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I enjoy a bottle of wine everyday, am I an alcoholic?

24

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    Patww79 wrote: »
    You're not at all, though the Helen Lovejoy brigade would have you locked up.

    What terrible advice.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,515 ✭✭✭valoren


    Alcohol is great for cognitive dissonance.

    You have a mental discomfort.

    You have to reduce/change either your belief or your behavior.

    The discomfort, the dissonance, is that you think you might be an alcoholic. You drink a bottle of wine everyday which is a lot of alcohol.

    1. Change the behavior to reduce the dissonance. Take active self aware action about your level of drinking as per Seamus' post. Cut down or even, shock horror, cut out the wine. If that doesn't work then your behavior to reduce the dissonance is to seek help from others.

    2. Change the belief to reduce the dissonance. The classic way to do this is by exploiting the stereotypical depiction of 'The Alcoholic' be it the abusive drinker destroying their family life, their health, their friendships, their career because of the booze or that of the down or the street bum with their trusty 2 litre cider bottles. Tell yourself that since you are not like that i.e. you are functioning like a normal, healthy person/you're not on skid row and now that you've changed your belief you get to continue your drinking as is. Yay!

    The idea of what an alcoholic is to 'normal' drinkers serves the purpose of allowing them to continue taking what is really a psychoactive drug by having their dissonance about drinking reduced.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 812 ✭✭✭Cleopatra_


    Well, alcoholic or not, a bottle of wine a night will impact on your health at some point. Aside from the health implications, does it cause any impairment in other aspects of your life? Are you hungover in work, do you end up arguing with family members, do you get aggressive or accidentally injure yourself while cooking? Do you make impulsive decisions after you've had the bottle of wine?

    I have an issue with alcohol but I wouldn't describe myself as an alcoholic. I don't drink very often and I can go out and have one or two drinks and go home, no problem. However, every once in a while I drink so much that I get black out drunk and the consequences of my actions while drunk has lasting repercussions. I should really stop drinking altogether but I don't like the idea of being teetotal for the rest of my life so I try my best to avoid the black out drunk scenario but it eventually happens at some stage, maybe once a year or once every six months. Perhaps abusing alcohol would be a better term for me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,591 ✭✭✭brevity


    I think milk thistle is supposed to help a relative of mine drinks about 2 bottles of wine a night (has been for a long time) and she’s been taking milk thistle for years. No sign of any diseases yet.

    It’s an interesting topic though. When does it become a crutch?

    I’d have a beer or two pretty much every evening and I wonder is it something that I should keep an eye on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 118 ✭✭jacksn


    thanks all for your comments

    I am married and self employed age 35, it doesn't seem to affect my productivity or sex life. It does however feel like a slippery slope so in the new year im going to knock it on the head..

    it feels like a habit alright, as mentioned i drink wine because i enjoy it - not always a bottle but 2-3 glasses.. occasionally turning into a bottle.. and on a sunday i look back at my week and think "Jesus i drank 5 bottles last week" but i never intently drink to get drunk, at least i dont think so.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,235 ✭✭✭✭Cee-Jay-Cee


    jacksn wrote: »
    I went on holiday to France last year, over there I enjoyed a lot of wine and since then I would have a bottle of wine every day, I feel like I can stop anytime but I do enjoy it.. am I a dipso?

    Bet ya you can't...I have a gambling problem but I can stop anytime.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 118 ✭✭jacksn


    seamus wrote: »
    Forget the connotations of the word "alcoholic" for a second. Most people in their heads picture someone who stinks of drink all day (even when sober), and is a slurring mess in the evening. And the label implies an illness that will stay with you for the rest of your life, and you need to cry off drink and never drink again.

    But all of that is obviously the extreme end. It might be more appropriate to say that at the moment that you're engaging in alcohol abuse. You're drinking too much and you can't stop. You say you can, but rather than actually stop, you posted here for advice.

    It's really easy to fall into the pattern. Day done, jobs done, grand, glass of wine to relax while watching the telly before bed. Oh, that went quick, I'll have another nip. And another. Aaaaand... the bottle is gone.

    The next night, the same thing. And before you know it you've had a few glasses or a bottle every night for the last two weeks.

    Stop the habitual drinking for two weeks. Have a cuppa instead. If someone invites you to go to the pub, fire away. But the habit of a glass of wine in front of the telly is what's catching you. Two weeks, is what it takes to shake it. It won't be as easy as you probably think it would. Tonight you can change your routine, cuppa tea no bother. Tomorrow night you'll be itching for a glass and telling yourself, "Ah sure I'll just have the one, that's no big deal", and the thought of a cup of tea is like salad for breakfast.

