'Women who binge-drink risk death', warns George Best surgeon

By OLINKA KOSTER Last updated at 22:00pm on 3rd December 2006


Rising numbers of young women are risking an early death by binge-drinking, the surgeon who treated George Best warned yesterday.

Women need to realise they cannot drink the same quantities of alcohol as men, said Professor Roger Williams.

Prof Williams, a consultant hepatologist at University College London, said female drinkers are a third less resilient to the effects of alcohol than men.

'Research shows that women cannot drink as much as men,' he said. 'If they do, they run into serious health problems.'

Prof Williams revealed that at any one time, he currently treats an average of five female patients suffering from drink-related organ damage.

A decade ago, he was treating an average of one at any one time.

His comments come after it was revealed that women in England are some of the worst binge drinkers in the world.

One in three 17 to 30-year-olds is now classed as a heavy drinker, bingeing on four or more units in one session at least once a fortnight. That puts them second in an international league of shame, with only Ireland having a bigger problem.

However, this could still be the tip of the iceberg, with many 18 to 24-year-olds admitting to drinking the eqivalent of more than five bottles of wine a week.

Doctors say some are developing serious liver disease 20 years earlier than medical experts would expect.

Binge-drinking women are also seven times more likely to die from heart disease, while drinking a single glass of wine a day increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer by six per cent.

It is not the first time Prof Williams, who carried out the late soccer legend's liver transplant during his long-running battle with alcoholism, has spoken out on the issue.

In February, three months after Best died at the age of 59, he warned of the 'spreading canker of alcoholism' and said urgent action was needed to stop Britain 'tippling to the point of toppling'. 'Alcohol consumption has doubled in Britain since the 1960s,' he said.

'Today, a quarter of the adult population - around 11million - binge drink regularly. 'Binge drinking means the liver and other organs are flooded with a poisonous substance at levels that overwhelm the body's normal defence mechanisms.'

A quarter of A&E admissions are linked to excess drinking, he said.

The recommended weekly alcohol limit for women is 14 units, compared to 21 units for men.

In October, a University College London study revealed that 33 per cent of English women could be tagged binge drinkers.

The rate was 11 times higher than in Germany and Italy, and prompted warnings that record numbers of women face liver damage and other health problems unless they learn to control their alcohol intake.

The report's co-author, Professor Andrew Steptoe, of UCL, said: 'Although not all young heavy drinkers end up being heavy drinkers in later life, they are at higher risk later.'
Srabani Sen, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: 'Women have achieved a large degree of equality with men, but they don't understand how to drink safely.'

The news article can be found here.