Binge Drinking by Young People Has Long-Term Health Consequences

Young adults and adolescents who engage in binge drinking might think that it is safe, but according to a recent press release, researchers have determined that they can suffer long-term consequences caused by this behavior.

Youth and adolescents who binge drink have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. These health risks stay with a person for life, regardless of whether or not they decreased how much alcohol they consumed, or even stopped drinking entirely, as they aged.

People who begin drinking at an older age, and consume more moderate amounts of alcohol do not have the same increased risk. Researchers from the Western New York Health Study conducted this study between 1996 and 2001.

They speculate that when younger people engage in binge drinking, it affects their early health even though they are unaware of the biological changes that binge drinking causes. Additionally, many of the people who begin binge drinking at younger ages continue to engage in this practice, or other harmful cardio-metabolic health practices, for many years.

Researchers found two different patterns of lifetime drinking for those who were regular alcohol consumers. Some people drank the most when they were young, drinking alcholol on a regular basis and in large quantities. They later reduced the amount of alcohol that they drank by a large amount.

Other people consumed alcohol at a more stable rate. That is, they consumed moderate amounts of alcohol during their lifetime at an even pace over their lifetime.

They determined that people who were the heavy drinkers at an early age were typically 10 years younger than those who consumed a more limited amount of alcohol over their lifetime, beginning at an older age.

"To fully understand the effect of alcohol consumption on health, you need to consider lifetime drinking patterns. Early initiation of alcohol drinking and heavy drinking in adolescence and early adulthood seem to be associated with a number of adverse health effects collectively known as the metabolic syndrome," said Dr. Marcia Russell of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation's Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California.

Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of conditions that are all related. When someone has metabolic syndrome, they are usually at a higher risk of developing things like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke.

About the study
Researchers based this report upon the findings from over 2,800 people who had reportedly been a regular drinker at some point in their life. The participants were tested for several different components that compromise metabolic syndrome, including obesity, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, high fasting glucose, and elevated blood pressure.

This study is being published in the January 2008 edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Sources:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535492/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome