"Older Drinkers" and "Late on-set Reactors"

Now the Royal Society of Psychiatrists have got into the act by making drink recommendations. They are proposing that the government issue new recommendations for alcohol consumption for the over 65's. Men and women over sixty five should drink no more than 1.5 units of alcohol per day or no more than 11 per week. This is absurd to the point of being laughable. Where is the evidence upon which they base their assertions? They cannot even get their arithmetic right; which regime do you want to be on the 11 units a week one or the 1.5 units a day?

If you are a man of 64 years and 364 days, your recommendation is 21 units per week and if you are a woman it is 14 units per week. But all of a sudden and one day older you have become a geriatric "late on-set reactor" incapable of taking your alcohol. Before the age of 65 women are advised to drink less alcohol than men but at the magical age of 65 both sexes should drink the same amount. This advice is obviously bunkum and counterproductive; who, now, can take any advice seriously about how much alcohol they should consume.

The new recommendations mean that any man or woman over 65 who drinks two small glasses of wine or a pint of beer or a double scotch a day will be considered a problem drinker, despite their health. This will create a problem rather than provide a solution. There are problem drinkers in all age groups and little is being done to solve their predicament other than lowering the recommendations for "sensible" drinking. Identifying the real problem drinkers in the population is already like "finding a needle" in a haystack". What is the point of making the haystack bigger?

It has been obvious to everyone for centuries that if you drink too much you will damage your health. Most people who have reached the age of 65 are quite capable of deciding for themselves how much they should drink without being patronised by anyone, including members of the Royal Society of Psychiatrists. They are also sensible enough not to drink when they are taking certain types of drugs. They do not appreciate being accused of being substance abusers.

The following statements released by Age UK sums up attitudes nicely:

"It is very worrying that growing numbers of people in later life are drinking higher levels of alcohol, which is likely to lead to a rise in alcohol-related health problems.

"Age UK fully supports moves to encourage GPs to do more to identify people who are drinking too much and the importance of raising awareness among older people about safe drinking levels." This is PR waffle of the worst kind which will do nothing to solve the problems that some over 65's have with alcohol or any other aspect of their life.