Why women are drinking themselves to death . . . (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Why women are drinking themselves to death . . .

Ref. 26897-14BINGE DRINKING FEATURE: Doctors are becoming increasingly concerned at the number of young women with serious problems brought on by binge drinking. ALEX EMERY asks whether 'ladette' culture has gone too far.

A KILLER is at large on our streets but its face is so familiar that all too often the dangers go unnoticed until it is too late.

Whether your tipple is beer, wine, spirits or even the increasingly popular "alcopops" used wrongly or in binge proportions, alcohol can kill.

And now, experts say, it is women who are increasingly falling victim to the health problems cause by excessive drinking and sometimes paying the ultimate price for a big night out.

Role models like radio presenters Zo Ball and Sara Cox have been accused of making wild behaviour fashionable, while former bra model Sophie Anderton has been in rehab for drink and drug problems.

But well-publicised tabloid newspaper gossip stories of women falling out of nightclubs can trivialise a serious condition.

Last month, Dr Tony Pickworth, 41, consultant in the Intensive Care Unit at Swindon's Great Western Hospital, said the number of young women drinking themselves to death was shocking.

In the past three years, eight women aged between 30 and 45 have been treated in ICU for liver failure as a direct result of excessive drinking.

Five of those women died.

Contrast this with the period between 1989 and 2001 when there were no cases of liver failure.

According to a recent Government report, the British have the worst record for binge drinking in Europe.

The study, by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, found that one in three men, and one in five women fail to drink sensibly.

Alcohol was found to be responsible for 22,000 premature deaths each year.

Overall, the British drink less than other Europeans, such as the French or the Germans, but it is our tendency to binge that causes concern.

It is now pretty much universally accepted that women can do anything that men can, but when it comes to drinking and getting drunk it's not a level playing field.

Heavy women drinkers suffer far more than men.

Dr Pickworth said: "Excessive drinking among young women is definitely becoming a much bigger problem as the figures show. When I started out it was extremely rare.

"Serious liver damage is usually a result of heavy drinking over a number of years. Some of these girls are drinking a bottle or two of vodka a day."

Dr Kandy Kandiah, of Sparcells Surgery, said that while he hadn't noticed an increase in women with alcohol-related problems that could be down to other reasons.

He said: "People don't seem to see their doctor with alcohol problems, but are taken to hospital when it has got to a serious stage.

"Smoking and obesity are taken very seriously at the moment due to Government health guidelines, but drink-related issues have taken a back seat.

"Alcohol should be given the same limelight as smoking and obesity."

Barbara Crofton, the director of the Swindon and Wiltshire Alcohol and Drug Service, said: "Although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of the increase of binge drinking and, without doubt, hard evidence of the consequence of binge drinking in terms of public disorder and anti-social behaviour, there is little hard evidence as yet of more young women seeking treatment.

"My guess is that it will take some time before it shows in our figures."

Geoff Hicks, the licensing officer for Swindon police, said sweet drinks laced with alcohol played a large part in the "ladette" culture of today.

He said: "Women have certainly caught up with the men in the drinking stakes. The danger lies in alcopops, which are flavoured with things like cranberry or orange to disguise the taste of vodka.

"Most of these are five to 5.5 per cent. The average pint of beer I enjoy is four per cent so you can see that women are drinking much stronger alcohol.

"The bottles may look cool and colourful but in reality it is dangerous because a lot of them don't realise how strong the drinks are.

"Biologically, women cannot take the same amount of alcohol as men."

In September the gastroenterology team at GWH met South Swindon MP Julia Drown to present her with a 500-name petition calling for health warnings on all alcohol products.

Ms Drown said the numbers of people affected by alcohol on the larger scale were too big for people to really comprehend.

"What struck me was how our nurses and doctors here have to face the reality of this every day," she said.

"When you think that it actually means every day there is someone dying on the hospital ward it becomes a reality here in Swindon."

She added that she hoped to present the petition to the House of Commons.