Avoidance of Alcohol Use

Alcohol and Health

Alcohol has both acute and cumulative chronic effects.

The more alcohol you drink in a shorter period of time, the larger the immediate effect on brain and behaviour you are to get.

Binge drinking increases the risk of alcohol intoxication, injury and sexual abuse. Drivers, machine operators and people handling dangerous goods should stay away from alcohol.

In long-term, every single drink of alcoholic beverage in your lifetime adds up in affecting your health. Alcohol affects almost every body organ. A series of meta-analyses shows that alcohol is linked to more than 60 medical conditions, including alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, fatty liver, stroke, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. It also interferes with the metabolism of many drugs. Alcohol worsens pre-existing liver diseases and medical conditions associated with diabetes. Alcohol is classified as a group 1 cancer-causing agent (at the same group of Tobacco) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Long-term excessive use of alcohol leads to alcohol dependence, which adversely influences your work, family and interpersonal relationship.

Apart from your own health, people around you may become victims of alcohol-related violence or road traffic accidents due to drink-driving. Drinking during pregnancy or breastfeeding adversely affects the fetuses and babies.

How Much Have You Drunk?

Different alcoholic beverages have different alcoholic contents. The amount of pure alcohol you consume depends on the amount and the alcoholic content (the percentage of alcohol by volume) of the beverages that you have drunk. "Standard Drink" is a common measure of amount of alcohol. WHO, defines one "Standard Drink" as 10g of pure alcohol.

The following is equivalent to ONE "Standard Drink":

• 3/4 can (~250 ml) of regular beer with 5% alcohol content
• 1 small glass (~100 ml) of wine with 12% alcohol content
• 1 pub measure (~30ml) of hard liquor with 40% alcohol content

If you drink different types of alcoholic beverages, you can calculate the number of "Standard Drinks" you have consumed using the following formula. No matter which type of alcoholic beverage you drink, the ultimate target is to reduce the amount of alcohol consumption to zero.

Alcohol Treatment Services

Related links

Local

• 'Change for Health' website, Department of Health