    After your dry two weeks, just have more awareness of what you're doing. If you realise you've been sitting in front of the telly with wine for 3 nights in a row again, then stop yourself, take a few days off.

    :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    if I drank a bottle if wine a day I'd be in a hoop. that's about 70 units per week. your liver will be fcuked


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,701 ✭✭✭Bacchus


    jacksn wrote: »
    I went on holiday to France last year, over there I enjoyed a lot of wine and since then I would have a bottle of wine every day, I feel like I can stop anytime but I do enjoy it.. am I a dipso?

    Why not set yourself a challenge and give it up for a week (no excuses because its coming up to Christmas). If you breeze through the week without feeling the urge to drink, then maybe you're not an alcoholic. If you struggle or cave in, then maybe you have a problem and you should seek help.

    If you can't even bring yourself to put such a challenge to yourself, then maybe you have a problem.

    In either case, it seems like a lot of alcohol to be drinking and it's in your health's interest to cut back.


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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    julius caeser made his soldiers drink a litre of wine most days, never hurt his army really.....

    but yes that much alcohol will really age you and fook your body up.
    can't be good for you.

    In saying that you hear centenarians saying they smoked every day, drank every day and laughed every day....you might get away with it based on genes and everything else.

    WIM HOFF LOVES WINE :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,628 ✭✭✭klaaaz


    Try alco-free wine or lower strength wine(on occasion) to help you cut back. Excessive alcohol makes a person tired, you will get liver damage over time and that's very serious with no medical quick fix. A blood test with your GP can tell you of some damage to your body. Everything in moderation, you're not drinking in moderation at 5 bottles a week.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,033 ✭✭✭✭Richard Hillman


    Enjoy your life


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 796 ✭✭✭Sycamore Tree


    jacksn wrote: »
    thanks all for your comments

    I am married and self employed age 35, it doesn't seem to affect my productivity or sex life. It does however feel like a slippery slope so in the new year im going to knock it on the head..

    it feels like a habit alright, as mentioned i drink wine because i enjoy it - not always a bottle but 2-3 glasses.. occasionally turning into a bottle.. and on a sunday i look back at my week and think "Jesus i drank 5 bottles last week" but i never intently drink to get drunk, at least i dont think so.
    Are you under huge stress?
    It's way too much alcohol consumption.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,887 ✭✭✭SteM


    The fact that you're going to wait until the new year suggests to me that you have a dependency OP. There'll always be an excuse for not knocking it on the head.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,430 ✭✭✭RWCNT


    igCorcaigh wrote: »
    I think the word 'alcoholic' can be self defeating.

    Alcohol is a drug that can cause damage, on many levels, if consumed too much.

    You do not need to be "addicted" to a drug for it to cause damage.

    That word is a scare tactic anyway, and is also badly deployed to other things such as sugar.

    I agree with this.

    A lot of folks seem to think that being able to stop whenever you want means that there's no problem. No, if you are continuously overindulging then you are creating the problem regardless of whether you're addicted or not.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 593 ✭✭✭engiweirdo


    Seriously, you're not an alcoholic. Yet. What could end up happening though is the bottle of wine every evening becomes more normal, helps you relax, then you cant really relax without it, sure its only a bottle of wine anyway....

    Then one of lifes little bumps in the road comes along, wheres that magic potion that helps me relax, fcuk this isnt working, maybe another bottle. Before you know it you're waking up in the doorway to Supermacs having spent the weekend sucking off strangers for Dutch Gold. Be careful is all I'm saying.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    SteM wrote: »
    The fact that you're going to wait until the new year suggests to me that you have a dependency OP. There'll always be an excuse for not knocking it on the head.

    To be fair december is the time when alcohol consumption ramps up.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 796 ✭✭✭Sycamore Tree


    engiweirdo wrote: »
    Before you know it you're waking up in the doorway to Supermacs having spent the weekend sucking off strangers for Dutch Gold.

    :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Grayson wrote: »
    To be fair december is the time when alcohol consumption ramps up.
    Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to keep drinking.

