College Girls Are Heavier Drinkers than Men

In college, girls drink men under the table, according to a recent study from Harvard Medical School.

Twice a week, the study recorded the intake of alcohol during 992 students’ freshman year. With an average age of 18 years and four months, the total amount of students included 573 females and 417 males.

Despite the suggested drinking limit for men being vastly greater than the limit for women: 14 alcoholic beverages vs. 7 alcoholic beverages, weekly consumption of alcohol remained consistent for women, while men steadily decreased the amount of alcohol drank during the course of the year.

According to Melissa Lewis, a specialist in psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Washington, “even if you hold weight constant, there are differences in terms of how alcohol affects men and women. For example, men have more of an enzyme in the stomach – a gastric alcohol dehydrogenase – that lowers the amount of alcohol that makes it into the bloodstream. Also, women have less blood going through the bloodstream than a man at the same weight, so alcohol gets more concentrated in the bloodstream.”

While 84.5% of all surveyed students exceed the recommended guidelines for alcoholic consumption, perhaps the most shocking finding was that college-educated women aged 18 to 24, with an annual household income of $75,000 or more, are the most prone to alcoholism than women of any other age and social standing.

The excessive drinking puts women at higher risks for liver disease and breast cancer.

Bettina Hoeppner, lead researcher from the study, further explained that, “weekly cut-offs are recommended to prevent long-term harmful effects due to alcohol. By exceeding weekly limits more often than men, women are putting themselves at increased risk for experiencing…long-term effects.”

Furthermore, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that binge drinking in women and high school girls is responsible for 23,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

In order to help lower some of these statistics, Dr. Hoeppner suggests more education on a daily and weekly basis.