The number of women who drink themselves to death is rising by 15% a year, closing the gap with men and stoking fears of boozing from stress, anxiety, boredom, and loneliness

As more Americans drink to death, women are catching up with alarmingly high alcohol mortality rates, even though they lag behind men when it comes to dangerous drinking, a study found.

A new study published in the JAMA Network finds that historically men were more than twice as likely to die of alcohol-related illnesses as women, but the gap is closing.

Researchers found that alcohol mortality among men increased by 12.5% ​​annually from 2018 to 2020.

For women, it increased by 14.7% annually over the same period.

The study showed a marked increase in alcohol-related deaths among women over the age of 65.

“Although men continue to bear a greater burden of alcohol-related deaths, our findings suggest an increasing trend in alcohol-related mortality among women, indicating a narrowing gender gap,” the study said. says.

For this study, researchers from Hofstra University, Harvard Medical School, and the University of South Carolina examined nearly 606,000 alcohol-related deaths between 1999 and 2020.

They used data from the US government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These deaths were associated with alcoholism, gastritis, cardiomyopathy, myopathy, liver disease, polyneuropathy, and other diseases.

It does not include deaths from alcohol-related homicides or injuries.

Alcohol-related death rates were on the rise even before COVID-19, when both men and women were known to drink in the face of isolation and stress caused by pandemic lockdowns.

Experts say the rise in women’s drinking is due not only to stress, depression and anxiety, but also to feelings of loneliness as many are left behind after the death of their male partners.

The study also found that alcohol affects women differently.

Women’s bodies tend to have less water to dilute alcohol levels than men’s, which means women are more likely to develop health problems from drinking, he added.

“Women take longer to break down alcohol and its toxic byproducts can linger in their bodies longer,” Dr Alok Patel told ABC News.

Women also have hormonal fluctuations, are more susceptible to physiological and organ damage than men, and are at higher risk of liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and breast cancer.

In recent years, various medical studies have linked even casual drinking with serious health consequences.

Doctors regularly advise patients not to drink bottles.

The United Nations World Health Organization warned earlier this year that there is no safe amount of alcohol to consume.

“Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive and addictive substance,” writes the WHO.

“It causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common types of cancer such as colorectal cancer and female breast cancer.”

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing about 140,000 people each year (about 97,000 men and 43,000 women) It is said that