    Even something as simple as, "I'm not going to drink at home unless we have guests", could halve the consumption without affecting your Xmas plans.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 53 ✭✭cloudy90210


    Yes you are


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,874 ✭✭✭Edgware


    SteM wrote: »
    The fact that you're going to wait until the new year suggests to me that you have a dependency OP. There'll always be an excuse for not knocking it on the head.
    Never mind the New Year. Wait until the long evenings


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 53 ✭✭cloudy90210


    Edgware wrote: »
    Never mind the New Year. Wait until the long evenings

    The long evenings are here. The shortest day of the year is in 2.5 weeks.

    Winter has come. ALL OVA YOUR FACE


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,887 ✭✭✭SteM


    Grayson wrote: »
    To be fair december is the time when alcohol consumption ramps up.

    He says he can stop and says he'll knock it on the head in the new year. He certainly shouldn't be looking to ramp up!

    IMO he should be cutting his consumption in half now for the rest of December if he wants to stop completely in the new year, if for no other reason but to prove to himself that he can.

    I had the same discussion with my dad for years, Christmas/NY was always the big reason not to knock it on the head even through he said he could at any time. There were always other reasons during the year. Weddings, foreign holidays, christenings and all sorts were all trotted out as excuses not to stop during the year.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,453 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Focusing on liver damage and diseases is the wrong approach. Apparently 1 in 5 liver disease are a result of drinking. I know raging alcoholics at it for years with no liver problems. They do have other problems which are mostly digestion related. Alcohol is much more likely to affect you stomach and intestines first and mostly.
    A bottle a day in what is likely a short period in the evening is just unhealthy. Drinking the same amount of Coke is probably as bad. Mentally alcohol at level will develop a dependency emotionally and the physical properties will come after.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    DS86DS wrote: »
    There are plenty of people who enjoyed their drink, smoked like a chimney and didn't eat near enough vegetables....and lived well into their 90s.

    They had good genes. They reckon about 5% of the human pop can get away with life long hard living.

    The vast majority of people though are going to be eventually affected by long term bad lifestyle choices.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,004 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    That former footballer fella is still knocking around, Gazza. Thought he would be gone years ago. He must be taking the milk thistle by the gallon.

    But I doubt he could even spell it at this stage.

    Anyway, it affects people differently. Three or more rest days per week from the grog is a good habit to get into I think. Otherwise just enjoy it.

    I am more concerned about the binge drinking up for a fight, knife weilding nutjobs off their heads.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,658 ✭✭✭✭OldMrBrennan83


    What terrible advice.

    What advice you disagree with you mean, though people have an awful tendency here to believe their way is the only way.

    Not everything has to be outrage and a problem these days. As hard as that is to believe.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 796 ✭✭✭Sycamore Tree


    Patww79 wrote: »
    What advice you disagree with you mean, though people have an awful tendency here to believe their way is the only way.

    Not everything has to be outrage and a problem these days. As hard as that is to believe.

    To be fair it was terrible advice. Silly really. But good that you stand by it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,658 ✭✭✭✭OldMrBrennan83


    To be fair it was terrible advice. Silly really. But good that you stand by it.

    Nobody here is an authority on it so the same can be said for any advice. At the end of the day we're all just a bunch of blowhards with differing opinions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,453 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    They had good genes. They reckon about 5% of the human pop can get away with life long hard living.

    The vast majority of people though are going to be eventually affected by long term bad lifestyle choices.

    It's really the other way around. No matter how you live you are genetically predisposed so will get it anyway. While how you live can damage you it is more or less what the body can take.
    When you see warnings on cigarettes about what smokers die of it is a bit of a lie and manipulation of statistics.

    I had a doctor say smoking weed doubles your chances of developing schizophrenia. He based it on an increase of 0.01% to 0.02% from a study. Technically he was correct in the extent of reading the figure but it doesn't double your chances. That conclusion can't be drawn, it was one study, the sample size was limited etc...

    Doctors aren't statisticians and knowing one thing doesn't mean you understand another. Teachers aren't smarter than you they just know something before you. The researchers may know what they are doing but it doesn't hold up much due to the way research is funded.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 780 ✭✭✭afkasurfjunkie


    That former footballer fella is still knocking around, Gazza. Thought he would be gone years ago. He must be taking the milk thistle by the gallon.

    But I doubt he could even spell it at this stage.

    Anyway, it affects people differently. Three or more rest days per week from the grog is a good habit to get into I think. Otherwise just enjoy it.

    I am more concerned about the binge drinking up for a fight, knife weilding nutjobs off their heads.

