‘Social Drinking’: the hidden risks

If you think only alcoholics and binge drinkers are putting their health at risk, think again.

Social Drinking Image

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Many people who see themselves as “social drinkers” are at risk of developing long-term health conditions because of the amount they regularly drink. Most drinkers are unaware that regularly drinking more than the limits advised by the NHS can lead to a wide range of long-term health problems, including cancers, strokes and heart attacks. More than 55% of people questioned in a YouGov poll thought that alcohol only damages your health if you regularly get drunk or binge drink. The 2010 survey of 2,000 adults also found that 83% believed that regularly drinking more than the recommended daily limits didn’t put their long-term health at risk. The survey suggests that 7.5 million people might be unaware of the damage their drinking could be causing.

Unseen damage

Drinking a large glass (250ml) of 12% wine (3 units) every day if you’re a woman, or two pints of 4% lager (4.6 units) if you’re a man, can push you above the recommended daily limits.

Men who regularly drink more than 2 pints of strong (5.2%) lager, which is more than 6 units, every day:

  • are over three times more likely to get mouth cancer
  • could be three times more likely to have a stroke

Women who regularly drink two large glasses of 13% wine (6.5 units) or more a day:

  • are twice as likely to have high blood pressure
  • are 50% more likely to get breast cancer

Over the limit

More than 9 million people in England drink more than the recommended daily limits. About 15,000 people in England die from alcohol-related causes each year. About 32% of these deaths are from liver disease, 21% from cancer and 17% from cardiovascular illnesses, such as heart disease and strokes.

Typically, longer-term alcohol-related illness or death affect older people who drink more than the recommended daily limits and consider themselves to be “social drinkers”.

Professor Nigel Heaton is a liver transplant consultant at King’s College Hospital, London. He says people who believe that drinking above the lower risk guidelines is just normal social drinking may be raising their risk of developing alcohol-related illnesses.

“Some people think it’s natural to have a bottle of wine a night,” he says. “It seems respectable because you’re drinking with food and it’s not associated with any drunken behaviour or even feeling drunk.

“But if it happens regularly, you may have problems later on. Most of us believe that people with alcoholic liver disease are alcoholics. We often think, ‘I’m not an alcoholic so I can’t get liver disease.’

“You may not be an alcoholic, but if the overall amount of alcohol you drink regularly exceeds the lower risk guidelines, it may still cause serious harm.”

Track your drinking

Keep tabs on your drinking. Because drinks come in all shapes and sizes, it can be hard to keep track of your units, monitor the amount you drink.

Research suggests many people underestimate how much alcohol they drink, keep track of your drinking over a week by using a drinks diary.

If you think you drink too much, there are many ways of making it easier to cut back.

Information on this page is used with permission from the NHS Choices web site.