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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Alcohol doesn't go down well with women -Malathy Iyer

Alcohol doesn't go down well with women -Malathy Iyer

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published Published on Jun 14, 2015   modified Modified on Jun 14, 2015
-The Times of India

MUMBAI: The gender gap in the world of tipplers is fast shrinking. Recent studies show that more female students than males in Spain are likely to binge-drink, and the percentage of women arrested for drunk driving increased by 30% within a decade in the US.

In India, in the absence of any study or statistics, accidents like the one caused by Chembur corporate lawyer Janhvi Gadkar prove that drinking is losing its once-males-only character. S K Bhalla, chairman of Alcoholics Anonymous, said, "If you go to a pub, the number of men and women there is almost equal nowadays. Moreover, there are more women coming to AA meetings, but, they worryingly drop out."

This brings to the fore a latent point: are women and alcohol an unhealthy mixture?

On one hand, manufacturers are wooing Indian women with specially brewed concoctions, but on the other, there are more instances of more rehab centres coming up only for women. A projection by NGO India Centre for Alcohol Studies in 2013 said that while Indian women made up only 5% of the tipplers, the number is likely to increase by 25% in the next five years.

Dr Atul Ambekar of the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, said, "We psychiatrists can gather from the number of women seeking treatment that the incidence of drinking among them has increased."

Experts are concerned about women's newfound fondness for Bacchus for physiological reasons. "For some reasons, alcohol doesn't metabolize as quickly for women as it does for men. Inebriation is hence quicker for women than for men," said senior consultant Dr Hemant Thacker from Jaslok Hospital on Pedder Road.

A study from Notre Dame University in the US holds the lower volume of body water in women (as compared to men) responsible for intoxication. Experts say that if a man and woman of the same weight were to drink an equal amount of alcohol, the woman will have a higher alcohol concentration in her blood. A doctor said that women have lower levels of enzyme dehydrogenase that is needed to digest alcohol in the stomach.

On more and more women taking to alcohol, city psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty said, "Globalization has ensured that gender is not an issue as far as drinking is concerned. Previously, people on their way back home would go to the temple or a walk, but drinks are the new pastime for both working men and women."

Psychologist Mukta Puntambekar from Pune's Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre said that women have a tendency to get carried away. "The transition from a social drinker to an addict is, as a result, faster for women than men," she said. A telling commentary is the fact that Muktangan had to set up a rehab centre specially for women after it started getting more enquiries from them. "We have a 15-bed facility that is always booked. We have treated 700 women so far in the 15-to-75 age group," she added.

The reason young professionals drink, say doctors, is the thrill factor. "Many young professionals who seek help for alcoholism tell us that they like to drink and drive because they then feel they are literally flying. A sedan seems like an F18 jet and they feel immortal and powerful," added Dr Shetty.

The Times of India, 14 June, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Body-basic-Alcohol-doesnt-go-down-well-with-women/articleshow/47660727.cms


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