Dr. Oz: 5 Rules for Healthy Drinking

Skipping after-work happy hours during the week doesn't give you a free pass to down six drinks on Saturday night. Binge drinking—defined for women as four or more drinks in roughly two hours—is on the rise among American women, with one in eight drinking to excess three times per month, according to a 2013 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the consequences can be serious: One study found that people who engaged in binge drinking (regardless of whether they drank less at other times) were 85 percent more likely than non-bingers to suffer a stroke later in life, in part because excessive drinking can raise blood pressure very quickly.