When men are twenty-five years old, they are at their drinking peak: 13 drinks a week. Women peak at age 40, drinking about 4 alcoholic beverages a week.
Washington Post reports on new research published in the journal BMC Medicine:
"Frequent drinking (daily or most days of the week) became more common during mid to older age, most notably among men," the authors write. Older folks don't binge the same way college kids do, so their overall consumption is lower. But they do drink more frequently. Given that there may be some benefits linked to low-to-moderate drinking, especially red wine, there's nothing particularly alarming about this.
On the other hand alcohol remains, on balance, one of the most dangerous intoxicating substances you can put in your body. A single drink doubles your odds of going to the emergency room. It carries a ridiculously high risk of mortality relative to other drugs. If you have a few drinks and get behind the wheel, your odds of a car crash skyrocket. So these findings will be useful from a public health standpoint.
The study also found that teetotalers like myself comprise 10% of the male population.
