Before I start writing on this subject, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR. May it be a good and healthy one for everybody.

The other day somebody asked me about my drinking habits. How much alcohol do I drink during the week? I thought about it and talked to my partner, and started counting drinks. We normally don’t have alcoholic drinks for lunch during the week, but we almost daily share a bottle of wine for dinner, and sometimes have a drink before dinner and maybe a glass of beer later, or even a glass of brandy. When I started counting units, it turned out to be much too much alcohol for a woman to drink in one week.

Before I go any further, are there any benefits of moderate drinking?

There may be some psychological benefits. Small amounts of alcohol consumption can reduce stress, promote a pleasant and carefree feeling, decrease tension, anxiety and self consciousness. In the elderly, moderate drinking has been reported to stimulate appetite, promote regular bowel function and improve mood.

Evidence shows that moderate levels of drinking decrease the risk of death from coronary artery disease.

The problem to many people is to keep drinking under control, and especially here in this country where drinking is so much a part of the daily life. Many of us do not have a regular job to go to and therefore have much more time to meet friends, and often we have a drink together.

What do “they” say is safe drinking?

For women it is said not to drink more than two units of alcohol per day and for men no more than three units. It is also recommended to have at least two drink free days per week. One unit is 250 ml of an average strength beer, 125 ml of a glass of wine or 25 ml spirits. The reason women should drink less than men (and also why most women get drunk before men when drinking the same amounts of alcohol) is because there is a significant difference in activity of an enzyme in stomach tissue that breaks down alcohol before it reaches the bloodstream. This enzyme is four times more active in males than in females. Moreover, women have proportionately more fat and less body water than men. Because alcohol is more soluble in water than in fat, a given dose becomes more highly concentrated in a female’s body water than in a male’s.

A danger with moderate drinking is first of all that it may soon be more than moderate. Just look at my own drinking! I thought I was a moderate drinker, but I was obviously drinking far too much.

I will not in this article write about all the dangers and illnesses that follow too much drinking. I think most people are aware of these. What I want to say is:

Look at your own drinking habits and be honest with yourself.

The following questionnaire is a short list of questions that can indicate if alcohol dependence is a possibility. Two or more positive answers to these questions suggests dependence:

Have you ever:

• thought you should cut down on your drinking?
• felt annoyed by others criticizing your drinking?
• felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
• had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?

I know that I, personally, can answer positively to the first one, and I therefore have some “white weeks”- weeks with no alcohol at all, now and then. I do this because I know that my body (liver etc) needs time to cleanse itself, and I also like to test myself, to see that I can have meals, be with friends etc without having to have an alcoholic drink.

The question I was asked the other day, woke me up and made me think. I will not stop drinking alcohol; I really enjoy my wine, and intend to keep on doing so. But I will continue having my “white days” and I will be more alert and aware of how much I drink. I believe that much of my drinking habits are just that; habit, something I do without really thinking about it.

Any questions or comments? Please call me at 628 223 334 or mail me at mette@storheill.com