It aims to reduce risk of illness and lower deaths linked to drinking by setting a level that would keep deaths from cancer and other diseases low.
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The guidelines advise that it’s safest not to drink regularly more than 14 units per week, in order to keep health risks from drinking alcohol to a low level.
“Most people are aware of the links between smoking and cancer, but far fewer are aware of evidence linking alcohol consumption with an increased risk of future health problems, in particular cancers of the mouth, intestines and breast cancer in women”.
The UK’s chief medical officers have admitted that the effect of alcohol on cancers was not fully understood when the previous guidelines were issued in 1995.
On drinking in pregnancy, the new guidance removes the previous clause which said that if women did choose to drink, they should drink no more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice per week.
The National Institutes of Health considers drinking habits at low risk for developing into an alcohol disorder as, for men, no more than 14 drinks a week, with no more than four on a single day.
People should now have several booze-free days a week and health chiefs have made it clear there is no “safe” level of drinking.
Many studies conducted these days have shown that the risks of alcohol start from any level of regular drinking and increases with increase in the amount of alcohol being consumed.
The UK Chief Medical Officers have released a new set of alcohol guidelines, which recommends a weekly, rather than a daily, guideline on regular drinking and suggests men and women drink the same amount of units in a week.
In Australia, men and women are advised to drink no more than two “standard drinks” (10g of alcohol) on any day.
How many units are in our favourite alcoholic drinks?
That’s the equivalent of six small glasses of wine or five pints of beer at 5% ABV strength.
“Heaving drinking” is defined as eight drinks or more a week for women and fifteen or more for men.
However, the latest guidance hasn’t differentiated between men and women, and cut the recommended consumption to 14 units across the whole week.
The 14-unit limit has been chosen because at that point, your drinking leads to a 1% risk of dying from alcohol-related causes.
There’s some level of risk attached to any level of alcohol consumption, according to the expert group that informed the guidelines.
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Pregnant women are now being told to abstain from drinking altogether as a precautionary measure.
