Estrogen Could Be a Factor in Women's Binge Drinking: Research Findings
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New Delhi, Dec 30 (NationPress) Women, pay attention to your estrogen levels — the female sex hormone could be influencing your binge drinking habits, as indicated by a recent preclinical study on mice.
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine discovered that the hormone estrogen plays a significant role in regulating binge drinking in females, leading them to engage in pregame drinking or binge drinking. The study, which appeared in the journal Nature Communications, reveals that elevated levels of circulating estrogen can increase binge alcohol consumption in women, contributing to recognized differences in drinking behaviors between sexes.
“We know considerably less about the factors that drive alcohol consumption in females since most research has focused on males,” stated senior author Dr. Kristen Pleil, an Associate Professor of pharmacology at the institution.
Recent studies suggest that women have escalated their heavy alcohol consumption at a rate surpassing that of men. This trend is likely to make them more vulnerable to the detrimental health impacts of alcohol compared to their male counterparts, according to Pleil.
“Numerous studies indicate that this drinking pattern exacerbates the harmful effects of alcohol,” the expert remarked, adding that these findings could pave the way for innovative strategies to address alcohol use disorder in women.
To investigate the potential role of estrogen, the research team initially observed hormone levels throughout the estrous cycle (akin to the menstrual cycle in women) of female mice before administering alcohol.
The findings demonstrated that elevated circulating estrogen levels in females drove them to consume significantly more alcohol compared to days when estrogen levels were lower. This increased binge drinking behavior was mirrored by heightened activity in the same neurons within the BNST — a brain region critical for processing reward, stress, and anxiety.
“When a female takes her initial sip from the alcohol bottle, those neurons become highly active. If she is in a high-estrogen state, their activity intensifies even more,” Pleil elaborated, noting that this surge in neural activity causes the mice to consume alcohol more rapidly, especially within the first 30 minutes after the alcohol was made available.
