Alcohol

Drinking Alcohol

While alcohol is a source of pleasure for many, it is also the cause of significant individual, social and economic harm.

Alcohol is an addictive depressant drug and a major cause of illnesses such as liver cirrhosis, cancers, heart disease, and social problems including social exclusion, unemployment, homelessness, violence, disorder, health inequality, teenage pregnancy and accidents.

If we only ever drank it once or twice in a lifetime, alcohol would probably do us no significant harm.  Most of us who do drink, however, do it a lot more often than that! 

When it comes to our health, it's the effect of drinking regularly over months, years and decades that causes most harm.

It doesn't matter whether you take it in cocktails, beer, wine, cider or lager; it's the alcohol that counts.

Alcohol affects all kinds of cells in the body, causing changes in some and stopping others from working properly. As with most 'poisons', the more you take, the worse the effects are.

Our livers make a special substance that breaks down alcohol and burns it as fuel. But alcohol exhausts the liver's ability to do this and too much too often can damage it permanently.

Given a chance, the liver can repair a lot of damage. This is why it's important to drink sensibly and have non-drinking days as well as not drinking too much at any one time.

Alcohol Units

The standardised way to measure alcohol is in units. 

One unit is 10 ml or 8 grams of pure alcohol - the amount of alcohol the average adult male can process within an hour.

According to UK government guidelines

Women should ideally drink no more than 2-3 units a day

Men no more than 3-4 units a day.

To work out your units visit http://units.nhs.uk/questions/unit-calculator

Or if you are keen on maths -multiply the volume in ml by the alcohol content and divide the result by 1000.

One drink does not equal one unit.  An average can of beer containing 341 ml with an alcohol content  of 4.7% contains 1.6 units [341 x 4.7 ¸ 1000 = 1.6]

Top 10 Sensible Drinking Tips

• Count up how many units you've had over a few days. You'll probably be surprised.
• Ditch big rounds: It's easy to end up drinking more when you're out in a big group. Pair off to buy drinks instead.
• Take a break: If you've had too much in one night, avoid alcohol for at least 48 hours.
• Take care at parties. Keep track of how much you are drinking.
• Eating will slow the alcohol absorption in your system.
• Say no to a top-up until your glass is empty. It's difficult to know how much you are drinking if your glass is being topped up
• Have a soft drink or water 'spacer' in between alcoholic drinks
• When you're drinking at home with friends and family, don’t pour much larger measures of spirits than you would get in a bar.  Use an imaginary unit measure to help keep track. (or even a real one).
• Plan how you're going to get home before your night out. Take a cab or ask a non-drinking driver to collect you.
• Keep a drinks diary to keep track of your drinking. http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tips-and-tools/drink-diary/

Support for those with drinking problems

If you are worried about your own or someone else's drinking call:-

Addiction Dependency Solutions (ADS),

18 East Parade, Leeds LS1 2BH

Tel: 0113 247 0111

Email: leeds@ADSolutions.org.uk

Web: www.ADSolutions.org.uk

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

AA has over 60 years of experience with all kinds of drinkers in all phases of active alcoholism and recovery. The support AA offer is free. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

There are many groups in Leeds. To find out details contact: 0845 769 7555

Web: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk

 Al-anon offers understanding and support for families and friends of problem drinkers, whether the drinker is still drinking or not.

To find out details of your nearest group contact: 020 7403 0888

Web: www.al-anon.org.uk

or call Drinkline on 0800 917 8282.