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Alcohol - sensible drinking

Drinking small amounts of alcohol is a pleasant social activity for many people. However, as the amount you drink and the number of times you drink increases, so do the risks.

Some of the risks associated with excessive alcohol drinking are well known. Drinking above recommended levels can lead to high blood pressure, stomach disorders, depression and emotional disorders, malnutrition and liver disorders.

Regularly drinking too much also makes it much more likely to suffer accidents and put on weight. Excessive drinking can also put enormous strain on relationships between family members.

This section of the website provides information on sensible drinking, the effects and potential risks of drinking alcohol, as well as where to get advice and treatment if you are worried you are drinking too much.

The NHS recommends:

  • men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units a day
  • women should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units a day

'Regularly' means drinking these amounts every day or most days of the week.

A few simple tips can help you cut down:

Make a plan - Before you start drinking, set yourself a limit on how much you're going to drink.

Set yourself a budget - Only take a fixed amount of money to spend on alcohol.

Let them know - If you let your friends and family know you're cutting down and that it's important to you, you could get support from them.

Take it a day at a time - Try and cut back a little each day. That way, every day you do is a success.

Make it a smaller one - You can still enjoy a drink but go for smaller sizes. Try bottled beer or a small glass of wine.

Have a lower-strength drink - Cut down the alcohol by swapping strong beers or wines for ones with a lower strength (ABV in %). You'll find this information on the bottle.

Stay hydrated - Drink a pint of water before you start drinking, and avoid using alcohol to quench your thirst. Have a soft drink instead.

Take a break - Have the odd day each week when you don't have an alcoholic drink.

NHS Choices have a number of really useful interactive tools to calculate alcohol units, assess your drinking levels and track your drinking over time.

Use the drinking self-assessment to find out if you're drinking too much. It'll help you to assess the effects of your drinking and, if you are drinking too much, suggest ways of cutting down.

Use the alcohol unit calculator to find out how many units there are in a single drink or in a number of drinks.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch you can download the drinks tracker from the iTunes app store for free. The app allows you to calculate units in your drinks, track your drinking over months and get personalised feedback.

The desktop tracker lets you calculate units, keep a drinks diary on your desktop and provides personalised feedback on your drinking.

Keeping a drinks diary for a week can be a real eye-opener to people who don't realise how much they're drinking. Download the drinks diary leaflet (PDF, 656kb) to work out your alcohol intake over a week.

How much is too much?

Alcohol units can help us keep an eye on how much we're drinking. One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour.

Health experts recommend that women should only drink 2-3 units of alcohol a day and men should only drink 3-4 units a day. You should also take a break for 48 hours after a heavy session to let your body recover.

The number of units in a drink is based on the size of the drink as well as its alcohol strength, so it can be difficult to keep an accurate count of alcohol consumed. Common drinks contain the following number of units:

Small glass (125ml) of red / white wine (12% ABV) = 1.5 units

Large glass of red / white wine (12% ABV) = 3 units

Pint of lower strength lager, beer or cider (3.6% ABV) = 2 units

Pint of higher strength lager, beer or cider (5.2% ABV) = 3 units

Bottle of larger, beer or cider (330ml, 5% ABV) = 1.7 units

Can of lager, beer or cider (440ml, 5% ABV) = 2 units

The alcohol unit calculator below to find out how many units there are in a single drink or in a number of drinks.

For a drinks calculator goto http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Alcohol-unit-calculator.aspx

Alcohol - effects and risks

You don't need to be an alcoholic to suffer alcohol-related health problems. Regularly drinking more than recommended levels can permanently damage your health.

Most of the damage caused by alcohol only emerge years after problematic drinking starts, by which time some serious health damage may have been caused. Below are some of the effects of drinking more than your recommended daily amount.

Short term effects

  • sexual difficulties like impotence
  • slowed breathing and heartbeat
  • loss of consciousness
  • increased risk of accident and injury
  • impaired judgement leading to accidents
  • poisoning which could be fatal
  • hangover leading to anxiety.

Long term effects

  • certain types of cancer
  • liver and heart disease
  • strokes
  • weight gain
  • skin problems, loss of body hair
  • damage to unborn child.

Facts and figures

It takes your liver an hour to process one unit of alcohol. So having two or three drinks an hour overloads your system which will cause health problems.

The West Midlands has the third highest alcohol related death rate (17.1 per 100,000 for men and 8.1 per 100,000 for women).

Deaths from liver cirrhosis in the UK trebled between 1970 and 1998 and are still rising. The rates for West Midlands men and women are higher than the England average.

In 2005 nearly 2700 people in the West Midlands died from medical conditions attributable to alcohol.

One of the other long term effects is weight gain; it is said that the average wine drinker now consumes around 2,000 calories from booze alone each month in the West Midlands . Similarly a beer-drinker knocking back just five pints a week would add a whopping 44,200 calories over a year.

Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol will not only lead to an expanding waistline but will increase a person's chances of developing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Alcohol and pregnancy

If you drink while pregnant, alcohol will reach the baby through the placenta. As the baby can't process alcohol as quickly it is exposed to it for longer which can affect their development.

Pregnant women, in particular during the first three months, or women trying for a baby should try to avoid drinking alcohol.

For more detailed information please visit the NHS Choices website which gives more guidance on alcohol when pregnant.

Children and young people

The UK minimum legal age for buying alcohol is 18 but a lot of teenagers are drinking at a much earlier age and binge drinking at weekends is on the increase.

Data for 2007/2008 shows that 194 young people from Coventry under the age of 18 were admitted to hospital due to alcohol.

According to the Communities that Care survey 2008

  • 63 percent of young people in Coventry have tried alcohol
  • 19 percent had indulged in binge drinking in the previous four weeks (defined as five or more drinks in a row)
  • One in ten reported themselves as a regular drinker (defined as drinking at least once a week).

Parents have a responsibility to talk to, and teach their children about the effects of alcohol and should also set a good example for their children; think about how your attitudes towards alcohol could affect your children's drinking behaviours.

For more detailed information please visit the NHS website which gives guidance on young people and alcohol.

Advice and treatment

If you are worried that you or someone you know is drinking too much you can contact:

The Recovery Partnership

Specialist, free and confidential Coventry-based alcohol service for adults.

Ironmonger Row
Coventry
CV1 1FD
Telephone: 024 7663 0135

Compass

Specialist, free and confidential Coventry based alcohol service for young people

Telephone: 07515 996 872
E-mail: Coventry@compass-uk.org

Swanswell

Specialist, free and confidential help for adults affected by alcohol misuse who are experiencing housing difficulties.

Swanswell House
Norton Street
Coventry
CV1 5FY
Telephone: 024 7622 6619

Coventry NHS Walk-in Centre

Fast access to health advice and treatment and is available to almost everyone on a drop in basis

Stoney Stanton Road
Coventry
CV1 4FH
Telephone: 024 7624 6789

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Telephone: 0845 7697 555 (national helpline)

Drinkline

National alcohol helpline, offers free confidential advice about alcohol

Telephone: 0800 917 82 82

Alternatively you can visit: