Here is the contradiction of Western culture: The workweek generally involves discipline, focus and routine, which often includes practicing healthy habits, such as physical activity. Weekends, for many people, are about getting out of control. It’s as if for these people Friday (you’ve probably already read or said “Friday”, right?) and Saturday and even Sunday are an extreme escape valve, a way to compensate for all the stress and anxiety built up during the work week. This quest to disconnect from daily pressures can be dangerous: on a picnic, one drink quickly turns into three, four, six glasses, or even more.
The reason many people go out drinking on the weekend is to feel happy and have fun, something they directly associate with getting drunk. Not surprisingly, this helped create a culture of heavy drinking on weekends. So much so that there is a term for a drinking technique that involves consuming a lot of alcohol in a short period of time to arrive at a meeting place slightly drunk: “warming up” (or pre-drinking in English).
Here lies the danger. There is strong evidence that the biggest impact, more than how often we drink alcohol, is the amount consumed in a short period of time (this could also be on Christmas Eve, a carnival, or a party, among other occasions), a behavior known as binge drinking or excessive episodic consumption.
There is already sufficient evidence that alcohol in any quantity poses health risks; However, the effect is more significant and serious when consumed in large quantities on concentrated occasions. A study published in 2022 showed that moderate drinkers with a history of heavy weekend drinking patterns are nearly five times more likely to develop alcohol-related problems.
One reason is that the liver is like a processor: it only has the ability to metabolize a certain amount of alcohol per hour. Imagine that you are putting more food into the device than it can hold. The device won’t be able to handle everything. The same thing happens with the liver. Due to the inability to metabolize so many drinks, the amount of alcohol in the blood increases dramatically. As the alcohol-filled blood reaches every organ in the body, the effects will be more serious.
It is not only the body that suffers. Heavy drinking, even if it is limited to a couple of days, is considered high-risk, which means it can lead to addiction, in addition to increasing the chances of accidents and getting into fights.
Here it is worth reinforcing this important caveat: when it comes to harming someone, the pattern of alcohol consumption can be more determined than the total volume consumed, according to data from the Global Burden of Disease published by CISA (Centre for Health and Alcohol Information). To give you an idea, Brazilians tend to drink a lot, especially young people. This explains why in Brazil we have rates of alcohol-related problems similar to those in countries like France, where per capita alcohol consumption is higher.
The “work hard, play hard” paradox actually hides a trap: trying to de-stress by drinking alcohol puts you at greater risk of dependence and organic complications. The most important lesson that science teaches us is that you cannot negotiate with your body. When it comes to alcohol, what matters is not only the frequency, but also and mainly the volume that is concentrated in a few hours. As I always make sure to remember: alcohol is not a cure for life’s problems or busy weekday routine.
About The Author
