ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Super Bowl Sunday is coming. That means a good football game, funny commercials, a lot of food, and for many-- some alcohol.
We know people are going to drink on Sunday during the game, but it’s a good idea to do it in moderation and be responsible.
News4JAX spoke with a cardiologist about why binge drinking is not the best thing to do.
Binge drinking is considered drinking four or five drinks within two hours.
In most cases, that pushes your blood alcohol level beyond the legal driving limit of .08%.
During the big game, the average consumption is four to six beers per person.
A safe approach for moderation is one drink per hour or two drinks per occasion.
In addition to that, a total of three drinks for the day is enough.
To give some context, one drink is considered
- 12 ounces of beer
- 8 ounces of malt liquor
- 5 ounces of wine
- 1.5 ounces of hard liquor
Dr. Ibrahim Fahdi, a cardiologist at HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital, said binge drinking can seriously affect your health in the short term and long term.
“We are seeing a lot of people binging,” Fahdi said. “If you drink a good amount within a couple of hours during a football game, that by itself can get people into arrhythmia and other cardiovascular disease entities.”
He added that binge drinking can lead to direct damage to the heart muscle.
“We always think that heart muscle damage and weak heart muscles come from when people have a blockage in the arteries of the heart,” Fahdi said. “Not necessarily. There are some other products, including alcohol, that can cause direct damage to the heart muscle. It is not uncommon -- spring break binge drinking -- that young people would come in with a heart so weak. People can come to you and say, ‘Hey, I just drank a six-pack of beer on Saturday or Sunday. I was watching the game.’ They do not think that beer is alcohol. Education, discussion, and awareness are extremely important for the people in general and for the younger generation to understand that anything we do is going to have something to pay for. It could be health, it could be money, it could be both.”
Again, it is a good idea to drink in moderation or consider having non-alcoholic beverages as an alternative.