How many units per week. [POLL]

[Pope]

Most weeks less than 14 units, not that I count. Last weekend I celebrated my 30th birthday, so well exceeded the 14, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

In general, I don't drink alcohol between waking up on Monday morning to getting home on Friday night. This rule changes when I'm on holiday and around Christmas of course.

 

[BarnBrian]

I’m probably just above the 14 units, but that’s daily, not weekly. I’m 69 not overweight and still fit. I know this might be viewed as excessive but the fact is that I enjoy the taste of good beer, wine and decent Scotch.

 

[-Bezza-]

In general, I don't drink alcohol between waking up on Monday morning to getting home on Friday night. This rule changes when I'm on holiday and around Christmas of course.

Same for me, except there are exceptions:

- If a bottle of wine is open, it's fair game to finish it as you can't have it going bad (also applies to wine opened for cooking purposes)
- If you have guests over it's technically their drink, not yours
- Homebrew testing receives a scientific dispensation
- Nightcaps receive a medical dispensation on the basis that they aid digestion and/or sleep
- Thursday is the new Friday

 

[Zephyr259]

I try to have a night or two off per week but it generally is just one or none. However most of the time I only have 1 bottle so averages at 2.5 units per drink and 6 per week is 15 units, but some nights I'll have a dram or two but that's often if I've had a half pint with dinner. I don't mind exceeding the recommendations overly since I have a 3&3 rotation offshore so that effectively halves my intake.

 

[baggybill]

Poll should have had a lot more options to get a real feel for what's happening out there e.g. more than 50, more than 75 and more than 100 (like the BBC article).

I have a close friend (honestly, not me!) who's been 100+ for over 10 years now. Never ever gets drunk and never a drop before 17:00. Never puked in his life either, drinks a lot but doesn't abuse. Gradually worked his way up from one bottle of wine 5 days a week to 2 bottles of wine 7 days a week. We're both 53yo btw.

He recently had a full health check which showed elevated liver enzymes (no **** Sherlock!) and was referred for liver scan. He also had low testosterone levels. Scan was clear, no fatty liver, and no sign of any issues with any other organs scanned (they did the lot with his approval while he was there). He was asked to lay off the drink and come back for tests in two months. He did and... all levels were normal. Doctor actually said that his testosterone had shown a significant improvement too!

He might be one of the lucky ones (back on his daily two bottles again!) but he swears by his daily routine of a grapefruit and a high power/concentrate milk thistle tablet he's been doing religiously since his twenties.

Right, am away to finish ma grapefruit.....

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Poll should have had a lot more options to get a real feel for what's happening out there e.g. more than 50, more than 75 and more than 100 (like the BBC article).

I thought the more than 35 covered it and saved adding several more columns that would have had no votes in them.

 

[Dutto]

Poll should have had a lot more options to get a real feel for what's happening out there e.g. more than 50, more than 75 and more than 100 (like the BBC article).

....

More than a 100? Surely people who drink that much can't count that high!

I started adding mine up and got to "Over 35" so quickly that I got too frightened to carry on!

It's not so much the "regular" drinking that's the problem so much as the "unconscious" alcohol that only comes into the calculation when I sit down and think about my consumption. e.g. last night SWMBO placed a glass of whisky & water at my side (3 Units?) as I sat typing at the table. Of course, I drank it ...

... just like the glass of wine (5 Units?) she had poured for us at tea-time!

 

[Gunge]

Scary that someone can be drinking a bottle and a half of wine every night, or thereabouts, and not really think about it.

My missus has 2 a night every night and has done for years. She's as fit as a butcher's dog, never ill and is extremely active. At 51 I dunno how she does it. Me... my consumption has steadily been increasing over the last year or so, and is now just under 40 units a week. Given my history, I really need to start cutting down but can't be arsed. But I do have one dry week out of three cos of doing a night shift...

 

[mickthetrick]

i drink probably too much. half a bottle of bourbon a week and 10 to 15 pints each week.
ive cut down a lot of the last 10 years too. dont know the figure on units but it is too much but im happy and thats the main thing to me.

 

[Cwrw666]

Thinking of people I've known who've died before reaching pension age:

One hung himself, another died of organ failure following a transplant.
However 2 died of pancreatic cancer. One definitely being an alcoholic. Don't know about the other.
One died of liver failure, but there again 2 bottles of spirits a day for at least 10 years will do that for you...

 

[ACBEV]

I'm very strict with my alcohol intake... 40 x 500ml bottles of home brew and 10 pints when in the pub... per month... So, thats about 1.5 pints per day and I don't drink every day.

 

[Gunge]

Bah. If it wasn't for work and bills and crap like that I'd sup 900 pints a day.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

They have said this morning that there is no safe limit and the negative effects of drinking any alcohol outway the benefits, I guess we are all living too long so it's time to forget the times we have been told (by the same people) a couple of glasses of red wine a day is good for you!

.

 

[Covrich]

They have said this morning that there is no safe limit and the negative effects of drinking any alcohol outway the benefits, I guess we are all living too long so it's time to forget the times we have been told (by the same people) a couple of glasses of red wine a day is good for you!

.

SO I heard

Time to bring the shutters down now and shut up shop.

 

[Dutto]

The only safe thing to do nowadays is to STOP!

So, effective immediately, I will no longer read any reports, surveys, research papers or "global studies" on the subject of alcohol consumption!

I may die a bit sooner than I should have done, but I guarantee that I'll die a great deal happier!

 

[Gunge]

From people of the same mindset who wasted 5 years of their life on working out that eating half a field's worth of broccoli a day might cut your risk of bowel cancer by 0.003% and increase your life expectancy by 25 minutes and 31 seconds. Ignore these people... eat,drink and be merry. It ain't just for Xmas.

 

[-Bezza-]

They have said this morning that there is no safe limit and the negative effects of drinking any alcohol outway the benefits, I guess we are all living too long so it's time to forget the times we have been told (by the same people) a couple of glasses of red wine a day is good for you!

.

I've just read the article on the BBC. I wouldn't panic.

If you don't drink at all, you have a 0.91% chance of getting an alcohol-related health problem (by which I think they mean one typically associated with drinking).

If you have 2 drinks a day, that increases to 0.98%. So alcohol is a 0.07% factor.
If you have 5 drinks a day, that increases to 1.24%. Again, alcohol being a 0.3% factor.

So yes, based on the study, drinking alcohol is more likely to lead to health problems but any moderate drinker is more likely to have latent health problems than for them to be caused by drinking.

Just to add my own statistical nugget in here, you're 100% likely to die at some point in your life.

As you were.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Just to add my own statistical nugget in here, you're 100% likely to die at some point in your life.

And you will be 100% more miserable if you stop drinking and eating everything that is bad for you than if you ignored these doom and gloom merchants and carry on.

 

[Gunge]

Just think how many food fads have come and gone over the decades. This is bad for you, this is good for you etc etc. Add this to the list, the world will continue turning and as individuals we'll go when our number is called. Jeez where did that insane right-abdominal pain just come from?!?

 

[GerritT]

Correction here: I should be at 35 units and up, not 25-35. Miscalculated a bit. Oh well.