The dangers of 'drunkorexia' -- what happens when you skip meals to drink alcohol

It's a term not always associated with eating disorders but "drunkorexia" has real serious consequences.

In drunkorexia, people skip meals and instead just consume alcohol.

The dangerous combination is not a medically classified eating disorder, but a review published in 2012 in the Jouranl of American College Heath, says there are several characteristics of the condition.

Including skipping meals, excessive exercise to compensate for alcohol use, and drinking to purge food.

Fox News' doctor Manny Alvarez says those factors produce a dangerous result.

"Drunkorexia is an eating disorder that has some mental elements. It's when a person thinks that by not eating and drinking alcohol they can achieve not gaining weight, and therefore just the mere fact that they're just drinking calories based on alcohol is good enough and of course it's one of the biggest mistakes that anybody could make," Dr. Alvarez said.

Study authors say men and women differ in how they exhibit drunkorexia, adding men overexercised while women were more likely to skip meals before drinking.