    The affecting people differently is a good point to note. My dad drank heavily for years but functioned at work. Got worse for a while after he retired. His liver is fine. But it aged him terribly and he’s quite shaky now. In his late 60’s but looks and walks like a man in his 80’s. If he could turn back time he would never have drank so much. He could enjoy retirement and use his travel pass and play with his grandchildren instead of being confined to a chair for most of the day.
    So you might be ok now OP but not always.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,776 ✭✭✭abff


    I go to Portugal a few times a year and would generally drink every day when I'm there, typically polishing off a bottle of wine (or more) each day. When I get home, I find I tend to keep going and this is probably not a great idea. So I then try to take a complete break for a week or two and after that, limit my alcohol consumption to the weekends. But I don't always manage to stick to this.

    I have my bloods taken every year or so and ask my GP to check for liver function as part of the tests. So far, I've come up within the normal range, but I am concerned that I probably drink more than is good for me. I'm retired, so it doesn't affect my work when I have a few drinks, but I definitely have more energy during the day if I've taken it easy on the previous day.

    I think that overall, I definitely exceed the recommended limit. Having said this, I think the limit seems to be a moveable feast and has suffered a certain amount of inflation in recent years. I know this is partly due to wine on average having a higher alcohol content, but I think it's also partly due to a lowering of the recommended limits. But rather than do this by reducing the number of units, the size of a unit has been reduced.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,365 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    They had good genes. They reckon about 5% of the human pop can get away with life long hard living.

    The vast majority of people though are going to be eventually affected by long term bad lifestyle choices.

    I don't think so though. The vast majority of people have at least one kind of bad habit that can effect their health, whether it be drinking, smoking, being overweight, not exercising enough, eating junk etc. But still life expectancy is pretty decent and most people would know a handful of people who are technically living unhealthy lifestyles but who are perfectly fine. Maybe not the fittest, but not suffering too much from from it.

    I do think a whole bottle of wine a night is too much though. It increases the risk of some things but you can never say with certainty that it will directly cause cancer, or definitely lead to live damage etc as people who do everything "right" still get those things.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,713 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    abff wrote: »
    . . . think the limit seems to be a moveable feast and has suffered a certain amount of inflation in recent years. I know this is partly due to wine on average having a higher alcohol content, but I think it's also partly due to a lowering of the recommended limits. But rather than do this by reducing the number of units, the size of a unit has been reduced.
    Nitpick: the "unit of alcohol" is 10 ml of pure alcohol and has been since the concept was invented; it has never changed.

    What has changed is the recommended intake, but this change hasn't always been a reduction. Changes have been driven both by improved understanding of the effects of alcohol consumption, and by observing the effect of recommendations on behaviour.

    For example, in the mid-1990s, the recommended maximimum intake was 21 units per week for men, 14 per week for women. But observation showed that a signficant proportion of people "saved up" their units for the weekend, and consumed the bulk of them in a single evening ("binge drinking"). This led to the conclusion that the way the recommendation was expressed was giving people false reassurance that binge drinking, within the weekly limit, was not h harmful, which is of course wrong. So the advice was changed to 3-4 unjits per day for men, 2-3 for women. Expressed in weekly terms, this is in fact a higher limit than the previous advice.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    a bottle of wine a day is way over the weekly recommended low risk guideline so youre putting your health at risk even if youre not necessarily addicted

    You should be drinking at most about two bottles of wine spread over the course of a week with at least 2 days not drinking , and this is the very upper limit before you begin to have much higher chances of getting alcohol related liver diseases, heart diseases and cancers than the general population, ideally no drinking is best for mental and physical health but if you limit it to that its unlikely your health will be damaged


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    And some of the advice is a bit irresponsible on here yes of course some heavy drinkers and smokers live til old age but the recommendations for amounts for drinking exist because thousands of studies have backed up the fact that drinking heavily massively reduces life expectancy in the average person and is a strong risk factor for dozens of diseases


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    wakka12 wrote: »
    a bottle of wine a day is way over the weekly recommended low risk guideline so youre putting your health at risk even if youre not necessarily addicted

    You should be drinking at most about two bottles of wine spread over the course of a week with at least 2 days not drinking , and this is the very upper limit before you begin to have much higher chances of getting alcohol related liver diseases, heart diseases and cancers than the general population, ideally no drinking is best for mental and physical health but if you limit it to that its unlikely your health will be damaged


    wakka12 wrote: »
    ......

    ideally no drinking is best for mental and physical health but if .............


    Have you a source for that claim ?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    gctest50 wrote: »
    Have you a source for that claim ?

