Baby Boomers Warned About Binge Drinking as Alcohol-Related Deaths Rise

Don’t shoot the messenger, but baby boomers are drinking at alarming levels.

Just this week, baby boomers received new alcohol warnings as alcohol-related deaths among people age 50 and older increased. The number of deaths attributed solely to alcohol has increased by 45% since 2001, according to a report published Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

While this study was conducted in the United Kingdom, baby boomers in the United States are faring no better. One in eight Americans have an alcohol disorder, according to a study published in August 2017 in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Psychiatry. While the survey showed that alcohol-related disorders increased in the US population as a whole, some of the steepest increases were among baby boomers. For example, high-risk alcohol use increased 65.2 percent and alcoholism increased 106.7 percent among those 65 and older over the past decade.

By 2020, the number of people receiving treatment for substance abuse problems is expected to double in Europe and triple in the US, among those aged 50 and over.

This is bad news for baby boomers, as alcohol is linked to more than 60 diseases, including heart disease, liver disease, cancer, and dementia.

WHY DO BABY BOOMS DRINK TOO MUCH?

We were the generation famous for drinking a martini or Manhattan after work, as is often shown on the TV show Madmen. But is there more to this growing problem of alcohol abuse? Probably.

Recent studies report that baby boomers, especially those in their 50s and 60s, are statistically the most unhappy age group. Many boomers face stressful events such as declining health, raising teenagers, impending college enrollment, adult children returning home, caring for aging parents, menopause, loss of a loved one and social isolation.

Add to that financial stress. According to studies, baby boomers are more concerned than any other age group about retirement security. Many boomers confess that they didn’t save enough money for retirement and are heading into their golden years with mortgage and credit card debt.

All this worry, stress and depression can easily trigger alcohol abuse if left unchecked.

Another factor can be traced back to the disappointment of our generation who expected a better world. “What does alcohol mean for our generation?” asks Christina Fraser, a relationship counselor for Coupleworks and a baby boomer herself. “We drink to fill a void. Our parents had a job, retired, and dropped dead two years later. They worked hard and had fewer opportunities. The baby boomers were promised a world full of possibility. Instead, we are seeing that world of close”.

WHAT IS CONSIDERED EXCESSIVE DRINKING?

Baby boomers who love wine o’clock may be surprised to hear what is considered binge drinking. Drinking in moderation is 1 drink a day for women and 2 drinks a day for men. So maybe you’re thinking that you don’t drink every day, mostly on the weekends.

Do the math. Women are considered “heavy drinkers” if they have eight or more drinks a week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men can be 14.

A standard “drink”, by the way, is not that big wine glass filled to the brim, a huge frosty mug or a giant Hurricane glass. The CDC says that a drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor. If you serve more than these standard serving sizes, it counts toward more than one drink.

While studies show that moderate alcohol consumption can be part of a healthy lifestyle for many people, those benefits quickly turn into health risks. These dangers include an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and liver disease.

In fact, on the heels of the new study warning baby boomers to stop drinking to excess comes another statement from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that “even light drinking increases the risk of cancer.” ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, said alcohol has long been a known human carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent, within the medical community.

Moderate drinkers nearly double the risk of mouth and throat cancer and more than double the risk of esophageal cancer compared with non-drinkers. They also face elevated risks of laryngeal cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer.

The risk for heavy drinkers is much higher, and frankly sobering (excuse the pun). Heavy drinkers face approximately five times the risk of mouth and throat cancers and squamous cell cancers of the esophagus as non-drinkers, nearly three times the risk of laryngeal cancers, twice the risk of liver cancer, as well as a greater risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer. cancer.

WAYS TO REDUCE

So we baby boomers have been warned. How can we reduce alcohol consumption?

Reduce the number of days you drink alcohol. In fact, you may want to abstain for a week or a month to see how you feel physically and emotionally with no alcohol in your life.

Reduce the amount of alcohol you drink at one time. If you normally drink two glasses of wine, do that instead.

If you are drinking too much, avoid people, places, things, and certain activities that trigger the urge to drink. For example, baby boomers love to splurge on dining out, but this luxury often drives people to drink more. If this is the case, consider dining out less often.

Find healthy alternatives to cope with stress, loneliness, or anger. For example, if you are tempted to have a drink, take a walk, garden, or take a long bubble bath.

Experts say alcohol abuse among older people isn’t a problem that just goes away on its own. These new data should serve as a wake-up call to all baby boomers to examine their drinking habits.

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