If you drank more than one bottle of soju at your last drinking session, you might be someone who enjoys binge drinking.
Experts have stated that consuming more than 70g of alcohol at once for men (56g for women) should be classified as binge drinking. This is because consuming alcohol above this level can cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract and make the body more susceptible to inflammation.
The research team from Harvard Medical School recently announced that they reached this conclusion after analyzing the effects of excessive alcohol consumption on the gastrointestinal tract.
The research team forced laboratory mice to consume 3.5g of alcohol per kg of body weight once a day for three consecutive days and then analyzed the effects of alcohol.
The results showed significant damage to the upper part of the small intestine, which is responsible for key digestive functions such as absorbing nutrients from food. In particular, it was confirmed that the villi (projections on the inner surface of the small intestine) that help absorb food and prevent bacterial invasion became excessively short and worn down after excessive alcohol consumption.
According to the research team, this result indicates that the efficiency of nutrient absorption decreases while the entire intestine becomes vulnerable to infection. In fact, three hours after alcohol consumption, the neutrophil count in the small intestine mucosa significantly increased. Neutrophils are the primary immune cells that block invading bacteria or pathogens, and an increase in this count means that the body recognized the act of 'drinking' as a 'threat equivalent to an infection.'
Additionally, during this immune process, the intestinal surface was damaged, leading to a temporary increase in blood endotoxin levels. This means that there were more toxins in the blood, resulting from the damage to the intestinal surface that allowed toxins from bacteria, which should normally remain in the intestine, to enter the bloodstream.
Notably, after 24 hours of drinking, the neutrophil count and endotoxin levels returned to normal, but the damage to the villi and the surface of the small intestine did not fully recover over time.
The research team explained, “The amount of alcohol that affected the laboratory mice corresponds to a level of 70g of alcohol for men and 56g for women consumed within two hours in humans.”
Considering that a typical 16-degree soju bottle contains about 45g of alcohol, this means that women would be considered to be binge drinking if they consume more than 1.2 bottles of soju. For men, it would be 1.5 bottles. When converted to 4.5-degree canned beer (500ml), women would binge drink if they consume more than 3 cans, while men would do so after more than 4 cans.
The research team stated, “While it is necessary to interpret the experimental results considering individual drinking patterns, weight differences, and drinking speed, the important point is that the threshold for 'binge drinking' that harms our bodies is lower than expected.”
This research result was recently published in the international journal 《Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research》.