    There was a widely publicised study done this summer that showed theres no safe limit for alcohol consumption, of course a little bit of alcohol is not going to do much damage, but it still does damage, every drop of alcohol damages your health, but then again so does probably every hamburger from mcdonalds or can of coke but nobody cares about those unless theyre consumed to excess either
    https://news.sky.com/story/no-safe-level-of-alcohol-consumption-global-study-finds-11480718

    Study also showed that drinking 35 units a week will take 4-5 years off most peoples lives, the OP is drinking 70 units a week, so could be risking taking a decade off their life if they dont cut down


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    A pile of vomit from sky isn't really a source......

    wakka12 wrote: »
    There was a widely publicised study done this summer that showed theres no safe limit for alcohol consumption, of course a little bit of alcohol is not going to do much damage, but it still does damage, every drop of alcohol damages your health, but then again so does probably every hamburger from mcdonalds or can of coke but nobody cares about those unless theyre consumed to excess either

    https://news.sky.com/story/no-safe-level-of-alcohol-consumption-global-study-finds-11480718

    Study also showed that drinking 35 units a week will take 4-5 years off most peoples lives, the OP is drinking 70 units a week, so could be risking taking a decade off their life if they dont cut down


    This study ?
    Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016


    195 countries ? some use that would be if you were picking a new employee, they'd drink goat pi$$ in some parts of the world




    Anyway back to question :

    wakka12 wrote: »
    ......

    ideally no drinking is best for mental and physical health but if .............



    People who avoid alcohol are 50 per cent more likely to take have a mental health-related absence from work


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    The study was not by skynews. They just reported on it.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180824103018.htm

    Also Im sure the addiction and depressant effects of alcohol abuse far outweigh any advantages in most people


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    wakka12 wrote: »

    The study was not by skynews. They just reported on it.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180824103018.htm


    .....


    I know it wasn't by skynews, that's why i put this in the middle of my post :


    gctest50 wrote: »
    ......

    This study ?

    Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.



    wakka12 wrote: »

    Also Im sure the addiction and depressant effects of alcohol abuse far outweigh any advantages in most people


    More waffle.

    Lets take it bit by bit :



    wakka12 wrote: »
    ......

    ideally no drinking is best for mental ..... health but if .............



    People who avoid alcohol are :

    50 per cent more likely to take have a mental health-related absence from work


    50 per cent more likely


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,713 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Maybe, gctest50, but that doesn't mean that they are more likely to take a mental health break because they don't drink. The causation could indeed work the other way; they may have mental health issues as a result of which they have been advised not to drink.

    (PS: since you pressed wakka50 for the source of his claim, are you planning on offering a source for yours at all?)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,558 ✭✭✭Ardillaun


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Nitpick: the "unit of alcohol" is 10 ml of pure alcohol and has been since the concept was invented; it has never changed.

    What has changed is the recommended intake, but this change hasn't always been a reduction. Changes have been driven both by improved understanding of the effects of alcohol consumption, and by observing the effect of recommendations on behaviour.

    For example, in the mid-1990s, the recommended maximimum intake was 21 units per week for men, 14 per week for women. But observation showed that a signficant proportion of people "saved up" their units for the weekend, and consumed the bulk of them in a single evening ("binge drinking"). This led to the conclusion that the way the recommendation was expressed was giving people false reassurance that binge drinking, within the weekly limit, was not h harmful, which is of course wrong. So the advice was changed to 3-4 unjits per day for men, 2-3 for women. Expressed in weekly terms, this is in fact a higher limit than the previous advice.

    Doesn’t the Irish system of units differ slightly from the UK’s?

    http://www.drugs.ie/resourcesfiles/research/2009/HSE_Hope_Standard_drink_in_Ireland.pdf

    I’m a foreigner at this stage, but I think the official Irish unit is 10 grams of pure alcohol as compared to the 10 mls (8 grams) in the UK system? So 80 grams of pure alcohol is 8 Irish units and 10 UK units. This was apparently done because Irish measures for drinks were bigger but it’s confusing. The UK system is far easier to understand and calculate than the US standard drinks approach and easier to calculate than the 10 grams method. As mentioned above, a 750 ml bottle of 14% alcohol wine (by volume) contains 105 mls of alcohol and thus 10.5 UK units. The grams method is used in many countries and also appears in academic articles. Here’s a sobering paragraph from such a paper:
    Long-term intake of more than 30 g of absolute alcohol per day increases the risk of alcoholic liver disease; liver disease is nearly certain in long-term consumption in excess of 80 g of absolute alcohol per day. Alcoholic liver disease may take the chronic form (steatosis, steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis) or that of acute hepatitis. Steatosis is fully reversible, which does not apply to the other conditions; cirrhosis is associated with a markedly shortened life expectancy.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321494/#!po=16.1765


