Now THIS is a title worth having....

[BaldRob]

From Chicago Tribune, 2/8/07:

Raising the bar
Chicago's been served with the title of top binge-drinking town, but many say that booze-filled nights are just a cultural norm

As she sipped her third Fat Tire of the evening, Nikki Gregory planned for a tame night out: a couple more beers, a stop at the liquor store, then a movie over a spiked soda.

"My intention is not to go out and get wasted," Gregory, 25, said as she sat at the bar at South Loop Club.

But friends came, plans changed, and Gregory ended up spending her night off from her bartending job downing pitchers of Miller Lite and shots of Jameson, O Bombs, Cherry Bombs and, um, what else exactly?

"I have no idea," laughed Gregory of Uptown when the next day, she tried to recall the previous night's activities.

Hard drinking, standard procedure for many young Chicagoans, may have helped the Woozy, er, Windy City snag the dubious distinction as the nation's No. 1 binge-drinking town.

The federal government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which released its ranking of the 15 largest metropolitan areas last month, found that 25.7 percent of people over age 12 in the Chicago area were considered binge drinkers, more than any other metro area surveyed and well over the national average of 22.7 percent. Houston followed close on Chicago's heels with 25.6 percent.

Max Lowe, a bartender at Rock Bottom Brewery downtown, said he isn't surprised Chicago took top binge-drinking honors.

"It's very much apparent here that drinking is a predominant part of life," Lowe said. The cold weather and easy public transportation are factors, Lowe said, but mostly he believes "Midwest culture is prone to it."

Indeed, this section of the country—notably Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas—has had "elevated binge drinking" for the last few years, said Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at SAMHSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"It may be traditions, or the sense that it's just what you do," Clark said, adding that the study didn't focus on the reasons for drinking. "People engage in those what-you-do activities without reflection."

Most Chicagoans interviewed by RedEye agreed that getting soused is a cultural norm, especially among 21- to 25-year-olds who represent the largest proportion of binge drinkers. But the definition of a binge drinker used in the government survey—consuming five or more drinks within two or three hours at least once in the past 30 days—drew protest.

Brian Eder, 25, on business in Chicago from Minnesota, called five drinks "a joke" and the official binge standard "an arbitrary definition."

"The large majority of people who drink socially would be binge drinkers," Eder said as he had beers with friends at Timothy O'Toole's in Streeterville.

Leslie Miller, 25, who goes out about once a week and has five or six drinks, said she wouldn't have expected to fall into the binge category.

"I guess I am officially a binge drinker, but I would never have thought I was," said Miller, who lives in the Loop. "When you think binge drinker, you think of people who are falling down and vomiting."

Tamina Plum, 26, of Lakeview said binge drinking should be defined less by how much one drinks and more by why one drinks. Plum, who goes out drinking about once a month and consumes five to eight drinks when she does, classifies herself as a binge drinker.

"When you binge drink, your goal is to consume," Plum said. "I don't drink that often, but when I do, I know it's to get drunk."

Defining binge drinking is controversial among experts, said Dr. Carlton Erickson, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas. Erickson thinks blood-alcohol content would be a better measure of whether someone's binged than counting beer bottles.

Andrea King, associate professor in psychiatry at the University of Chicago, said gender differences should be taken into account, as women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men because of their body composition. In her research, a binge is five drinks for a man and four for a woman.

While differences in body weight, body size and food consumed make it difficult to pinpoint a binge-drinking threshold, generally "when people are having more than four or five drinks, it's beyond what people drink in normal social parameters," King said.

It's also beyond what most bodies can handle, which is the reason for the five-drink standard, said Clark of SAMHSA. Dumping that much alcohol into your blood stream in a short period exceeds your body's ability to metabolize it, and once you reach a certain threshold, judgment is impaired, he said. But heavier drinkers up the ante considerably.

Gregory, who said she's been drinking heavily since 17, recalled a drinking contest a few years back in which the object was to drink an entire case of beer. She succeeded, cracking open a beer every half hour for 12 hours, and when she was done, topped it off with some Jameson, she said. "That, I would consider a binge session," Gregory said.

That, most experts would consider foolish. "The idea of binge drinking is that it creates an increased risk for falls, accidents, physical abuse" and risky sexual behavior, Clark said.

Besides the hangover, there are long-term concerns of bingeing. Ten percent of binge drinkers become alcohol dependent, Erickson said, which can lead to liver, stomach and esophagus damage.

For Jesse Raschak, 21, of Boystown the short-term body damage was enough. Raschak, who said by official standards he'd be "a binge drinker times 30," made a New Year's resolution this year to stop drinking hard alcohol—except shots—because he worried it was taking too hard a toll.

"I'd walk up a few flight of stairs and gag, and I'd be like, 'Is that because I'm drinking? Because I'm not working out?'" said Raschak, a bartender at Waterhouse in Lakeview.

Since cutting back on liquor, he said, "I can run up and down the stairs just fine."

It's often when bingeing becomes too painful or impractical that it drops off.

Willie Witten, 25, said getting up at 6:15 a.m. to go to work and having other social interests have curbed his boozing to more reasonable social levels.

"In college, I would go out and get lit, but you grow out of it," said Witten of Lincoln Park. "Falling down drunk—those days are long gone."

[PBurke]

over age 12. WTF?

[Tom McGarry.]

I like Billy Goats tavern just off of Wacker Ave west of the sears tower, I spent quite a few nights there a few years ago.
 

[spaceape48]

Interesting article. Read one like it not too long ago about the UK and New Zealand having the "issue"of binge drinking. It's not a habit, but rather a way of life for them.

[MagmaBabe]

Damn!!

I need to get myself to Chicago...
Rob, I'm staying at yours 

[Tyler]

Damn!!

I need to get myself to Chicago...
Rob, I'm staying at yours 

Heck, he'll probably send you a plane ticket...

[MagmaBabe]

Heck, he'll probably send you a plane ticket...

 

[MagmaBabe]

Interesting article. Read one like it not too long ago about the UK and New Zealand having the "issue"of binge drinking. It's not a habit, but rather a way of life for them.

Yep, from the moment I wake up till the moment I pass out...

[juventus206]

So true, Chicago has such a great night life!  Come to think of it, I'm about do for a weekend     of drinking in shy.

[Paul]

I'm might have helped them get the title at some point.