Consuming alcohol without moderation and quickly (binge-drinking) would leave an indelible mark in the body via a biomarker, phosphatidylethanol (PEth).
Researchers at the University of Illinois (United States) conducted a survey with blood samples from students from two American universities who were participating in a study on the cardiovascular effects of excessive alcohol consumption. They also recorded their habits and their alcohol consumption. Scientists have identified three types of people, abstainers, moderate drinkers, and drinkers.
Scientists have identified a bio marker called “phosphatidylethanol (PEth)” present in “binge drinkers”. Binge drinking is popular among teens and involves consuming large amounts of alcohol over a short period of time.
“The PEth can therefore now provide an objective measure of the practice of binge drinking, either for research, or for screening, or in medical practice,” explains Prof. Mariann Piano, professor and head of the health sciences department at the University of Illinois.
Alcohol is wreaking havoc in France and around the world
Alcohol remains a public health problem in France that kills 45,000 people per year. The short-term risks are social and psychological (license withdrawal, car accidents, violence, depression) and the long-term risks are pathological, with physical dependence on the product, serious behavioral disorders ( depression, suicide, insomnia) cirrhosis, cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, intestine and liver, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.
1 in five deaths worldwide is linked to alcohol consumption, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 3.3 million people died in 2012, against 2.5 million in 2005. And 320,000 young people aged 15 to 29 die each year from alcohol-related causes, recalls the WHO.
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