What is binge drinking in Ontario?

Binge drinking is very common in the society we live in today. It is a habit that is fast becoming an epidemic to people of all age groups. The practice is slowly becoming more popular than the well known 'social drinking'.  It is taking of alcoholic beverages with the aim of getting high or intoxicated quickly.

It is indeed very sad that most people are not aware of the health risks associated with the practice. Heavy and regular binge drinkers expose themselves to the risks of gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, immune and psychiatric disorders. Women who continue with the practice even during pregnancy expose their unborn child to fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

It has been observed that adolescents with the habit of binge drinking show smaller hippocampus brain region after several years. They develop impaired working memory and delayed auditory and verbal memory. What they may not know is that these effects may be permanent.

Binge drinkers are exposed to the risk of suffering a stroke or sudden death ten times more than non binge drinkers. This is because the practice has negative effects on metabolism, blood coagulation, lipid profile and blood pressure.

It is official that the ultimate harm caused by binge drinking is too much to be ignored. Health care professionals and centers for disease control have highly condemned the practice as a dangerous and fatal one. After several years of regular binge drinking those who escape death may suffer from cognitive impairments or irreversible brain damage.

It is hence recommendable to keep off the practice, quit the practice or look for professional help if you are addicted. Counseling sessions, emphasis on a patient’s personal responsibility to value his/her health, setting rules and future targets to be achieved are just some of the easy steps taken to divert from the alcohol abuse.

^{Reference: http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/alcohol/binge_drink.html}