Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert on the long and short-term risks that come with binge drinking

Dry July is here again, with Kiwis going alcohol-free for the month to examine their drinking habits.

Binge-drinking is a lingering part of Kiwi culture, and more and more people have felt inspired to step back to consider the health risks.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara says binge-drinking comes with short-term complications - and long-term risks of brain and liver damage.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to talk Wellness Now and I'm joined by Erin O'Hara.
Good Morning, good money. I always find you get to
the middle of the year and you think, goodness me,
the end of the year is going to be here
before I know it.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
But there's still quite a lot of still quite a
lot to get through, and it's a really good time
to sort of stop and you know, if you can
with the holidays, have a break, but also maybe reassess
your drinking habits.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
And Dry July is upon us, and I'm sure a
lot of people are.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
I think a lot of people do love this is
that they use it as a bit of a reset
and reflect on their drinking habits. And commonly in New Zealand,
it's not what we're drinking, the way we're drinking, it's
the way we're drinking. Like the binge drinking culture is
massive in New Zealand, and it's actually that age group
between eighteen to twenty four, which maybe not considering Dry July.

(01:01):
It seems to be more sort of slightly older demographic
that move into that Dryjaly. But actually the drinking culture
is the biggest area that needs really addressing and support
is actually that eighteen to twenty four yeah, age group.
And it's actually not the quantity, it's the quantity they're
drinking in a binge behavior and that's actually putting the

(01:21):
biggest risk on our health. And it's not just the
risk the time when you're drinking, but it's actually that
long term risk as well, the effect that it has
on our organs and our brain and our liver that
actually can cause damage that's irreversible as well.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
What is what determines are binge drinking? How many drinks
you have did well?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
That would be different for different people, so women and men,
it's slightly different, but it would be drinking to an
excessive amount, to the point where you were commonly either
drink to an excess where maybe a black out, vomiting,
so really really quite disorientated and drunk. Okay, So it's
not just having you know, two or three drinks that

(02:03):
is not classified as a binge drinking behavior. All right, then,
So I know that we hear quite often that younger
generations aren't drinking as much, but clearly there is a
group of them who are binge drinking, and I would
tend to agree with that. Are they getting onto the

(02:24):
non alcoholic drinks? Is there any sort of interest in
making a different choice do you think? I think that's
definitely a big growing area is either the low alcohol
or no alcoholic drinks, and they are gaining popularity because
online with your Instagram, your TikTok, there's a lot more
promoting on health conscious behaviors and obviously drinking alcohol is

(02:48):
classified as obviously not great for your health, so people
are swapping across. However, it's probably enough and it's still
like with that branding with the non alcoholic drink, it's
not really changing the culture around sitting around and gathering
and having a drink, which is actually part of that
behavior of bine drinking that she gathering as a group.

(03:08):
And how do we change that because it's still branded
as whatever brand and promoting having their alcoholic drink. And
if someone does have a drinking problem, generally even that
taste that's familiar is actually triggering for them to drink more.
So sometimes that can actually trigger someone, especially as someone
who was an alcoholic, you usually wouldn't want them to

(03:28):
have something that was the similar flavor to what they
used to to having that experience of being drunk.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's a big question, but how do we change the
culture then? How do we change the contract? I think
it's becoming you know, we've got to keep working on
being half conscious and not having.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
It as socially acceptable as drinking as part of our culture,
and that we need to change it as having it
in a different kind of way, that it's not about
drinking and when we go to sports events and it
being a cool thing that we do as a group,
as a gathering, as a social thing, because really we
drink all sorts of social gatherings, whether it's a birthday

(04:05):
party or Christmas, and people quite often more drink in
those situations because they think they want to be part
of that culture of celebrating. But actually, if we change
that celebration sort of culture, maybe it's about you know,
coming a glass of water, maybe not so much fun,
but actually changing that whole culture around our drinking and

(04:27):
actually just getting us drinking less and not being as
a cool thing to be doing.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Thank you so much. Erin We'll catch up next week.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
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