Put the Bottle Down - Because You're a Girl

Is Alcohol Really More Dangerous To Women Than Men?

Oct 22, 2009

Women are coming increasingly under fire for their drinking habits. Are we the rowdy gender? Or is there some medical truth behind leaving the hard stuff to the boys?

Recent commercials and reports seem to concentrate on women rather than men when it comes to going out partying or even staying in with a bottle or two.

A recent report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood than men after drinking the same amount.

NIAAA Director Enoch Gordis, MD, said, "We know that some of this risk is due to gender differences in metabolism; it also could quite possibly be due to gender-related differences in chemistry, in genetic risk factors, or to entirely different factors that are currently unknown."

Research

Women encounter more effects than men in a range of diseases, including liver and heart disease. Women are more likely to develop alcoholic hepatitis and although we have a 60 percent lower lifetime consumption of alcohol than men, research shows we have a comparable rate of suffering from alcohol associated heart muscle disease.

A British study of more than 150,000 women around the world has concluded that as little as one drink per day can increase the risk of breast cancer by seven percent, as reported in the British Journal of Cancer. Researchers estimate alcohol accounts for about four percent of breast cancer cases around the globe. This may sound like a small amount, but nothing can change if women are not educated on the added dangers of that extra drink.

Raising The Risk

The researchers were forced to admit they are unaware exactly how alcohol raises the risk of breast cancer, but they construe that drinking alters the levels of estrogen, the female hormone know to drive the growth of human cancer cells.

"We found that drinking, but not smoking, increases the risk of breast cancer," said Sir Richard Doll, co-author of the report. "This report is giving us a definitive answer."

"The alcohol research field has begun to recognise the importance of understanding gender differences in how alcohol is used, in the consequences of alcohol use, and in the development of alcohol dependence," said Dr. Gordis.

"The more science can tell us about gender-related aspects of alcohol-related problems, not only what they are but why, the better job we will be able to do to be able to prevent and treat those problems in all populations."

All very much food for thought girls - so how about the next time that guy offers you your tenth drink of the night, you tell him he can buy one for himself. Alcohol abuse is growing rapidly and with these facts in mind we can feel healthier, and look classier.

The copyright of the article Put the Bottle Down - Because You're a Girl in Women’s Health is owned by Gemma Houlding. Permission to republish Put the Bottle Down - Because You're a Girl in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.