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How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?

By Diane Hanson

Sometimes in life, we go overboard with certain things we shouldn't, and alcohol happens to fall under this category. You may think that occasional binge drinking is harmless and poses no health threat. Unfortunately, it can be just as bad for your health as regular bingeing.

So, if you’re going to party with alcohol over the weekends, or you regularly consume alcoholic drinks, it’s very important to know your alcohol limits. Not only will this save you from the the agony of unpleasant hangovers, and alcohol-related accidents, it will also protect you against major health risks associated with chronic heavy drinking, such as cirrhosis and stroke.

Alcohol affects different people in different ways, depending on a variety of factors like age, gender, race, and physical health. Family history, drinking patterns, and use of other drugs are also significant factors on how your system reacts to alcohol – how quickly it is absorbed.

When you consume alcohol, it passes through your digestive tract, and get dispersed in your body’s water/fluid. The general rule is, the more water available, the more diluted the alcohol.

Since men generally weigh more than women, and pound for pound, women have less water in their bodies than men, a woman’s brain and other organs are exposed to more alcohol before it’s broken down.

Moreover, women have about 10 percent more fat, which is not able to absorb alcohol. In other words, alcohol becomes more concentrated in the blood, and hence it affects women more than men.

In addition, hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle can also adversely affect the rate of alcohol metabolism in women, resulting in slower alcohol metabolism a few days before menstruating.

Therefore, it is recommended that women shouldn’t drink more than 2 units of alcohol a day and 14 in a week, and men should stick to 3 units a day and 21 a week. One unit of alcohol is 10 ml (1 cl) by volume, or 8 g by weight, of pure alcohol.

One unit of alcohol is about equal to:

half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider (3-4% alcohol by volume), or
a small pub measure (25ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
a standard pub measure (50ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume).

How to find out how many units of alcohol are in a drink:

Multiply the volume (in milliliters) by %ABV then divide the result by 1000. ABV stands for Alcohol By Volume. All pre-packaged alcoholic drinks must state how strong they are. Strength is shown as a percentage, with the letters ABV after the number.

Remember, the more you drink above these limits, the greater your risk of developing serious health problems. Over-consumption of alcohol can lead to liver disease (cirrhosis or hepatitis), stomach and pancreas disorders, depression, and anxiety.

Sexual difficulties, muscle and heart muscle disease, high blood pressure, damage to nervous tissue, some cancers, and obesity are also linked to excessive alcohol use.

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