THE first week of July was Alcohol Awareness Week so let us take this opportunity to look at our alcohol intake.
For many people drinking is part of a normal social life, but it is easy to slip into over drinking. According to current guidance you should not regularly consume more than 14 units of alcohol per week (both for men and women), and ideally spread this out over at least 3 days. There is no ‘safe’ level of drinking alcohol but drinking less than this amount is felt to be of lower risk to your health.
Units can be confusing and difficult to calculate, often leading to under-estimation. Both the strength and the size of the drink matters, eg a 25ml shot of spirit (40% strength) contains 1 unit, however if you were to go to a bar a standard measure is 35mls which is 1.4 units. And then there’s ‘home measures’, which are likely to be larger still. A pint of strong lager (5.2%) contains 3 units whereas a medium strength (4%) contains 2.2 units.
Try counting up what you had in the last week (it’s easy to do on www.count14.scot or www.alcoholchange.org.uk which also counts calories) and see if your health would benefit from some changes to your drinking habits.
The risk of developing health issues increases the more you drink and the more often you drink. Some problems can take many years to develop but these do not just affect dependent / ‘addicted’ drinkers. I see these issues frequently in people who are unaware that they are regularly over-drinking. Alcohol related illnesses include liver damage (including cirrhosis which can lead to early death); cancers (mouth, throat, stomach, bowel, breast and liver); mental health problems (low mood, anxiety, poor sleep, sexual problems); heart issues (heart disease and high blood pressure) and nerve and brain damage. Alcohol can worsen menopausal symptoms especially hot flushes and is a major contributor to weight gain (due the high calorie content).
If you reach for an alcoholic drink in the morning to get you going, have memory loss related to drinking, find it difficult to stop once you start, or if someone has raised concerns about how much you’re drinking then you are probably drinking too much. There is advice on ways to reduce onwww.dgadp.co.uk/alcohol-harm-reduction as well as contact details for local agencies that can support you, or speak with your GP.
