A third of A&E admissions in Greater Manchester - more than 82,000 - are now linked to alcohol abuse, with deaths from liver disease almost double the national average.
Men in the region can now expect to lose about 11 months of their life through alcohol and women more than six months - an increase of two-and-a-half months since 1995.
Doctors are so concerned they have organised a Regional Alcohol Summit, which is taking place today at Wigan's JJB Stadium.
It is part of a wider drive to improve health.
Dominic Harrison, deputy regional director for public health, said: "If the north west was a person, it would need counselling for alcohol dependence. The region has a big alcohol problem and we are in need of help. Collectively, we're in danger of losing our capacity to manage alcohol sensibly."
Manchester has one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption in Britain, with more than three-quarters of men (76 per cent) and 60 per cent of women saying they drink two or more times a week.
About 1.3 million in the north west (29 per cent) consume enough to be harmful or hazardous to health, more than any other part of England and Wales.
Twenty-two per cent of men and 12 per cent of women said they drank on five or more days.
Mr Harrison said: "Unlike tobacco, alcohol is not fundamentally unhealthy andcan contribute to quality of life if managed sensibly. But we have seen rising numbers of hospital episodes and deaths related to alcohol in the region."
He warned the problem was having wider implications, with two million working days lost last year due to alcohol-related assaults, costing the local economy billions. An estimated 53,000 assaults involving binge drinking were recorded by Greater Manchester Police in 2005 and 10,119 sentences passed in regional magistrates' courts for driving or attempting to drive while drunk.
Prof John Ashton, regional director of public health, said: "The bad news is that this report confirms what many of us have suspected for a long time - alcohol abuse is blighting the lives of many people in the north west and the problem is getting worse.
"The good news is that it helps us to understand better what is going on. There is no excuse for not tackling this problem with vigour."
emma.byrne@men-news.co.uk
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11 months?! Not bad, I'll take that considerin the 60 years before hand havin a nobble!
When looking at the binge statistics, have these boffins taken into consideration that Manchester has the largest student population in western Europe? And what do students do at night, yes they tend to drink, I know I did when I was a student, and it was great, so I can safely assume the same for later generations. If all the universities in both Manchester and Salford were closed, and the students dispersed, would these statistics fall? Probably!