Stay Safe, Drink Craft Beer

We've heard a lot about the health benefits of beer, especially craft beer. Now, a Johns Hopkins study shows that your chances of ending up in the emergency room might be related to what beer you drink. It seems that factory beers are popular among ER patients.

Though Budweiser has 9.1 percent of the national beer market, it represented 15 percent of the of the E.R. “market.” The disparity was even more pronounced for Steel Reserve. It has only .8 percent of the market nationally, but accounted for 14.7 percent of the E.R. market. In all, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice, and another malt liquor, King Cobra, account for only 2.4 percent of the U.S. beer market, but accounted for 46 percent of the beer consumed by E.R. patients.

Drinking vodka, gin, brandy and cognac may also raise your odds of a visit to the emergency room. Go figure.

See "Budweiser is most popular beer among injured ER patients, pilot study says" for more on the research.

I wonder how many of those emergency room visits started out with, "Hold my beer, I want to try something." Like this perhaps...