How bad does drinking affect my health?

Question

I am 23 and in decent shape. When I go out and drink with friends it is not uncommon for me to drink 15-20 beers with anywhere from 5-10 shots of hard liquor. I don't smoke except when I drink and usually have no problem smoking a whole pack in one night if I'm drinking hard. As expected, I wake up the next day feeling like **** and usually either drink some more or tough it out for the day while trying to rehydrate.

I go out and drink like this once or twice a week.

My question is, how bad is this really for my health? I mean I'm not drinking or smoking every single day so it can't be that bad, right? I still work out 3-4 times a week.

Thanks

Answer 1

You are what is known as a binge drinker...someone who drinks heavily a day or two a week but doesn't drink the rest of the week. Many college students are binge drinkers...they "party" to excess on weekends but are clean all week.

You are really fooling yourself if you think you are not harming your health. Some examples of how you are hurting yourself short term are:
1. drinking and driving
2. hangover
3. alcohol poisoning
4. aggressive behavior
5. respiratory arrest
6. choking on your own vomit
7. risking injury to self from falling
8. impotence

Long term effects:
brain damage (depression, anxiety, poor cognitive thinking)
liver damage (fatty liver, cirrhosis, etc)
heart disease (enlarged heart, high blood pressure, etc)
digestive issues
sexual issues

Also, ten hours after you "sober up", you will still have limited reaction times, ability to reason and control of movements.

As for smoking, even doing it only when drinking still leaves you vulnerable for all the smoking-related issues:
lung disease
cancer
increased blood pressure
difficulty breathing
low sperm count
poor circulation

Overindulging only a few days a week is still overindulging and is still harmful to your body. Please feel free to research this if you want to verify the information I have provided.