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Sharecare Names Heaviest-Drinking Cities in America

Two hands holding glasses of beer

Memphis and Knoxville Top List, while Minneapolis and Buffalo Master Moderation

ATLANTA, December 19, 2013 –’Tis the season of holiday parties, New Year’s Eve toasts and having a cold one while watching the Sunday game. But how much alcohol is too much when it comes to your health? Studies show that drinking in moderation – no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men – may actually help lower your risk of heart disease. Overdo it too much and too frequently, however, and you risk negatively impacting your RealAge, the biological age of your body, by more than 7 years if you’re a woman and 3.5 years if you’re a man, according to Sharecare, the online health and wellness engagement platform founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold.

Sharecare factors how much and how frequently you drink alcohol into its scientifically based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, which determines the biological age of your body based on your health status, and good and bad health habits. According to a sample of 250,000 RealAge Test respondents this year, Sharecare identified the 10 cities that imbibe too much, as well as the 10 that have mastered moderation (click here for the complete analysis):

10 Heaviest-Drinking Cities in America
For Women For Men
1. Memphis, Tenn. Knoxville, Tenn.
2. Salt Lake City, Utah Louisville, Ky.
3. Jacksonville, Fla. Greenville, S.C.
4. Knoxville, Tenn. Oklahoma City, Okla.
5. Columbus, Ohio Portland, Ore.
6. Greenville, S.C. Greensboro, N.C.
7. Louisville, Ky. Jacksonville, Fla.
8. Raleigh, N.C. Las Vegas, Nev.
9. Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati, Ohio
10. Oklahoma City, Okla. Nashville, Tenn.

 

10 Cities in America that Drink the Least
For Women For Men
1. Minneapolis, Minn. Buffalo, N.Y.
2. Boston, Mass. Chicago, Ill.
3. Milwaukee, Wis. Hartford, Conn.
4. Rochester, N.Y. San Diego, Calif.
5. Buffalo, N.Y. San Francisco, Calif.
6. Pittsburgh, Pa. Virginia Beach, Va.
7. Providence, R.I. Denver, Colo.
8. New York, N.Y. Memphis, Tenn.
9. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa.
10. Chicago, Ill. Miami, Fla.

“Between 80 and 90 percent of people who drink excessively – two to four drinks each day – will develop enlarged or fatty livers, and 20 percent of those will develop cirrhosis, which is irreversible,” said Keith Roach, MD, chief medical officer of Sharecare and co-creator of the RealAge Test. “Binge drinking – four or more drinks at a time for women and five or more drinks at a time for men – is even worse, because in addition to serious liver problems, you also increase your risk for heart disease.”

To find out your body’s true age, join Sharecare – membership is free – and take the RealAge Test at www.sharecare.com/assessments/realagetest/taketest.

About Sharecare

Sharecare is a health and wellness social engagement platform that helps people to live healthier lives by connecting them to personalized resources including high-quality information from national experts, interactive tools and local healthcare providers. The power behind the site is its groundbreaking and popular, scientifically-based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, taken by more than 30 million people since its inception in 1998, and a unique, social Q&A format that provides the collective wisdom of America’s top experts—greatly simplifying the search for health information. Created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications, Sharecare allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice—simply said, sharing care. Launched in 2010, Sharecare is based in Atlanta, GA.

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