Not only are you more likely to get into an accident or wipe out while you’re sloshed, but it’s harder for your body to heal bone fractures after drunken debauchery, according to a new study from Loyola University Medical Center.
Researchers exposed one group of mice to almost three times the legal limit of alcohol (the equivalent of about 10 drinks for humans) and the rest to an equal amount of salt water, then fractured the rodents’ tibias. In the binge-drinking mice, levels of a protein involved in healing decreased by more than 50 percent, and the boozers also showed signs of oxidative stress—a process that impairs normal cellular function.
Study author John Callaci, Ph.D., speculates that alcohol somehow affects the ability of stem cells to participate in fracture healing. Callaci says the findings could apply to non-drunken injuries for anyone who occasionally binge drinks.
So while you’re probably safe if you only knock back one or two drinks a day, you might want to avoid having five or six (or 10) this weekend—especially if you’re nursing a broken bone.
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