1,825 college students between the ages of 18-24 die from alcohol related unintentional injuries.
Drinking in college has become such a norm that is it almost assumed that everyone in college drinks heavily at every chance they have. While not everyone in college drinks heavily, or at all, there are still many college students who do drink alcohol.
Binge drinking is a major cause of alcohol poisoning. Binge drinking is a pattern of heavy drinking when a male rapidly consumes five or more alcoholic drinks within two hours, or a female consumes at least four drinks within two hours. The CDC report on binge drinking said that 113 people between the ages of 15 and 24 die every year from alcohol poisoning. If you don't die from alcohol poisoning, you will most likely have to have your stomach pumped. You can consume a fatal dose of alcohol before passing out. Even when you're unconscious or you've stopped drinking, alcohol continues to be released from your stomach and intestines into your bloodstream, and the level of alcohol in your body continues to rise.
Excess levels of alcohol can cause liver problems. Yes, it may seem funny at the time to carry around a flask saying, "Fuck my liver," but it probably won't seem as funny anymore when you have a loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever or jaundice. It probably won't seem funny anymore when you develop alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis and need a liver transplant.
The brain is not fully developed until age 25 so any alcohol consumption prior to this age can cause some irreversible brain damage such as hepatic encephalopathy or wet brain. Hepatic encephalopathy is the loss of brain function when a damaged liver doesn't remove toxins from the blood. Wet brain is another way of describing a condition called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This is a type of dementia that people going through end stage alcoholism might have to deal with.
I am not telling you to stop drinking, but I ask that you drink in moderation and be cautious of these things the next time you decide to drink.
For more information please visit the following sources:
https://www.niaaa.nih/gov/alcohol-health/overview-...
https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/collegefac...
