It was at university that Jasmine Charbonier began consuming a large amount of alcohol. At thirty, she drank eight cocktails based on tequila per day, several times a week. A few years ago, when she made the decision to stop drinking, she began to present signs of lack, to her surprise.
According to the researchers, men are more likely to die because of a significant consumption of alcohol and the ensuing diseases. But cases of death in women are increasing. The latest figures, published in 2024, show that the mortality rate of women because of excessive alcohol consumption increased by 35 %, for an increase of 27 % in men.
The trend for “Berdery Express” or “Binge Drinking” also experiences a boom in women. And, although alcohol -related diseases have been declining since the last decade, in women and men, this decline is more observed in them.
Unlike harsh drugs, alcohol is generally considered by women as a less dangerous way to relax and relax, explains Dhruti Patel, an addictologist at the Miller medical school of the University of Miami. “It is legal, available to everyone and it is not a taboo of society, so women are not worried about drinking,” she says.
For Jasmine Charbonier, it was the case. “On vacation, I was the friend who drank mimosas from 8 a.m.,” says the thirty-seven-year-old woman, blogger and entrepreneur who works on fundraising in Tampa, Florida. Drinking made evenings and trips more fun. It led to new meetings and made her dance without worrying about the eyes of others. In 2023, she temporarily stopped consuming alcohol to lose a little weight, and her lack of lack took her short. Irresistible desire to drink, stress that reached heights, tremors of periodic hands. “I was in shock,” she recalls, “I didn’t think I was addicted before that. »»
The significant consumption of alcohol in women transcends ethnic, socio-economic and lifestyle differences. In the United States, white women represent a large part of alcohol consumers. Studies published in 2025, however, reveal that consumption is increasing among young and middle -aged black women, as well as in young Hispanic women who emigrate to the country and adopt the culture of American alcohol. More and more young women also tend to excess as long as they have no children, this stage of life being associated with a decrease in alcohol consumption.
The tendency to decreat nickname alcohol as “ Bottle courage »invised the harmful effects on the health that even small amounts of wine, beer or cocktails have. A few years ago, the World Heart Federation, a non-profit organization, questioned the received idea that a glass of wine per day was good for health. The group declared that any quantity increased the risks of cardiovascular, stroke and aneurysms. In 2023, the World Health Organization added a layer and declared that no amount of alcohol had health benefits.
Even by consuming the same amount of alcohol as men, women are more inclined to suffer from its harmful effects. For example, scientists who assess the effects of alcohol in men and women have discovered that the latter were more affected in the hours after consumption. Their reaction time was reduced and there was a drop in coordination in their movements.
Experts attribute some of these differences to the composition of the body of women, which has more fatty tissue and less water than in similar men. This leads to a higher and more persistent concentration of alcohol in the blood. Hormonal changes are also pointed out for the role they play in the alcohol absorption speed.
In addition, women who consume alcohol regularly develop a larger number of medical problems, and with a lower amount of alcohol than men. An analysis published in 2023 claims that drinking two glasses of alcohol per day increases the risk of mortality in women, compared to women who do not drink. In men, consuming more than three glasses per day has the same consequences.
In France, alcohol causes 49,000 deaths each year and, in Europe, its consumption hides behind more than 7 % of diseases and deaths. In the United States, until 2007, the dead due to alcohol were relatively stable for men and women. They increased slightly until 2018 where they experienced a drastic drafted, in women, deaths increased by 15 % per year, and 12.5 % for men.
However, this is not a surprise for Ibraheem Karaye, deputy professor of public health at Hofstra University in Hempstead, who studies this problem. “Studies show that alcohol consumption in men and women are more and more similar and that complications are more and more numerous in women. It is therefore not surprising to observe these gender differences in deaths. Part of this strong increase could also be attributed to the opioid crisis because addicts tend to consume more than one dangerous substance, adds the professor.
Alcohol can kill quickly. He attacks the heart and the kidneys during alcoholic poisoning, he is the source of car accidents, falls or drownings after excessive consumption. But most of the dead are a reflection of long -term consumption, explains Ibraheem Karaye, especially when it comes to liver, pancreas or heart diseases.
Drinking is also one of the factors leading to breast cancer, whose risks on life climb 9 % when you even consume one glass per day and each more glass increases the figures. Alcohol also disrupts the immune system, which can lead to an increase in the number of infection and increase the healing time after an injury or an operation. Pretiturated fertility or menopause problems also result from excessive alcohol consumption. And, of course, the consumption of alcohol in pregnant women represents a risk for the unborn child, who could develop physical, mental or behavioral problems.
However, women do not always realize the amount of alcohol they consume. The size of the glasses is to be blamed for this, it is sometimes difficult to estimate the amount of alcohol contains a glass of wine. Sharing a bottle of wine for two represents about three glasses per person.
French recommendations recommend drinking only two glasses a day, but not every day. However, from a health point of view, Dhruti Patel recommends drinking less, if not at all.
Reducing alcohol consumption is first to replace it during social events. Jasmine Charbonier, when her friends drink tequila, prefers water. Ordering a glass of sparkling water, a fruit juice or a dinner mocktail or at the bar with your friends allows you to drink, says Dhruti Patel. She also recommends telling her family and friends that you want to stop drinking.
People who frequently rest on the drink to manage their stress or who regularly suffer from overconsumption symptoms, lethargy, fluffy spirit, must speak to their attending physician, insists the addictologist. This person will thus be able to recommend talking to a psychologist in order to learn other ways to bring the pressure back or join a support group such as anonymous alcoholic.
The doctor could also orient towards a psychiatrist, capable of prescribing drugs that can relieve this lack. Only, these drugs having mainly been tested on men, their effects on the health or mortality of women are still unknown.
Other new treatments are planned. When the psychedelic substance, psilocybin, an active ingredient of certain hallucinogenic fungi, was administered twice at the same time as psychotherapy, there was a significant decrease in significant alcohol consumption in dependent people. Preliminary research on a GLP-1 analog, semaglutide, has shown a drop in the desire to drink alcohol.
Jasmine Charbonier managed to stop the drink alone, motivated by her physical and mental well-being. She is no longer the victim of insomnia, instead, she sleeps with a deep and restful sleep. Her skin is more beautiful, she no longer has mood swings and her work heights her. It attributes this last advantage to better attention and concentration. “Alcohol braked my creativity and made me believe that I couldn’t do everything, thoughts that I no longer have,” she rejoices.
Decreasing your consumption could have another effect, as researching again and again. It might have saved his life.