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,558 ✭✭✭Stacksofwacks


    I'm too lazy to post the youtube link but check out the documentary "drinkers like me" the Adrian Chiles documentary a very insightful doc about heavy social drinking you"ll probably know the answer to your question


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,558 ✭✭✭Ardillaun


    Here’s some quotes from Irish liver experts in an Irish Examiner article:
    Habitual drinkers, not alcoholics, account for most people with alcohol-related liver disease.

    Experts are particularly concerned at the rise in the number of young people — up almost three-fold — and women with the potentially fatal disease.
    We have all seen it in our practice, an increased number patients admitted to hospital, young people in particular and increasingly women, with complications, illness and death due to alcohol,” said Prof Frank Murray, the college chairman.

    He said a lot of patients were not dependent, but were “habitual” drinkers, whose level and frequency of consumption was higher than recommended.
    “A lot of people think that’s for alcoholics, the binge drinkers — it doesn’t affect me or my family. In fact, it affects everybody.”

    He said he recently had a case of a widow who increased her wine drinking after she lost her husband and developed liver disease.

    “She would be appalled to be labelled an alcoholic. It’s very easy for consumption levels to come up and become normalised. It’s ordinary people that are doing it.”

    He said relatives often ring him asking can he remove alcohol from the death certificate, an issue he has raised with the coroner.

    https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/most-with-liver-disease-are-not-alcoholics-229256.html


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Maybe, gctest50, but that doesn't mean that they are more likely to take a mental health break because they don't drink. The causation could indeed work the other way; they may have mental health issues as a result of which they have been advised not to drink.

    That relationship holds true for musculoskeletal injuries, digestive disorders, and respiratory-condition linked work abscences

    obvs. doing-the-dog * on it leads to injuries


    *the happy-zone is quite interesting :

    anything from 1 to 34 !! units

    (above this and you get poisonings and injuries)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,713 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    This can get confusing. We don't have "units" in Ireland; we have "standard drinks". Other countries also have "standard drinks", but the standard drink varies from country to country, from a low of 8g/10ml of pure alcohol in Iceland, to a high of 19.75g/25ml in Japan. This makes for much confusion, when people read about various recommendations expressed in terms of different standard drinks, either not realising that standard drinks vary from country to country or not appreciating that the recommendation they are looking at comes from another country. Further confusion results from the fact that a typical drink (as in, the quantity normally served to someone) will usually contain rather more than one standard drink, but people frequently do not appreciate this.

    The "unit" terminology was adopted in the UK in the mid-80s in an attempt to fix this problem. SFAIK the UK is the only country to express its alcohol intake recommendations in units, so "unit" is unambiguous; it always refers to 8g/10ml of alcohol. The Irish standard drink contains 1.25 UK units. A pint of 4.5% alcohol-by-volume beer contains about 1.9 Irish standard drinks, or 2.35 UK units.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    gctest50 wrote: »
    I know it wasn't by skynews, that's why i put this in the middle of my post :









    More waffle.

    Lets take it bit by bit :








    People who avoid alcohol are :

    50 per cent more likely to take have a mental health-related absence from work


    50 per cent more likely
    Why are you so fixated on this one advantage of alcohol? Its also pretty irrelevant without knowing how many sick days or whatever they dont take vs non drinkers, or how many sick days the non drinker took, if the non drinker took 2 days off and the drinker took one day off then its not a very spectacular find is it

    The disadvantages to your physical health far outweight any social advantages to alcohol, and I would say every mental health professional would advise avoiding alcohol or else it would be recommended by them which it is obviously not


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,713 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    gctest50 wrote: »
    That relationship holds true for work abscences due to musculoskeletal injuries, digestive disorders,
    Interesting. Does it hold good for health-related absences as a whole? It could be that moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial for some conditions but harmful for others, in which case if we want to take a holistic view of the health effects of alcohol consumption we need to look at the combined effect across all health conditions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,492 ✭✭✭✭AndrewJRenko


    igCorcaigh wrote: »
    Sorry, yes. Im a little drunk.

    How small are you?


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