Sipping wine, beer or spirits three to four times per week increases the risk of binge drinking, particularly among young men, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed the drinking habits of Canadians and found that frequent alcohol consumption can lead to binge drinking among all gender and all age groups.

Whether young people get drunk as a purposeful behavior or as an unintended consequence depends on what country they live in, according to new research on young people in seven countries. The research finds that young people's views on alcohol and drunkenness were influenced more by culture than by factors such as age and sex.

Alcohol advertising and marketing may lead to underage drinking. A large systematic review of more than 13,000 people suggests that exposure to ads and product placements, even those supposedly not directed at young people, leads to increased alcohol consumption.

New research has found substantial reductions in binge drinking since the national drinking age was set at 21 two decades ago, with one exception: college students. The rates of binge drinking in male collegians remain unchanged, but the rates in female collegians have increased dramatically.

A new study looks at binge drinking's impact on attention and visual working memory processes in young Spanish university students. Results indicate that binge drinkers expend more attentional effort to complete a given task, and also have problems differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information

Long-term daily drinking, rather than weekly binge drinking, is by far the biggest risk factor in serious liver disease, according to a new report. The study concludes that increases in UK liver deaths are a result of daily or near daily heavy drinking, not episodic or binge drinking, and this regular drinking pattern is often discernable at an early age. It also recommends that several alcohol-free days a week is a healthier drinking pattern.

As the holidays arrive, a group of researchers has identified the precise mechanisms by which binge drinking contributes to clogs in arteries that lead to heart attack and stroke. The works adds to a growing body of evidence that drinking patterns matter as much, if not more, to risk for cardiovascular disease than the total amount consumed. Irregular, heavy drinking pattern clogs blood vessels.

Studies in recent years have demonstrated that binge drinking can decrease bone mass and bone strength, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. Now a new study has found a possible mechanism: Alcohol disturbs genes necessary for maintaining healthy bones. The findings could help in the development of new drugs to minimize bone loss in alcohol abusers and in those who don't abuse alcohol but are at risk for osteoporosis.

Binge drinking is common among active-duty military personnel and is strongly associated with many health and social problems, including problems with job performance and alcohol-impaired driving, according to a new study. More than 30 million binge-drinking episodes were reported in 2005.

New research has shown for the first time that portrayals of alcohol in films and TV advertisements have an immediate effect on the amount of alcohol that people drink. The research found that people who watched films and commercials in which alcohol drinking featured prominently immediately reached for a bottle of beer or wine and drank an average of 1.5 bottles more than people who watched films and commercials in which alcohol played a less prominent role.