I rarely consume alcohol – did the whole typical thing of drinking heavily on the weekends during college but never allowed myself to drink outside of parties on the weekend. I know this likely caused some long term damage and have changed my ways significantly since.
I’d say maybe 2 or 3 times a year, I’ll attend an event where it’s almost an expectation to binge drink. Festivals, bachelor parties, etc. I never consume even a sip of alcohol outside of these rare occasions; however, it isn’t completely out of the question for me to consume 10+ standard drinks 2-4 days in a row when I do go to these events.
I just had a 3 day trip like this, and I guess the hangover anxiety is really hitting me today – 2 days after getting back. I’m low key freaking out wondering what long term damage I managed to do to my body this past weekend.
I feel like this pattern of consumption is somewhat atypical in our culture. Seems like there are tons of people that never touch an alcoholic beverage and then tons of people that will drink at least a few almost daily and sometimes get very drunk on the weekends.
Obviously, the latter camp is going to have long term negative health effects including cancer, cirrhosis, etc but can one or two “benders” a year lead to the same result?
TL;DR Can heavy alcohol consumption for a few days total in a year cause any bad long term health effects?
Comments
Fine.
It’s all about long term trends.
The human body is remarkably resilient.
Your short term weekend will be fine. Be more wary of addiction and repetitive trends.
*not a doctor, but a drinker.
Honestly it’s probably the come down that’s giving you the anxiety. I mean it’s not “good” for you but what you’re describing is pretty typical young male behavior. Just don’t keep it up until middle-age, you’ll be fine.
Lets just say far worse than 3-5 drinks per week or 1-2 a day
You are pummeling your internal organs.
Source: multiple week inpatient rehab in 2015. Or was it 14. Oh well
Funny how it went from “one” to “2 or 3” . And then it becomes not just one night out bender, its a 2-4 day weekend of binge drinking.
So… no its not “good for you”. And of course there are benders and there are benders.
YEs a single one of what you call benders could result in some bad shit happening to your brain, purely from the alcohol poisoning. I mean, sure…. the odds are probably not the highest, but hospitals have kids in comas that they’ll never come out of or have brain damage from excessive alcohol consumption. It does happen. Also since you don’t exactly have great willpower/inhibitions during these binges, you might likely engage in other activities that could mess up your life in all sorts of wonderful ways.
Other mind altering substances that could mess you up (especially when combined with alcohol)
dangerous physical behavior. e.g. Drunk driving to “hold my beer…” type things to “Fuck you” “no Fuck You!” “no FUCK YOU” *escalates into a fight with someone who is soberer/bigger/better fighter/all 3 in which you get jacked up*. resulting in permanent bodily harm
All sorts of fun new diseases, some treatable, some not.
The corollary of #3: “Hey Dad!”
Not to sound all DARE or anything. Likely you’re just hung over, but it is definitely possible for you to screw up your life in all sorts of interesting ways that make great cautionary tales.
Smooth muscle, including the liver, is very good at regenerating.
I used to drink 8 to 12 glasses of wine a night. After 2 months sober, my liver function was normal. It was likely normal before then, my yearly physical just happened to be at around 2 months sober. 6 months in 13 days.
You’re fine. I mean, the hangover sucks, so don’t binge drink again if you want to avoid the hangover. But, you haven’t done any permanent damage.
Edit: malpropism/typo
You’ll be fine. The liver is resilient, just not to repeat daily alcoholism. A bender may cause you pain and a terrible hangover/sunday depression but you’ll probably have fun and you won’t have lasting effects.
Won’t do any damage, only a hangover is the only damage.
I occasionally drink, the last time I drank was during the Summer of last year.
Getting stabbed in the liver is worse than a fifth of goldslager a week
I’d say it’s OK just don’t let him take your wallet. Honestly you’re better off on a night out with Flexo his twin brother.
I used to drink a 5th a day of vodka and some how I’m okay.
Everything in moderation including moderation
People talk about how bad drinking alcohol as they down soda on the daily. Everything in moderation is usually fine, even if moderation is an occasional bender.
However, the correct answer is to not play by the rules of society. If you want a blender, then have a blender. If not, then don’t. I respect someone for respecting their boundaries more than I do someone who will concede them to fit into society. It’s easy to be submissive. It shows strength of character to say no when you don’t want to do something when society expects you to say yes.
Doctor checking in here.
Your liver is fine with that, it can handle it essentially without any issue (barring you don’t have a genetic liver issue or eat like crap and have a fatty liver).
However, Sunday Scaries will hit you like a bus. Which is imo a good sign because it means your body isn’t adapted to tolerating the toxins that lead to the Scaries. The whole “a night of binging will take X number of days off your life” is total bullshit and extrapolation of data that is not in any way collected in a way to be able to make that statement. You’ll be good, get degenerate with the boys from time to time. It’s negligible for the liver, it’s good for the soul.
Shit i thought I’d be dead by now shit still kicking
One of just about anything (a day eating 10 Big Macs or a day having 10 drinks) has next to zero impact on your health.
That said – a night of heavy drinking can lead to things like car wrecks or herpes, which is more permanent than, say, the liver damage.
Your liver is good at its job. As long as your not doing it daily, on occasion alcohol use doesn’t hurt your liver or health
A two-day straight bender with extra curriculars involved and no sleep used to be at least a monthly occurance for me until I went sober. Knock on wood it’s been years and I think I’m OK. Point is, one bender here and there is fine. Prolly.
It isn’t ideal for brain tbh, but it probably will be irrelevant. Also, any alcohol period increases risk of certain cancers in a dose dependent manner, but the risk per drink is miniscule (like really freaking tiny).
Liver has a ton of redundancy; it’ll likely be fine unless you have something like alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
Lol. This is nothing. Ever been to Europe? You’re basically sober in Germany.
If you’re alive afterwards the typical danger from a bender is the habit.
Depends on how heavy. If you can’t see, you’re almost dead.
I think as you get older, your bodies recovers a lot slower to drinking. I’m not saying you did permanent damage, but you will feel the effects for much longer. That’s why I even stopped having one beer in the evenings. I realized it was having a large impact on my ability to wake up in the morning, function at work, and my numbers in the gym were going down. When I stopped drinking, I was lifting more weight within a few months after about two years of complete plateau
occasional heavy drinking is “better” than daily drinking, given that you don’t go over the inherently dangerous threshhold, its the rest and regeneration that counts.
think of going to the gym, you have a few days heavy lifting and rest days, if you were to ditch the rest days and power through, you’d soon get exhausted, lose all your strength to be able to fully power your muscles and make it all worse.
however i can’t judge how bad drinking every weekend is.
I think you’re far more likely to have something bad happen to you (ie lose your balance and break a bone or similar type of incident) during those 2 or 3 times a year than the 2 or 3 times a year of drinking causing any long term damage
You stressing about the bender is probably worse for your health than the bender. Assuming they are few and far between.
Realistically it probably has essentially zero health effects long term. What it does have though is a very sharp increase in the short term risk of death, statistically.
Depends what you do during it, I guess. Piling your car into a wall at 120mph after passing out behind the wheel due to excessive substance consumption wouldn’t do you any favours in that regard.
One is fine. Ten times a week, not so good