Once again we are reading about some alarming statistics regarding liver disease in the young. In former years cirrhosis of the liver was largely confined to late middle age drinkers who had subjected themselves to a life time of abuse. Now this dangerous disease is spreading to heavy drinkers under the age of 35. Despite the blandishments and warnings of the government, the health service and organisations such as Balance the problem seems to be increasing. It is now time for the individual to take responsibility for their own health in the respect of drinking. If you drink too much alcohol over an extended period of time you will damage your health. How much you can drink without damaging your health is subject to much debate but if you stick to the government recommendations, you as a healthy person will continue to keep a healthy liver. Some people who have had other forms liver disease or who cannot control their drinking or mood when they imbibe should really not touch alcohol at all.
Over the last 30 years or so I have seen a complete change in our drinking habits. When I was young, men mostly drank beer which was around 3.5 % alcohol. Two pints a day would take you up to the government's recommended limit but of course most people did not drink everyday and most people did not drink at home. Party time was usually limited to Friday night. When I was young women drank much less than men. The price of a pint of beer or a shot of whiskey was much more expensive in comparison to wages. Supermarkets did not sell wine , spirits and beer and there were no special offers. Even though the average person drunk less than today there were still plenty of alcoholics. One of my best friends was killed by alcohol and no amount persuasion or pleading by me or his family would stop him drinking . He was an intelligent man and knew what he was doing to his body. I estimated that he drank more than the equivalent of a bottle of scotch a day. Think about it: a bottle of scotch contains 30 units of alcohol. The average healthy man can eliminate 1 unit of alcohol per hour so this meant that his blood was awash with alcohol all day every day. Alcoholism is a terrible addiction and, from a social point of view, it probably does more damage than smoking.
A couple of years ago I worked in Bournemouth, a university town, where young people were out every night. Once or twice a week I would go out for a pub meal with my colleagues. In the centre of town the pubs were full of students and young people having mid-week parties. All of these young people were friendly, intelligent and responsible, in my opinion. When I talked to them about their drinking they all told me that they drank before they arrived at the pub. When I went back to my flat at about 1030 or 11pm the same students were off to clubs. This was in the middle of the week! Their behaviour was confirmed by the taxi drivers who took me home. Many students were taking taxis from their digs to the pub at about 8 pm in the evening already "tanked up". At weekends whenever I stayed over and my wife came to visit me, we often saw students and young people piling out of buses at 11pm to go to the all night clubs. We were going to bed! Of course, my wife and I did this sort of thing when we were young but we could only afford to go to all night clubs once a month or so.
Times have changed so much and the sort of drinking that I saw was far in excess of recommended limits.The health professionals would probably blanch if they really knew how much alcohol is being consumed by the young on a daily basis.
No one, it seems, takes any notice of the recommended limits. But everyone should realise that if you drink too much every day you will become an alcoholic and you will seriously damage your mental and physical health. You will also damage your relationship with your friends and loved ones.
Consider this, if you drink cheap alcohol at home before going out to a pub and then on to a party and do this only a couple of times per week you are almost certainly drinking too much. Why not give your liver a rest for two consecutive days a week to allow your body to flush out the alcohol completely. Drink higher quality wines but drink less. Severely limit your consumption of alcopops or fore go them completely. Drink cask conditioned beer at low alcohol levels. Only drink spirits on special occasions and stick to higher quality. You can buy a really good bottle of wine for less than ten pounds and if you limit yourself to half a bottle a day five days a week you can enjoy your drinking safely and save money. Do not drink plonk just for the sake of it. Every now and then you can allow yourself to drink a little more without endangering your health. What could be worse than not being able to drink the beverage of the the gods because you have become an alcoholic or your damaged liver can no longer take alcohol .
Of course, excessive drinking is not confined to the young as the middle aged are now doing something similar, but at home. My recommendations still apply, so forget the cheap plonk and buy yourself a good quality bottle of wine then share it with your friend or spouse over a good meal. Above all, limit yourself to the safe consumption of alcohol. It will save you money in the long run and could even save your life.
Here are the drink aware recommendations:
"The government advises that people should not regularly drink more than the daily unit guidelines of 3-4 units of alcohol for men (equivalent to a pint and a half of 4% beer) and 2-3 units of alcohol for women (equivalent to a 175 ml glass of wine). ‘Regularly’ means drinking every day or most days of the week".
I am naturally a sceptic and have my own views on this. But when I add up the amount that my wife and I consume it is actually less than this. Two or three days a week we do not drink at all and when we do open a bottle of wine with a meal we only drink half the bottle and seal it. This is simply a commonsense and comfortable approach for us but for others it may be different. We are not averse to drinking more when we have friends around for dinner as there is no need to be sanctimonious about enjoying a few glasses of wine or guilty about exceeding the pronouncements of doctors and health officials.
Here is a way of calculating the unit equivalent of alcohol:
Strength (%) x Volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = number of units.
A 175 ml glass of wine at 14% alcohol by volume therefore contains 175 x14 /1000 = 2.45 units. There is some food for thought here. 175 ml is about a quarter of a bottle.
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