How New Year’s Eve can be dangerous for your health

WASHINGTON - New Year’s Eve - a time to enjoy - can be dangerous for your health, say experts.

Experts at the Loyola University Health System have said that the health hazards of too much revelry include drunk walking, fattening holiday drinks and the surprising ways that alcohol is bad for you.

Drunk walking: Research has shown that New Year’s is the deadliest day of the year for pedestrians. Drinking and walking can be as dangerous as drinking and driving.

In 2005, the journal Injury Prevention reported from 1986 to 2002, 410 pedestrians were killed on New Year’s Day. Fifty-eight percent of those killed had high blood-alcohol concentrations.

Fattening drinks: Popular holiday drinks such as martinis, Irish cream liqueur, eggnog, hot chocolate and rum and Coke are loaded with calories.

Loyola registered dietician Brooke Schantz said that the more you drink, the higher the calorie count, and the more likely you will be to overindulge in food.

“It’s okay to treat yourself to your favourite holiday drink. But try to do it in a way that won’t bust your waistline,” said Schantz.

Alcohol’s surprising toll: Alcohol does much more harm to the body than just damaging the liver.

Drinking also can weaken the immune system, slow healing, impair bone formation, increase the risk of HIV transmission and hinder recovery from burns, trauma, bleeding and surgery, said Elizabeth J. Kovacs of the Loyola’s Alcohol Research Program. (ANI)