Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York have found that women are more likely to binge drink when they have higher levels of estrogen. Turns out the sex hormone can cause females to consume large amounts of alcohol in their first hour of drinking.
“When a female takes her first sip from the bottle containing alcohol, those neurons go crazy,” says senior author Dr. Kristen Pleil, an associate professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “And if she’s in a high-estrogen state, they go even crazier,” she added.
The study – published on December 30th in the journal Natures Communications, found for the first time that estrogen contributes to men and women’s different approaches to binge drinking and the breakthrough could lend new insights into how best to treat women with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)
Studies show that among U.S. women who drink, approximately 1 in 4 have engaged in binge drinking in the last month, averaging about three binge episodes per month and five drinks per binge episode. These trends are concerning because women are at increased risk for health problems related to alcohol misuse, including breast cancer.
