chug, chug, chug!

The good old college days are often reminisced by alumni as years where priorities were often all about the social life. As it is commonly understood, the typical college night scene involves a lot of friends, a lot of alcohol, and maybe a new outfit. Most importantly, the nights that many students don’t remember are the ones where we should have known better. The latest fad added to the party lifestyle incorporates drinking a lot, and drinking fast. What many students are not acknowledging, is the fatal impact that results from such irresponsibility.

The addictiveness of constant drinking plays a role on a person’s body within a short period of time. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This tends to happen when men consume 5 drinks or more, and when women consume 4 drinks or more, in about 2 hours.

In a recent research study, Professor Susan Tapert of the University of California at San Diego, used an imaging machine called an MRI to scan the brains of teenagers who binge drink. Dr. Tapert found that the “white matter” in their brains, the part that transmits signals, was abnormal when compared with the white matter of teens who don’t binge drink. The toll taken on the brain of a binge drinker impacts their learning, thinking, and memory.

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“Wow, I would have never guessed that someone who binge drinks would get an impact like that on their health,” Chelsea Conner, a third year Art Education student said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more evident on an alcoholic, but not someone my age.”

Fortunately, colleges around the nation have taken notice to the problem on their campuses. As stated on CSULB’s homepage, “47% of binge drinkers in college experienced, over the past year, 5 or more problems such as poor classroom performance, arguments and fights, unplanned sexual activity or overdoses requiring medical help.”

“I don’t go out and party as much now as I did in my first 2 years of college," Conner continues, “but I do recall that the binge drinking was how we would pre-game. If you wanted to sip your drink and take it slow than you’d have a quiet night with the girls or something else. But I remember in my freshman year during our SOAR workshops; we were shown a video on the dangers of binge drinking... i’d say the school has always been pretty active about sending the message."