Surprise: Worst Binge Drinkers Are Middle-Aged White Guys

If most people were asked to name the demographic mostly likely to die from alcohol poisoning after binge drinking, it's a safe bet that "college students" would be at the top of the list. As it turns out, the correct answer is middle-aged white men, reports ABC News. A new CDC report shows that 2,200 Americans, or about six people per day, die from alcohol poisoning each year—the result of drinking too much in too short a time. But 75% of those victims are ages 35 to 64, most are men, and most are white.

"What I think very interesting in this is that these people have probably been doing this for a long time, so why are they now dying of it?" asks the director of the Addiction Institute of New York. He figures most victims are probably weekend drinkers who wouldn't think they had a problem. "This is showing the dangers, the real dangers, of binge drinking, which we tend to associate with younger people." The report also finds that 38 million Americans binge-drink four times a month, with an average for eight drinks per sitting, reports Time. On a per-capita basis, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the most deaths. (At the very least, binge drinking seems to mess up your immune system.)