Introduction
The recommended weekly amounts of alcohol are:
- 14 Units for women
- 21 Units for men
These recommendations are based on the presumption that you should recommend half the amount that would cause problems in 50% of people. So, if a man drank 42 units a week for several years, then he has a 50% chance of negative consequences.
How much is a unit?
Bottle of wine
|
9 units
|
Glass of wine (large – 250ml)
|
3 units
|
Bottle of spirits
|
30 units
|
Pint of beer
|
2 units
|
Strong pint of beer
|
3 units
|
Alocpop bottle
|
2 units
|
Bottle of cheap cider
|
10 units
|
A bottle of spirits has roughly 40%
alcohol by volume; which equates to 70% alcoholic proof.
10ml of pure alcohol is ‘one unit’
Susceptibility to alcoholic disease varies widely. 1/3 of serious alcoholics will get cirrhosis. Some may drink 500 units a week for years, and never have any
liver problems, but some might drink 100 a week for a year and already start to show serious signs of damage.
The difference between an alcoholic and an
alcohol abuser is
dependency.
Who are the heavy drinkers in society?
- City Workers
- Barmen (drink 7x greater than average)
- Chefs (5x)
- Publicans (10x)
- Seamen
- Architect and accountants drink the least
- Doctors drink just very slightly above the average. Psychiatrists are significantly higher than other specialities.
Which nation are the heaviest drinkers?
- Russia
- Scandinavia
- Eastern Europe
- France
- Britain (above average, but not as high as those mentioned above)
Consequences due to drunkenness
- Trauma
- Vomiting - this can lead to aspiration, which if light, is likely to cause pneumonia, but if serious could lead to death as the patient is unable to breathe.
- Radial nerve palsy – if you fall asleep with your arm in an unusual position (e.g. over the back of a chair) then your radial nerve can get stuck in the radial groove and compressed. This can lead to nerve damage. The typical sign of this damage is a drooping wrist. Sometimes it is permanent, but in some cases it may only last a couple of weeks.
- Risk taking behaviours – e.g. climbing trees, swimming across rivers etc.
- Vasodilatation – this is not necessarily very dangerous, unless you combine it with being in a cold place for a long time – e.g. sleeping in the park after a drunken night out. In this case it may lead to hypothermia.
- Hyperglycaemia
- 50% of weekend hospital admissions in some cities (Manchester included) are due to alcohol.
Consequences of Withdrawal