Social drinking: the risks

Health campaigns have warned of the dangers of binge drinking and alcohol addiction but social drinking has now emerged as a health risk too.

( NHS Choices news ) More than 10 million people in England drink more than the recommended daily amount.

Men should not regularly drink more than three to four units of alcohol a day and women should not regularly drink more than two to three units a day.

'Regularly' means drinking this amount every day or most days of the week.

Up to 22,000 deaths a year in England and Wales are associated in some way with drinking too much alcohol, according to Alcohol Concern. That's twice the rate of 20 years ago.

The number of units of alcohol in a drink depends on the size and strength of your drink. With some strong beers and ciders, a pint or a bottle can contain three units or more. So can a single large glass of wine.

A single large measure of spirits can contain nearly one-and-a-half units. A double can be nearly three units. You cannot count one drink as one unit. You have to check how strong and how large your drink is to know how many units of alcohol are in it.

Some experts warn that we could be facing an epidemic of liver disease. "The prevalence of liver disease in people in their 20s and 30s is rife," says Dr Rajiv Jalan, a liver consultant at University College Hospital in London.

"If we don't do anything about it, we are looking at a cirrhosis epidemic within 15 to 20 years."

High tolerance

Lower-risk drinking guide

• Regularly drink no more than three to four units a day (men).
• Regularly drink no more than two to three units a day (women).
• No alcohol for 48 hours after a heavy drinking session.
• Avoid alcohol completely if you're pregnant or trying to conceive. But if you do drink, drink no more than one to two units once or twice a week.

Andy Ball is one of the casualties of social drinking. He thought he had a high tolerance to alcohol. But after years of drinking at what he considered a 'normal level' he was diagnosed with cirrhosis (liver disease) at the age of 34.

“People are in denial about the amount they drink,” he says. “A lot of us are alcohol-dependent to some extent. Not many of us choose to socialise without a drink in our hand.”

Many of us don’t consider ourselves to be heavy drinkers but we may still be doing ourselves harm.

Patrick Greene, 49, didn’t think he was drinking excessively until he kept an alcohol diary for a week. A drink here and there quickly added up to 120 units a week, which is over four times the recommended daily amount for men. “Doing the diary was a wake-up call,” says the businessman from Wandsworth in London.

Liver disease

To find out if you need to cut down, keep an alcohol diary and use the Unit Calculator (see External links).

Your GP is a good place to start for further information and advice. He or she may advise you to register with a support group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. In serious cases of dependency, they may recommend specialist treatment at a local alcohol service, and possibly a period of support in a rehab unit.

Professor Nigel Heaton, a liver transplant consultant at King’s College Hospital, says social drinking can hide how much is really being drunk.

“Some people think it’s natural to have a bottle of wine a night,” he says. “It all seems respectable because you’re drinking with food and it’s not associated with any drunken behaviour or even feeling drunk.

"But if it happens regularly you may face problems later on. Most of us think of people with alcoholic liver disease as alcoholics, and they think, ‘I’m not an alcoholic so I can’t get liver disease.’

“You may not be an alcoholic but if the overall amount of alcohol you drink exceeds recommended limits it may still cause serious liver disease.” ( source : www.nhs.uk)