Six people die each day of alcohol poisoning and most are middle-aged white men, CDC

[See the Light]

Six people die each day of alcohol poisoning and most are middle-aged white men, CDC reports

These aren't happy stats in the news today....I intend to make it at least 1 less.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/01/06/cdc-six-people-die-each-day-of-alcohol-poisoning-and-most-are-middle-aged-white-men/

[Resolve]

STL - I saw this earlier today too and found it eye-opening and the type of article I either used to ignore or find a way to justify that it wasn't me they were referring to. Interesting to note was the statement that "Most binge drinkers are not addicted to or dependent on alcohol, however". I suppose if you only binged once in awhile that may be true, but how many of the 38 million drinkers that binge four times a month wouldn't define this as a problem?

Thanks for posting, good awareness.

[TJAF]

WOW:

"A binge is defined as five drinks for a man or four for a woman in about two or three hours. A drink can be 12 ounces of beer, eight ounces of malt liquor, five ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. Moderate drinking is considered as many as one per day for women and two for men." Considering I drank anywhere from 12 to 16 units a night, (in about 5 hours) I was a binging fool everyday of the year, for year after year. How am I alive!

[Turnagain]

That's a great find - STL. This kind of information is essential to share. My climb out of the pit of addiction came when I fully understood and accepted the facts about alcohol's insidious cellular impact on every system - every time - from the top of my head down to my toes.

I think a lot of folks binge drink on the weekend and think that they're not 'alcoholics' because they don't 'have' to drink everyday. I was one of those for a long time. It wasn't until I became a daily binge drinker that I finally understood I was addicted. And in retrospect, I now see how I was addicted all those years (decades - really) even when I was "just" a weekend warrior - it's just that the time between the binges was longer - that's all.

The truth is - there is NO safe amount of alcohol to consume. None. Even so-called 'moderate' amounts. Whether you are addicted (or not- yet) Alcohol is a toxic, cancer-causing drug.

Here's a user-friendly summary of the latest findings about cancer and alcohol from the World Health Organization:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824237

STL - it is really great to see how well you are healing! I can guarantee that the longer you are free of addiction...the better - and easier - EVERYTHING gets. Good to also 'see' you TJAF - I also drank like you and gotta say I am VERY grateful we are both here today! Resolve...glad to see you here, too. How wonderful to know at least 3 more guys who won't be a part of those horrifying statistics!

[Byrdlady]

I started out by binging on weekends, too, and pretty soon both ends met in the middle and I was binging every single day! What a life....what a DEATH??? Nobody said this was going to be easy, they just said it would be worth it, and so far, THEY are right! Thank you for this article, it's an eye opener. Byrdie

[MossRose]

STL - I heard this on the news yesterday while driving to work, and was shocked. It wasn't just the amount of deaths that caught my attention, although appalling, it was the age of the drinkers that was so surprising. I guess I assumed at the beginning of the broadcast that they were talking about young people who overindulged. I immediately thought of college campuses, binge drinking, etc. But no, they were talking about someone much like me - a middle-aged alcoholic whose body could no longer tolerate the abuse. How sad. I feel so very lucky tonight.