People in Scunthorpe area urged to make safe drinking a new year's resolution, suggests Barton doctor Robert Jaggs-Fowler
I do not need to be a clairvoyant to hazard the guess that there is a reasonable chance that alcohol may have played a significant part in your Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Hopefully, moderation was the watch-word for most readers.
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Alcohol causes more than 60 different medical problems, the doctor points out
However, what exactly is moderation, and how do we know whether we are imbibing at levels hazardous to our health?
George Bernard Shaw took the view that "alcohol is a very necessary article … It enables Parliament to do things at 11 at night that no sane person would do at 11 in the morning".' (Perhaps that explains our present re-organisation of the National Health Service?)
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Staying with politicians, Winston Churchill once famously defended his alcohol consumption with the pronouncement that "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me". While he may have been right about many things during his political career, the fact that he ultimately died of a stroke suggests that he may not have been correct in this one respect.
Alcohol is, for many of us, one of life's pleasures when used sensibly. However, the truth is that alcohol causes more than 60 different medical problems; often from damage you cannot easily see. In addition to tiredness, weight gain, memory loss, insomnia and sexual problems, alcohol increases the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, neck and breast. It also causes high blood pressure, brain damage, strokes, dementia, irregular heart rate, liver failure (cirrhosis) and liver cancer.
Sensible alcohol drinking means that men should not drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol per day, and women not more than 2-3 units per day on a regular basis (meaning every day or most days of the week). Alcohol should be avoided altogether during pregnancy and if trying to conceive.
As a rule of thumb, a single measure of spirit is 1 unit. A bottle of wine is 10 units; making a 250ml glass of wine 3 units, as is a pint of beer. A can of lager is 2 units, and a bottle of Alco-Pop is 1.5 units. As an example, men who regularly drink more than two pints of beer a day are three times more likely to get mouth cancer or suffer a stroke. Women who drink more than two large glasses of wine per day are twice as likely to have high blood pressure and have a 50 per cent higher risk of breast cancer.
For further information see www.nhs.uk/drinking. A free Smartphone app to track your drinking is available from http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/ Pages/drinks-tracker-mobile-app.aspx. It is not too late to make "Drink Safely – Live Longer" your new motto for 2013.
Comments
by HattyTood
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 11:37AM
“Gov't guidelines of the past:
Drink a pint of milk a day - ooops no, it's bad for you
Go to work on an egg - ooops no, they're bad for you
It's simply doctors trying to drum up business, if the Gov't really took the harm from booze & ciggies seriously they'd ban them - like they have drugs and weapons (although those two aren't a massive means of tax into the coffers)”
by gordonio
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 10:44AM
“Dellboy1959, it makes you wonder if it's worth getting out of bed in the morning sometimes, every time the news is on TV there's always something that's bad for you or causes cancer, then a couple of years down the line the tables get turned and that same thing is good for you.
Personally, I don't give a hoot and carry on in my own sweet way, and the way I WANT to live my life.”
by Hazzers
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 10:04AM
“If alcohol played any part in Churchills longevity that indicates those around me at Albert Marson Court will live into their centenaries.”
by dellboy1959
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 10:04AM
“Blah Blah Blah,
I'm sick to death of being told what i can't do.Don't drink,don't smoke,don't eat that for fecks sake.
The way this worlds going i don't want to be on it for longer than i have to.Most of us get get very little pleasure as it is and i for one don't want to end up in some mind numbing rest home stareing out the window and wondering when someones going to take me to the toilet and wipe my **** when I've finished.
As the saying goes "play hard,die young"”
by gordonio
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 9:56AM
“The article quotes Winston Churchill as having died of a stroke, and also alludes to alcohol probably playing a part in his death, for heaven's sake the great man was 90 years old, so perhaps alcohol helped him with his longevity.
There's not much hope for my longevity, I drink far,far, more than the recommended quotas above, ha well you've got to die of something, so I may aswell die a happy bunny.”