Understanding The Long Term Effects Of Binge Drinking Among Teenagers And How It Impacts Their Future Children

Binge drinking among teenagers may seem like a norm but research revealed the trend should be minimized or stopped. It was found that too much alcohol consumption does not only affect one's judgment, but it also has long-term effects that can highly impact the future generation.

Twenty-one percent of children in the United States admitted that they underwent binge drinking within the past 30 days. Some teenagers who took part of the binge drinking session were said to be under 21 and more than 90 percent of alcohol were consumed by the drinkers per session, according to Kowridge.

Researchers revealed too much alcohol consumption does not only impact the individual's brain capacity and judgment but it was mentioned that adolescents who binge drink are putting their children at risk for slow brain function. Too much alcohol consumption also placed the drinker's future offsprings at risk of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders, according to a study done by the researchers from the Loyola University in Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

"Adolescent binge drinking not only is dangerous to the brain development of teenagers, but also may impact the brains of their children," senior author of the study, Toni R. Pak, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, explained during an interview.

The study, which was based on an animal model, reveals that adolescents who consume too much alcohol are putting their children at risk. Binge drinking reportedly alters the said "on-off" switches of multiple genes in the brains of the drinkers' future children.

"Clinical research has long shown that children of alcoholic parents are at a higher risk for developing mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, as well as alcohol abuse," study author AnnaDorothea Asime said, as mentioned in Forbes.