing to change is we don't go to the pub 1-2x a week. Wifey doesn't drink, so she's not fussed.

The main reason why i decided to give up was the empty calories beer contains and the splitting headache after going out with my mate.

Was discussing this in the pub last night with my cycling buddy who is a gastro-enterologist so knows a bit about the liver. I don't know what the point of the TV programme was but my buddy reckoned that binge drinking is marginally less destructive to the liver than drinking every day because at least the liver gets a chance to recover between sessions. Is that what the programme was saying?

Not really as the period needed to get the liver function back to healthy is longer than a week. (for the binging doctor on the show).

The gist is that 21 units is far too much as it is an amount that will get sample subjects into liver trouble. The binging also had other negative effects such as leaking intestinal stuff into your blood, increased risk of stroke/heart stuff etc.

Neither were ok, binging was worse.

Genuine questions, what is considered "binging"? I don't drink Monday to Thursday, but will normally have 1/2 a bottle of wine on a Friday night, a 3 or 4 pints Saturday and occasionally a couple of pints on Sunday.

I'm never really sure if this is considered binging, normal, lots or all of the above.

Binging is 8 units, so 3pints of decent beer or 2 large glasses of wine

Oh. Oh dear.

It showed that binging and drinking the recommended daily amount daily had very similar effects on the liver. What the binging was far worse for was damaging the intestinal lining allowing bacteria to enter the blood.

There was also some testing on mice that showed a small amount of daily alcohol was better for the blood vessels, being tee total was slightly worse, but binge drinking was the worst by a long way. This hadn't been tested in humans.

The binge drinking in the show was well beyond the guideline definition of binge drinking.

The binge-doc was downing 21 units in a day == 10 pints.

No way could I manage that. However I do fall into the binge category as I drink Fri/Sat/Sun and then nothing Mon-Thu.

Fri == 4-5 pints
Sat == 3 pints
Sun == 0-2 pints

So typically I'd drink 10 pints over three days which ain't great either.

I think I'll be fine.
Down the pub once a month 4/5 pints
Two bottles of nice beer at the weekends.

My days of getting blootered 3 days a week are long gone.

What the binging was far worse for was damaging the intestinal lining allowing bacteria to enter the blood.

What does this cause then?

Any programme/news piece on booze I've seen (bar the "a glass of red wine a day keeps Italians healthy") seems to be pure scaremongering.

The 21/14 unit-per-week guidelines were literally made up.

The 21/14 unit-per-week guidelines were literally made up.

Yes, and one of the programs conclusions seemed to be that, for the two test subjects concerned, 21 units a week was probably too high.

(It may not be too high for everybody though)

[i]The 21/14 unit-per-week guidelines were literally made up.[/i]

and according to recent research appear to be too much.

It basically said the by-product that your body makes when dealing with Alcohol is surprisingly toxic (way more so than was first thought) and your body reacts in the same way to this as if being attacked by virus, this puts quite a lot of stress on your body.

small amounts are good, too much (but way less than was originally thought) will very quickly have a deleterious effect.

What does this cause then?

What does this cause then?

Well that's something they didn't explain, beyond all the doctors involved seeming to think it was bad.

And I have to admit that several times they used the term "inflammation" in a way that food intolerance pretend experts do.

[i]What does this cause then?[/i]

errrr, septicemia?

http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/stories/study-abstaining-from-alcohol-significantly-shortens-life

nickc - Member

The 21/14 unit-per-week guidelines were literally made up.

and according to recent research appear to be too much.

It basically said the by-product that your body makes when dealing with Alcohol is surprisingly toxic (way more so than was first thought) and your body reacts in the same way to this as if being attacked by virus, this puts quite a lot of stress on your body.

small amounts are good, too much (but way less than was originally thought) will very quickly have a deleterious effect.

s

lowoldman - Member

What does this cause then?

Simplistically, you get attacked by your own bacteria. Infections.

