Dear Dr. Jeff: Is moderate drinking safe? L.C.
Dear L.C.: That may be a complicated question. It depends on what you mean by moderate!
For moderate drinking to be safe, you need to drink a safe amount and do so at a safe rate. To understand what this means, you need to know the basics of alcohol metabolism and blood alcohol content (BAC).
The alcohol content of one shot of 80-proof liquor is the same as that of a 12-ounce bottle of beer and the same as that of a five-ounce glass of wine. On average, our bodies need about one hour to metabolize each drink.
Take a look at the BAC tables (available on the web at http://orient.bowdoin.edu). Let's say you're a 140-pound woman. If you drink two beers over two hours, you'll raise your BAC to 0.045, and you'll likely experience relatively mild effects on your higher functions. If you drink four beers over two hours, you'll end up with a BAC of 0.115. That might leave you in a stage of "euphoria," or, more likely, depending on your own particular metabolism and neurophysiology, in the more compromised state of "excitement."
"Excitement," here, is only meant neurologically. When you're "neurologically excited," you become uncoordinated, disoriented, and lose your ability to think critically. You can't react quickly, and you may not be able to remember clearly what's happening to you. So at this point, for instance, you're unlikely to be able to consent meaningfully to sex.
Now if you do shots instead of beer, say eight shots over those same two hours, you'll end up with a BAC of 0.245, which would definitely launch you into a state of "confusion," and probably bring you close to "stupor." Two additional shots, over that same period of time, might put you into a coma.
Drinking moderately involves more than just avoiding alcohol poisoning. The national statistics are impressive.
Drinking contributes to 500,000 injuries and 1,400 deaths on college campuses each year. Those are huge numbers. Meningitis, for instance, which continues to attract a great deal of attention as a student health risk, affects about 100 college students nationally each year, and, very fortunately, kills fewer than ten.
The 1,400 deaths are mainly caused by motor vehicle accidents. A small number are due to falls and drownings. Homicides and suicides are not included in these numbers, even if alcohol-related.
Each year 400,000 college students have unprotected sex because of drinking.
Drinking contributes to 70,000 reported cases of sexual assault or date rape.
Up to 90 percent of sexual assaults on college campuses involve the use or abuse of alcohol.
These numbers are so staggering that they may seem difficult to relate to our own individual experiences and behaviors. Statistics are hard to apply to individuals. And yet, these data represent a summary of a very large number of actual individual experiences and behaviors, and in the aggregate, raise very challenging concerns about the safety of drinking on college campuses.
What does this all mean for each of us? For some of us, it means that it's just not worth it to drink at all. For a significant and growing number of students, that seems to be the right approach.
For those of us who choose to drink, it means we need to drink responsibly and safely. That means doing our part to protect ourselves and our friends. It means pacing ourselves and knowing our BAC limits. It means not drinking alone and whatever else we may do, never, ever drinking and driving.
To your health!
Jeff Benson, M.D.
Dudley Coe Health Center