Too Much Budweiser Could Lead One to the ER

Drinking a lot of alcohol can lead a person to an Emergency Room. A new study has found that high-octane beer- Budweiser, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and Bud Light-were preferred choices of people who were treated in an ER due to alcohol-related injuries.

The study, for the first time, analyzed the link between specific brands of alcoholic beverages and the chances of people being admitted in ER due to any injury. Malt liquor and strong beer have higher alcohol content in them, which is why drinking large quantities of these drinks warrant a trip to the ER.

"Recent studies reveal that nearly a third of injury visits to Level I trauma centers were alcohol-related and frequently a result of heavy drinking. Understanding the relationship between alcohol brands and their connection to injury may help guide policy makers in considering taxation and physical availability of different types of alcohol given the harms associated with them," said David Jernigan, PhD, CAMY director and lead author of the study.

The data for the study came from Johns Hopkins Hospital Emergency Department in East Baltimore. Researchers looked at medical records of people admitted on Fridays and Saturday between April 2010 and June 2011. There were about 105 patients who said that they had consumed some alcoholic beverage before the injury. About 69 percent of this group were male and were of African-American origin, according to a news release.

Researchers then tracked the ER patients' preference for alcoholic drinks and compared it with data obtained from Impact Databank, a firm that tracks the alcoholic beverage market in the U.S. by type and brand of alcohol.

They found that ER patients were more likely to have consumed distilled spirits when compared to the national average consumption of these drinks.

Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and King Cobra only have a 2.4 percent share in the American beer market. Yet these liquor brands contributed about 46 percent of ER visits in the study.

Budweiser makes just 9.1% of domestic beer sales in the U.S. However, the study found that it accounted for 15% of alcohol related injuries in the study. Though Steel Reserve Malt Liquor has a minute 0.8 percent share in the beer market, it contributed 14.7 percent to the ER treatments, Time reported.

The study is published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse.