As much as I loathe the hangovers that strike once you’ve edged over the other side of 30, they can also be a blessing in disguise.

For one, those hangovers certainly help keep a midweek catch-up drink in check (usually), because hell on earth is a long, drawn-out meeting with a splitting headache, a dry mouth, and booze seeping from the pores.

We were recently chatting about such matters (sans hangover, thank you) when the question of what constitutes a ‘heavy drinker’ came up.

Straight to Google I went, and it turns out I may have a bit of a problem. So do you, so get off your high horse.

This from a CNN article, which is admittedly a little dated, for context:

Women are considered “heavy drinkers” if they have eight or more drinks a week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].

Men can have 14.

The CDC still defines ‘heavy drinking’ by those terms above.

WebMD, the bane of doctors around the world, agrees:

For most men, that’s defined as more than 4 drinks a day, or 14 or 15 in a week. For women, heavy drinking is more than 3 drinks in a day, or 7 or 8 per week.

I feel attacked.

Should we really put the boot in? Let’s see what constitutes a ‘binge drinker’, again from WebMD:

Health officials define binge drinking as having enough to bring your blood-alcohol content up to the legal limit for driving. That works out to about five for men or four for women in less than 2 hours.

Perhaps more worryingly, a UCT study from 2014-2015 that was published in the South African Medical Journal says “an individual was defined as a binge drinker if he/she reported consumption of ≥5 standard drinks on an average drinking day”.

More than five drinks in an entire day is a binge. There’s a sobering thought.

May your beverages be tasty, your hangovers mild, and your meetings postponed.

[sources:cnn&webmd&webmd&samj]