Why Giving Up Drinking ? or at least Cutting Down – is Something you May Want to Consider

Why Giving Up Drinking ? or at least Cutting Down – is Something you May Want to Consider

Perhaps you’re not an alcoholic. You just like to have a drink every evening after work to relax. Or you drink on social occasions, when you go out with friends.  Surely, you say, drinking is not a problem for you. What I’m about to share with you might blow you away.

I would agree with you if you limit yourself to two drinks a night, if you’re a man, or one drink, if you’re a woman. Anything more is classified as heavy drinking by the U.S. Center for Disease Control. Four or more drinks for a woman on any given occasion, or five or more for a man, is considered binge drinking. The figures of the National Health Service in the U.K. are less stringent.  They allow 2 -3 units of alcohol per day for women, 3-4 units for men. Just to be clear, a unit of alcohol is roughly one five-ounce glass of wine or one cocktail or one shot or a half pint of beer.

If you can honestly say that you’re not a heavy drinker – all right, you can use the U.K.’s standard – then read no further. If, however, you’re a woman and you drink more than 14 alcohol units per week, or you’re a man who drinks more than 21 alcohol units weekly, then read on.

Prolonged heavy drinking often leads as liver damage in the form of cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholic hepatitis, or a fatty liver. There’s no doubt about it. Alcohol injures the liver.  Then there are other health issues caused by prolonged heavy drinking, such as heart disease, strokes, and brain and nerve injury. Indirectly, consuming alcohol may have deleterious effects on other parts of the body. Six thousand men and eleven thousand women took part in an international study. It was discovered that those who drank more than two units of alcohol per day had a higher risk of fractures compared to non-drinkers. Those who consumed over three units per day doubled their risk of a hip fracture.

If you’re vain about your looks, there are additional reasons that might make you consider saying no when someone offers you that next shot. Alcohol dries up the skin, making it red and blotchy. It can cause the veins close to the skin to become permanently enlarged. You notice this a lot in alcoholics, the red veins marking the layer right underneath the dermis. Because women have thinner skin than men, it’s more marked with them. While alcohol tends to lead to oily and blemished skin, at the same time it dries the scalp and often leads to severe dandruff and hair loss.

We’ve barely touched on the physical long-term effects of alcohol, but even with this superficial look into its adverse effects on the body, doesn’t it make you want to reconsider your drinking habits?