For the first time ever, women are catching up with men when it comes to binge drinking – and the number of alcohol-related deaths is rising faster among women than among men.

Although many women pride themselves on their alcohol tolerance, more women than ever before are drinking themselves sick.

According to Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Sherry McKee, rates of alcohol abuse among men were traditionally much higher, but over the decades these rates have converged “and these rates are approaching a one-to-one ratio.”

The increasing number of women drinking excessively is having devastating consequences, with alcohol-related death rates among women rising almost 30 percent faster than among men.

Alcohol-related deaths still occur more frequently among men than women (around 120,000 deaths among men compared to 59,000 deaths among women). However, alcohol has a much greater impact on women’s health, including a higher risk of brain damage and cancer.

Women appear to drink more than men. An analysis of six different surveys found that between 2000 and 2016, the number of women aged 18 and over drinking alcohol each year increased by six percent, but for men it decreased by 0.2 percent.

The proportion of women who binge drink has increased by 14 percent, compared to only 0.5 percent among men.

Women have more fat tissue than men, fat tissue that alcohol cannot break down. Therefore, the toxins stay in their bloodstream longer and the alcohol has plenty of time to wreak havoc in the body, damaging the brain and destroying the heart and blood vessels.

Despite the now-refuted claim that a glass of red wine with dinner is heart-healthy, the theory has recently been put forward that no amount of alcohol is safe.

Women are advised to consume no more than seven drinks per week, or one per day, while men can consume 14 drinks per week, or two or less per day.

Exceeding these guidelines and excessive alcohol consumption can cause brain damage more quickly in women than in men, but the true extent of the damage and how quickly it occurs is still being studied.

Dr McKee said: “Women are more vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol and therefore (that means) more neurodegeneration.”

“We believe that women are more likely to experience a general inflammatory process as a result of alcohol consumption than men. This is partly one of the reasons why women are more susceptible or at higher risk from alcohol consumption.”

Neurotoxic effects can cause a range of symptoms, from reduction in brain volume, brain shrinkage, death of brain cells, breakage of nerve fibers to inflammatory stress.

Alcohol activates the immune system in the brain and a specific type of receptor that is designed to detect harmful invaders such as bacteria and viruses and alert the body.

But chronic alcohol consumption can make this receptor more sensitive than normal and keep it on heightened alert, leading to an exaggerated immune response that can ultimately harm the body and worsen inflammation.

A 2013 experiment showed this to be true in mice. Chronic alcohol consumption caused inflammation, cell damage, and brain cell loss in both male and female mice, with the effects being more pronounced in female mice.

Researchers found that long-term alcohol consumption causes brain damage by activating the immune response in brain cells.

Women are typically underrepresented in medical research, leaving many questions about the specific effects of alcohol on the female body unanswered.

However, one thing is clear to researchers: women have a higher water-fat ratio. This means that women tend to have more body fat than men, but a lower total body water percentage.

Alcohol is not fat-soluble, only water-soluble. Men, who have a higher body water percentage, therefore typically have less alcohol in their bloodstream than women, even if they drink the same amount.

Dr. Julia Adamian, an internist at NYU Langone Hospital, said, “Three drinks have a different effect on men and three drinks on women.”

“Women have higher blood alcohol levels due to the (higher fat) water ratio. The immediate effect (of drunkenness) occurs much faster and (alcohol) stays in the blood longer.”

Women’s bodies also produce less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which is released in the liver and breaks down alcohol in the body.

In women, death is due to long-term alcohol consumption, the cause of death being a chronic illness, “while the majority of alcohol-related men die from acute causes, such as an accident,” says Dr. McKee.

She added: “Women develop alcohol addiction more quickly and are most vulnerable to blackouts, liver disease, heart disease, cognitive deficits and certain cancers.”

“In addition, they have greater cognitive deficits. Their cardiovascular system is more severely affected and their risk of certain types of cancer increases more.”

In addition to alcohol-related deaths, women also have more emergency room visits for alcohol-related problems than men.

Between 2006 and 2014, men had more alcohol-related emergency department visits overall, although the rate of these visits increased faster among women than among men during the study period—5.3 percent annually among women compared to four percent among men.

This increase is mainly due to the greater increase in emergency department visits due to chronic alcohol abuse among women, which increased by about seven percent annually, compared to only 4.5 percent among men.

Alcohol has been proven to damage organs, including the brain and nervous system, heart, liver and pancreas.

Alcohol itself is a poison that causes cell damage and inflammation during metabolism.

It can increase blood pressure and contribute to heart disease, impairs the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and suppresses the immune system.

Compared to women who do not binge drink, women who binge drink have about a 45 percent higher risk of heart disease, while the risk is 29 percent higher for women who drink moderately.

Consuming more than three alcoholic drinks per day can also increase the risk of pancreatic cancer and stomach cancer.

Moderate to heavy alcohol consumption is associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk of colon cancer, a two-fold increased risk of liver cancer, and a five-fold increased risk of oral cancer.

When the body metabolizes alcohol, it produces acetaldehyde, a toxic compound that can damage DNA and proteins in cells, leading to mutations and possibly the growth of cancer cells.

It can also increase estrogen levels in women, which has been linked to a higher risk of breast cancer and other hormone-related cancers.