Nalmefene

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or NICE will soon be recommending the drug Nalmefene to be prescribed to people who they deem to be drinking too much. Any man who consumes more than 7.5 units per day will be offered this drug which will help to reduce the desire to drink. The limits for women are lower being 5 units per day.

This is all very well but it is still possible to drink too much whilst taking Nalmefene which can have strong side effects. Nalmefene is an opiate substitute and should only be prescribed for six months. Heavy drinkers could face the possibility of having to cope with two drugs to help curb their desire for drinking: Alcohol and Nalmefene.

If you have a drink problem perhaps it might be better to  find a gentler method of reducing your alcohol consumption by avoiding stress and putting yourself into the social position where you are not encouraged to drink more than is good for your health. Why not try having two consecutive days per week when you do not drink at all to give your liver a rest.

Our society stresses people at their work by asking them to work too long hours or expecting them to travel continuously. We need a different approach to our working and social lives to solve the problems of excessive drinking and alcoholism - taking a pill seems to be the easy solution.

My wife and I regularly drink but we have at least two or three days where we do not drink at all. Sometimes we have one glass too many but we don't get a bad conscience about it.

The last bottle of wine we drank took us four evenings to consume. This meant that we drank one small glass each for four evenings with our food. We vacuum sealed the wine to stop it going off; there is no need to polish off the bottle if you take this approach.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2778367/Mild-alcoholics-want-one-glass-wine-night-given-3-pill-reduce-dependence.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalmefene

Some people may be tempted not to drink at all but still obtain the benefits of mild alcohol consumption: why not try the wine pill?

http://www.resveratrolbenefits.com/red-wine-pill.html

The evidence to support the claims for resveratrol are tenuous to say the least but taking a pill always seems to be an easy solution.

There are possible health benefits to drinking one or two glasses of wine per day; it makes food taste that much better and anything which improves conviviality cannot be such a bad thing. Be happy but please be safe