This week is Alcohol Awareness Week, and the Practice is urging all of our patients to be a little more aware of their alcohol consumption to encourage a healthy and safe lifestyle.
If you have an appointment with a GP or Practice Nurse this week, you may be given a questionnaire by our Reception team to fill out while you wait. This is to give our clinical staff an idea of your current consumption, so we can concentrate our efforts and give advice to those who need it.
How much is too much?
Everyone is different, and alcohol affects us all in slightly different ways, depending on factors such as your weight and how frequently you consume alcohol. As a rule though, women cannot tolerate as much alcohol as men, because they usually weigh less, their bodies contain less water, and they have different metabolisms or body chemistries.
However, medical experts have drawn up useful guidelines on sensible drinking, based on the available evidence to date, to help people keep their alcohol consumption within safe limits.
The recommendations are that men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol a week, and that women should have no more than 14 units.
To protect against the risks from alcohol, your drinking should also be spread over the week, rather than saved up for the weekend – so men should aim to drink no more than 3 to 4 units a day, and women 2 to 3 units, with at least a couple of alcohol free days a week.
What’s in a Unit?
Unfortunately you can’t just count each drink as a unit of alcohol. The number of units depends on the different strength and size of each drink, so it can vary a lot.
NHS Choices have created a calculator to help you plan a night out, or help you work out how much you drank last night: Units Calculator
You can also use the poster below as a guide to how many units are in your drinks (click for larger size).
Scotland has the highest level of consumption and harm in the UK. Over the past year, Scots drank almost 51 million litres of pure alcohol – that’s 1,190 units per year or 22.8 units per week. This is the equivalent of every person over the age of 16 drinking 119 bottles of wine.
- 25 people die in Scotland every week as a direct result of their drinking.
- Accident and emergency units treat an average of 4 alcohol-related cases every hour. (1)
- Alcohol misuse in Scotland costs £3.5billion every year – equivalent to £900 for every taxpayer.
- At least 65,000 children in Scotland live with a problem drinking parent (2) and
it is estimated that 30% of children in the UK live with at least one binge drinking parent (3)
- Half of Scottish prisoners and 77% of young offenders were drunk at the time of their offence.
- During 2009, Scottish hospitals dealt with 39,278 alcohol-related discharges. Of these, 36,121 were emergency admissions.
- In the 25-34 age group, more than half of men (53%) and 44% of women exceeded recommended daily limits on their heaviest drinking day.
Ref: All statistics from Alcohol Statistics Scotland 2011, ISD Scotland Publications with the exception of 1-3 below
(1) Calculated from Alcohol Statistics Scotland 2011. ISD Scotland.
(2) Changing Scotland’s relationship with alcohol: a framework for action. (2009) Scottish Government.
(3) Manning, V et al (2009) New estimates of the number of children living with substance misusing parents: results from UK household surveys, BMC Public Health 9.
If you would like more information about alcohol, or need to contact someone about your drinking or someone else’s, the following sites might help you:
Alcohol Focus Scotland
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcohol Information Scotland
Dr Susan Galloway will be retiring from Bruntsfield Medical Practice on 31st March 2012 having been a partner in the practice for 26 years.
