illuminating science

The Australian Medical Association has just released guidelines which define binge drinking as four standard drinks per night.

This is pretty tight - an average bottle of wine is about seven standard drinks, so under the new guidelines, if two of you order a bottle of wine over dinner you are flying awfully close to the sun. (Assuming you are lucky enough to have a partner to share the wine with - otherwise, you’re in real trouble.) And if one of you drinks more than your fair share, then you’re binging.

I’m not certain how to respond to this. I’m not a heavy drinker for the most part, and I do think that many people drink too. (Even without a degree in medicine, it’s hard to imagine that drinking to the point of passing out is good for your body…) But is four drinks (per night) really excessive? I haven’t seen any discussion of the medical reasons (and Wikipedia just talks about bladder ruptures!) There’s nothing in the news stories so far, and I think it’s something that really needs to be put out there. Otherwise, this could run the risk of being portrayed as scare tactics in the media. From the AMA’s national president:

“The definition of binge drinking is something that perhaps hasn’t been brought down to the level of four drinks per night, four standard drinks per night,” she said.

“I think many Australians will be reflecting on their habits at home and wonder whether we are binge drinking on a very regular basis.”

Dr Capolingua says this could make people think twice about how much they are drinking.

The fact that we need to bring drinking to people’s attention isn’t a medical argument. Sure, it worked for me - I don’t think of myself as a heavy drinker, but I would on occasion have four or five drinks over an evening. (”Am I really binge drinking even on that? Yikes!”) But I can’t help but think this weakens the stigma (however slight…) attached to “binge drinking” Similar to something I’ve often seen around roadworks: on a 60k/h road, many people will obey a 40km/hr roadworks sign, but ignore a 20km/hr sign as just too low, and travel at their regular speed!

I’ll be interested to see the commercial media’s response, and the general community feeling. I suspect, though, that it’s not going to do good things for the AMA’s reputation.