We aren’t talking about having a hangover the next day. You may have that when you binge drink, defined as 4 drinks for women and 5 drinks for men in 2 hours or less. But binge drinking also depresses your immune system.
We know that binge drinking increases the risk of falls, burns, gunshot wounds, car accidents and other serious injuries. The newer research findings show why binge drinking impairs the body’s ability to recover from these injuries. Researchers showed that within 2 to 5 hours of peak intoxication the immune system became less active. These results helped to confirm why previous studies showed binge drinking delays wound healing, increases blood loss, and puts patients at higher risks for pneumonia and infections. People who binge drink and are injured are more likely to die than people who are sober when injured because their naturally ability to heal is compromised.
It is estimated that 1 in 6 US adults binge drinks 4 times a month and this behavior is most common in those 18 to 34 years old.
