Drinking & Alcohol
How to drink safely by limiting your alcohol consumption.
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Safe drinking is limiting your alcohol consumption to a frequency and quantity that minimises your risk of damaging your health. It is recommended that:
Where 'regularly' means drinking these amounts every day or most days of the week. It is advised that you should have at least two alcohol free days every week.
However if you're one of the many people who save up your units throughout the week and consume them all in one sitting, this does not constitute safe drinking either!
It is recommended that in one sitting, you should not consume over 8 units if you are male and 6 units if you are female.
What is a unit?
Did you know? One unit is the equivalent of 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour.
If you feel you may be drinking above the safe limits but have no idea what a unit is you may be surprised to find out, see:
Back to the topManaging your alcohol intake is important for helping you to live well. Excessive alcohol consumption can affect your short-term wellbeing by potentially causing hangovers. It can also have a negative impact on your long term health risks. Alcohol when consumed frequently and in high amounts is known to have an effect on every system in the body. It can lead to excess weight gain and lead to increased spending. Drinking within the safe limits can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, can help levels of concentration and can limit awkward social situations.
Back to the topThere are lots of tools available that can help you to manage your alcohol intake and support you in living well.
Units should be present on the labels of all alcoholic beverages. If you're interested in your unit count there are many new apps that you can download to your phones or access on the internet that can help you drink sensibly.
You can similarly start keeping a drink diary and posting this on your fridge. This will allow you to identify whether there are specific times or days that you consume a little more, in such cases why is this? What do you think will help you reduce this intake?
If you would like further information on what is safe drinking, units and tips and tools on helping you manage your intakes visit:
The NHS Drinking & Alcohol page
Back to the topIf you are worried about the amount of alcohol you consume or would like to check whether you are drinking safely, then LiveWell can help you. Our trained Health Advisors can provide you with information about activities that are happening in your local area and can also help you to seek further advice and support.
To contact our team at LiveWell please call 0845 465 1024 or email us at change@live-well.org.uk
You can make an appointment with an advisor by self-referring.
Visit our EVENT FINDER to see what groups and/or services are available to help you to improve your health and reduce your risk of developing disease.
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