So what? Do people that drink these amounts die early? Suffer lots of ill health?

If there was a genuine link then we'd know about it, it seems like scare mongering to me.

[i]it seems like scare mongering to me.[/i]

Or just being more informed, your choice really.

🙄

One of the conclusions of the programme was that drinking upsets the balance of bacteria in your gut (sometimes termed 'gut flora'). This can lead to compromised immune responses and 'feeling a bit under the weather'.

It was Horizon, so really well done, with lots of disclaimers. It wasn't the Daily Mail or Bella. I didn't detect any left-wing bias though there must have been a lot as it was the BBC.

No scaremongering at all really. Even the doctors seemed surprised by some of the results.

It was truly sobering for me as an occasional drinker now ( reformed borderiline alcoholic) and more importantly such a surprise to the two liver specialists that they have gone on to do a much larger study of more subjects!
Basically watch it, it may stop you from de eloping a nasty disease/death prematurely!
No more whisky chasers......

Binging is 8 units, so 3pints of decent beer or 2 large glasses of wine

Fantastic. I was worrying prematurely that i was missing out on a traditional british pastime. No I can confirm that I'm an occasional binge drinker too. Happy days!!

Nico - Member

One of the conclusions of the programme was that drinking upsets the balance of bacteria in your gut (sometimes termed 'gut flora'). This can lead to compromised immune responses and 'feeling a bit under the weather'.

Not quite, they said that the byproduct of breaking down the alcohol damaged the stomach lining allowing gut bacteria to escape into the body.

If you stomach lining was was compromised then I would have thought you'd have a pretty big problem on your hands - i.e. stomach acid would not be contained!!

The vast majority of microbes present in the gut are found in the intestines. Some suggest that alcohol consumption can lead to or exacerbate a condition called 'leaky gut' which is where the lining of the intestines becomes damaged, allowing all sorts of things into the blood stream that should not be there. Inflammation and many other problems will likely follow as you body will try to deal with these foreign invaders (this is often how food intolerances can develop). If this condition persists and is not allowed to heal (i.e. if you're getting smashed repeatedly and not eating properly) then you're going to end up in a situation of chronic stress/inflammation and I would say that it's only a matter of time before more problems arise.

I haven't watched this program but it sounds very interesting. I think in the coming years we will be seeing a great many more things being linked to gut flora. The science is currently only in its infancy but once we start to delve a little deeper I reckon it will prove to be a very fruitful avenue of exploration... Personally I believe that just about everything has its roots in the gut.

Jemz, is that a gut feeling?

Worst bit I thought was when the bearded guy was discussing the gut and poisoning and he said that he thought he would of "recovered after six days" the doc replied with "no, one to two months to recover" 😯
So if you binge every weekend or even fortnight you are in a constant downward spiral

Crickey, with the panic around this subject you'd have thought binge drinking is something that is a new phenomenon and it hasn't been going on since the middle ages! I didn't watch the programme on purpose because I could guess its conclusions - guess what - binge drinking is bad. No shit Sherlock. The only difference between binge drinking that has been going on for centuries and the binge drinking that is going on now, is that people generally are drinking stronger and shittier drinks containing more chemical additives that are probably worse for you than the alcohol. That people are doing it more frequently and from a younger age and for longer as they tend to get married and settled down later in life. And that with more CCTV around our town and city centres we're seeing more images of pissed up people behaving badly, so shock tactics play a part. What things like this completely ignore are the other influencing factors like, for example, peoples individual constitutions. Half my family are Scottish and practically raging alcoholics (not intending to sterotype) and they tend to live well into their 80's or early 90's and die from non-alcohol related causes. Clearly there is something going on there that makes them genetically more tolerant to alcohol than others. Everything in moderation and occasionally somethings in excess and you can't go wrong.

I dont think any chemical additives in booze are more toxic than alcohol
Ive never had a raging hangover from haribo

I didn't watch the programme on purpose because I could guess its conclusions - guess what - binge drinking is bad