How is your relationship with alcohol?

The recommendations are that women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week which should include some alcohol free days. How is your relationship with alcohol?

I love the taste of alcohol and I love the buzz it gives me. But I rarely drink at home. I do drink at conferences.  When the kids were small I looked at a conference as a time to get some well earned sleep, but I always woke up feeling depressed. I realised drinking the night before had affected my sleep and mood. What goes up, must come down.

Even one glass a day can disrupt our mood and energy levels and result in poor sleep and eating patterns.  This can make our relationships with friends and family suffer and make premenstrual syndrome and the menopause worse.  A little alcohol may make us feel happy but it can also make us short tempered and angry. And excessive drinking can lead to serious hang overs which may affect your whole day.

The amount of alcohol women drink is increasing.

Guidelines published in the UK in 2016 state “people have a right to accurate information and clear advice about alcohol and its health risk”. The guidelines takes into account new scientific evidence and concludes that regular drinking over time can lead to a variety of illnesses including cancer (alcohol increases the risk of 7 types of cancer, including breast, mouth and bowel), strokes, heart disease, liver disease and damage to the brain and nervous system.

From the Cancer Research UK web site: “Does a small amount of alcohol increase the risk of cancer? Yes, cancer risk starts to increase at small amounts, so the more you can cut down the more you can reduce your risk. Drinking alcohol causes 11,900 cases of cancer a year in the UK. Cutting back has lots of benefits other than reducing your cancer risk- including reducing the risk of accidents, high blood pressure and liver disease.”

Dame Sally Davies, the UK Chief Medical Officer, told a parliamentary hearing: “Do as I do when I reach for my glass of wine. Think: do I want the glass of wine or do I want to raise my own risk of breast cancer? I take a decision each time I have a glass.”

As we age, alcohol holds no prisoners. Alcohol is a neurotoxin and on some people, you can see that they are regular drinkers.  It can effect your skin including red skin, deep wrinkles and puffiness, it dehydrates the body. It reduces vitamin A – an antioxidant that is critical for cell renewal and turnover.  It can cause zinc deficiency in the body, which has been shown to cause hair loss.

And girls are drinking younger. Having hosted several teenage parties, it is most often girls who get very drunk. Several keep drinking until they vomit.

Alcohol can negatively affect several symptoms of the menopause: hot flushes, night sweats, poor sleep, depression.

I meet many women who say that they need their one glass a night to relax them and help them sleep. I hope that they know that this is not true and that even one glass will negatively affect them.

We all know that everything should be in moderation. Do you manage it? Or do you feel you drink too much?

Read More:

Global women – alcohol consumption as a cause of cancer

Global women – the drinkers face:  how alcohol accelerates aging

Global women – alcohol consumption – a stark challenge

Global women – drinking alcohol when pregnant – important information