Posted on 08/04/2007 5:58:35 PM PDT by traumer
Women in their 40s are more likely to drink potentially harmful amounts on a night out than younger people, researchers in Cardiff have found.
While men's drinking peaked in their late 20s, women's alcohol intake reached its heights among the over-40s.
In a year, 893 people were breathalysed late at night in the city centre for the Cardiff University study.
It found 40% of men and 20% of women had drunk over a level which put them more at risk of injury and ill-health.
Researchers said their findings came as "something of a surprise".
Binge-drinking is defined as eight units for men and six units for women, which is twice the daily recommended alcohol intake.
What was more surprising was that students, unemployed people, young adults, had lower alcohol levels than older people and employed people Prof Jonathan Shepherd
Professor Jonathan Shepherd said the survey, funded by the Alcohol and Education Research Council, had shown a "clear difference" between men and women's drinking patterns.
In men, blood alcohol concentration was highest in 29-year-olds, but then tended to decrease with the age of those surveyed.
But in women, the levels continued to rise with the age of respondents, with levels peaking in the over-40 age group.
Prof Shepherd said: "It's hard to explain and raises a whole lot of other questions.
"We speculate younger women have more responsibilities at home, and once the children have left home, then the sky's the limit.
"But to be honest, we don't really know why."
He said underage drinking in the city centre late at night "wasn't really an issue".
"What was more surprising was that students, unemployed people, young adults, had lower alcohol levels than older people and employed people."
The findings of the survey included:
* Men drank for longer than women, an average of a seven-hour session for men and five-and-three-quarter hours for women * Older women were more drunk than younger women * Men in their late 20s were more drunk than older and younger men * Younger drinkers, students and the unemployed are not the most "at risk" groups for heavy drinking. * Drink consumption affected people's ability to recall how much they had drunk - "a key policy objective should be to keep intoxication levels below the point at which drinkers cease to be aware of consumption".
Prof Shepherd said the findings supported the idea that the way to control heavy drinking was to put up alcohol prices.
"The reasons students and the unemployed didn't feature much, or have higher alcohol levels was because they couldn't afford it," he said.
Bar staff
"Our research also found that after a certain point, people lose track of the amount they have consumed and therefore need other people, such as police, bar staff or friends to prevent them drinking more."
A team took to the streets of Cardiff on one Friday night and one Saturday night a month for 12 months, and drinkers were asked to take a breath test.
Dubbed the Lion's Breath project, the initial findings were released in April 2006.
Speaking as the final conclusions were published, Prof Shepherd said the findings had revealed a better picture of binge drinking in the capital than expected.
He said: "There's good reason to think that other places are worse, and that Cardiff is doing well in this regard, but we could obviously do better."
The research team was headed by Prof Shepherd and Dr Simon Moore of the university's Violence & Society Research Group.
Female midlife crises.I’ve seen it over and over.Only they’re trying to get as many good times as they can before they hit menopause.
Usually, they are the ones I target in bars.
So that’s why the young guys are often seen chasing the 40+ gals. They’re both drunk.
I’m guessing that the women drinkers in their 40s are the ones who married young, are recently divorced, and feel like they never really got to sow their wild oats, so now they’re off to the bar to find the next Mr. Right.
Start to lose their looks, get depressed, and hit the bottle.
Ha,ha, do you wait till they’re loaded before you make your move ???
Cougers.
Yup, I’ve sure seen this before. The young ones are all uptight about their hair, if people think they look fat, their clothes, their friends, gossiping about their friends’ pseudo-crises, and a million other BS things. The older ones are past that garbage and can relax enough to have some fun.
I was just joking. I was at a bar one night and this 54 year old woman made her move on me. She then lost interest in me when I told her that I was celebrating my 40th birthday. She thought I was younger. A Japanese woman in Taiwan thought I was 25. I think she was one of those female sex tourist. I just cannot keep the older women away. Too bad their daughters are not interested.
Prof Shepherd said the findings supported the idea that the way to control heavy drinking was to put up alcohol prices.
Ah, yes, another shameless plug to raise taxes. Gotta stop them older gals from having their fun. After all, its for the public good.....
Prof Shepherd said the findings supported the idea that the way to control heavy drinking was to put up alcohol prices.
Well, there you go. The liberal answer to every problem.
Over 40 go for young bucks, while young chicks (some of them) go for geezers. Go figure!
aka "Mr. Right Now".
Ha,ha,well it’s been a while since I’ve been in a bar where one of these laisons were offered however the last time for me I think MOMMY was offering her daughter !!!
It would be better to slash the salaries of "researchers" by 50%. Fewer people would be wasting their time on studies like this and the rest of us could enjoy ourselves without constantly being bugged by rat chasers with theories about what is "good" for us.
Older guys have money, I am slightly over 40 and I look young for my age; younger guys go for older women because they can get away with sexual encounters with a woman who doesn’t want marriage and children.
It’s the Dark Side of perimenopause. We snap outta it around age 51. ;)
“Cougars are gaining in popularity — particularly the true hotties — as young men find not only a sexual high, but many times a chick with her shit together.”
