What are the risks?
- Regularly drinking more than the recommended daily limits risks damaging your health.
- There’s no guaranteed safe level of drinking, but if we drink less than the recommended daily limits, the risks of harms to our health are low
- The Department of Health classifies alcohol use in three categories:
Risk |
Men |
Women |
Common Effects |
Lower Risk | Both men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units per week spread over three or more days. |
|
|
Increasing Risk | Regularly drinking 15-50 units per week | Regularly drinking 15-35 units per week | Progressively increasing risk of:
|
Higher Risk | More than 8 units per day on a regular basis or more than 50 units per week | More than 6 units per day on a regular basis or more than 35 units per week |
Drinking at an increasing risk?
- Men are 1.8 to 2.5 times as likely to get cancer of the mouth, neck and throat, and women are 1.2 to 1.7 times as likely
- Women are 1.2 times as likely to get breast cancer
- Men are twice as likely to develop liver cirrhosis, and women are 1.7 times as likely
- Men are 1.8 times as likely to develop high blood pressure, and women are 1.3 times as likely
Drinking at a higher risk?
- You could be 3 to 5 times more likely to get cancer of the mouth, neck and throat
- You could be 3 to 10 times more likely to develop liver cirrhosis
- Men could have four times the risk of having high blood pressure, and women are at least twice as likely to develop it
- You could be twice as likely to have an irregular heartbeat
- Women are around 1.5 times as likely to get breast cancer