I’m a sober “Cougar” and that pretty much describes me. Oh, and my younger husband. *SMIRK*
All the men out there that can’t score with the young drunk women, or the old drunk women for that matter, should count their Lucky Stars that they’ve been saved from themselves and hold out for ‘The Real Deal.’ We’re out there.
But we’re not necessarily where you’re currently looking. :)
They’re really dogging on them at that forum.I like to think of the hot ones as cougers,not the mummy looking types.But I guess you have to take the bad with the good sometimes.
Ooooolder wimmin have bad liver......er......make good lovers!
I agree that a woman can be sexy at any age, but unless you are Bo Derek, a woman over 50 shouldn’t wear a cropped halter top with or without a bra.
I think when you signed up, you forgot the "v" in your handle...
"Pervdogg!"
(just teasing)
:O)
Or have piercings and tattoos and kool-aide colored hair at that age. I was a witness to this today. At a garden center. In broad daylight. Yee-gods!
Even they young(er) guys I work with (25-30 year olds) thought it very unattractive; and they’ll sleep with just about anyone, LOL!
Oh, yeah, horny old drunk women. Combine them with horny drunk young guys that will screw anything that doesn’t run away, and you have a real floor show. That was really the only thing I liked about bartending, other than the free drinks. And that was at an Elk’s Club, where most of the patrons were middle-aged married couples.
Made that mistake (45 looking like 35). On the other hand it was illuminating to find women can be crasser than most guys.
One lady, though, actually had a belt buckle with "MILF" embossed on it that she was proud to sport. That sort of self-confidence is...attractive.
Finally I decided I needed to quit drinking (for other reasons, like, I was tired of being a drunk.) But unexpectedly, after about a month, my joint stiffness had lessened markedly. After two months, it was gone completely. I can once again reach up behind my shoulderblades and it doesn't hurt.
I've never heard of alcohol causing joint inflammation or stiffness, but apparently it did in me, anyway.
That's what they expect -- good times. But I don't know any heavy drinkers who have looked back and said, "That was all worth it!"
When they look back they usually can't remember what happened.
Your trying to make me spell it out, aren’t you? It would be odd that a woman of Irish-Welsh descent would be associated with Islamists from the Philippines.
Lol! I hope you’re right! :)
Ah, I understand this so well. Small town Ohio - I got married when I was 20 (and so naive I might as well have been 15) - married a typical Ohio “bad boy” of the time. 25 and, I guess, already an alcoholic. But I wouldn’t have known, because I had no point of reference. I grew up in the country, my parents occasionally hid a six pack of beer in the pantry, would NEVER let us kids see them drink it. That was all I knew. I was not in any way prepared for what I had gotten myself into. The drinking, the violence - as someone so naive I honestly had no clue adults acted that way.
Fortunately, I got out of there with my life, got back on track with what I had wanted to do. For a very long time, I couldn’t have a drink of any kind. I was initiated by something called a sombrero - a regional drink consisting of coffee brandy and milk. A perfect drink for someone who doesn’t like alcohol - it tastes like a milkshake, and you could seemingly drink a lot of them with no repercussions.
As I eventually learned to drink wine, and as I was working harder and later, (and in the music business, with lots of club visits) not wanting to go home and cook, but to go somewhere and be served by someone, it was really easy to drink a lot without realizing it, and in spite of all the things that scared the ***t out of me when I was younger.
I think that’s it - men drink a lot when they’re younger cause they just can’t wait to - women drink more later on because they first have to learn how to, and then it somehow fits in to their lifestyle. Bottom line - I love wine, and probably drink more than I should of it. But I’m in a situation now where I can’t really afford to go out, so it’s easier to get a box of Franzia Refreshing White, and drink it with the really good meals I cook myself. (And all those years eating out, I have pretty much mastered some of my all time favorites!)
There could be any one of a number of explanations for this, but one of my first guesses would be that older women have a higher tolerance for alcohol, and so can drink a lot more than the younger girls before they get too drunk. Since this study only breathalyzed them, rather than determining how drunk they really were (as in, how affected they were by the alcohol in their systems) I would say that the younger women probably blew a lower alcohol level, but were actually more out of control than the older ones.
Well, come on already! MILF means nothing to me. Care to elaborate? :)
Probably the SUGAR!
Try Google. Images. :))
/thread
*rofl*
Google's page rank algorithm is perverse! Your link is the number one hit for cougar.
Thanks. A previous discussion where that came up taught me not to elaborate. ;^ )
I love women over 40. Some kind of bottle of wine with dinner. A quiet time follows. The next morning they want to eat a lot of food. That’s called “breakfast”. Every woman knows how to make “breakfast”. I acquiered a whole quart of rose honey and a kilo of coffee from Brazil. Women will be sneaking around.:)
Sad but true
And have a few bucks. Sometimes their husband's money.
Plus they already have their children. And husbands in a lot of cases.
We love you too, Bob. But I’m not big on breakfast. :P
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