Shock news as we prepare to welcome in the new year. The number of young
people prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly has risen by almost a third
in two years. If it was up to me, all teenagers would be locked up until
they had proved they could be in the same room as a bottle of Malibu without
drinking it. But before you shout “hear, hear” and head off to your
civilised new year parties, be warned.
The government, in the shape of health Obergruppenführer Dawn Primarolo, has
decided its anti-drinking target is not the yoof tearing up our high
streets. It’s me. And probably you.
Dawn, while denying that relaxed licensing laws have made binge-drinking more
of a problem, insists that “middle-aged, middle-class drinkers drinking at
home . . . is where the serious and dramatic harm is increasing”. Her
argument is that drinking more than your 14 units a week, ladies, and 21
units, gents, is costing the NHS billions.
In a recent study by Liverpool John Moores University, harmful drinking was
defined as 50 or more units a week and was more common in poorer areas. But
the greyer area of “hazardous drinking” – 22-50 units for men and 15-35
units for women - is where the leafier, pinot noirish parts of the country
come in. In Runnymede, Harrogate, Surrey Heath and Guildford, more than one
in four people are classed as “hazardous drinkers”. My train back to Kent
each night is a drinking den on wheels. And this is why Dawn’s steely gaze
is resting upon us.
But what is 22-50 units a week? Is it zig-zag-home, vomit-in-the-car-park
excess? I spent the past month drinking at the upper range of 45 units a
week to find out what (if anything) happened to my liver, my heart, my
various other organs. Last week I pushed it up to 60.
At the start and the end, I subjected myself to blood, urine and
electrocardiogram tests. Here are the results. Please read on, Dawn. You
might find it useful.
The main drawback to being an alcohol-infused guinea pig is the need to be an
alcohol-free one at the start. The doctors estimated two months of total
abstinence would allow my liver to recover from my usual drinking habits.
I managed seven weeks of less than five units a week – no fun at all. First,
there were the withdrawal symptoms. In a typical week, I would have had a
thank-god-that’s-over whisky after a day in the office and half a bottle of
wine with dinner. Variations would have included the occasional pub lunch,
the odd party at the weekend and the increasingly infrequent
“I’m-still-young” weekend bender.
The end of abstinence couldn’t come too soon, which is probably why the month
of hazardous alcohol intake got off to such a flying start.
Week one: 43 units. After medical tests had established that my liver,
kidneys, heart, lungs and blood were all consistent with being a fit
thirtysomething with no characteristics of a heavy drinker, I drank two
rather good glasses of Barolo (four units) after work on Friday, a G&T
on the train (3.3 units in one tiny can, but you’re weird on my train if you
aren’t drinking) and a bottle of Grolsch (1.5 units) when I got home. That
was 8.8 units before 9pm and not even tipsy. An excellent start, so I had
nothing with dinner.
Some friends came to stay for the weekend. On Saturday, we shared a bottle of
champagne and two bottles of red with dinner, and the men chased it with
whisky. That was 9.25 units for me because I was aware of my intake, 14 for
my friend who wasn’t. The wives were hovering irresponsibly around the
seven-unit mark, well over double their daily maximum.
Would Dawn be happy to destroy the Sunday walk to the pub? I bet she would.
Two pints of bitter: five units. All the counting made our friends panic.
The husband had consumed 22.5 units in less than 24 hours and was trying to
defend himself: “If you think of what you used to drink when you were a
student . . .”
On Monday, I could have done with a drink but I’d already drunk 23 units in
three days so I abstained. On Tuesday, lunch with a long-lost friend (one
large malbec, three units) then a pub quiz (three pints of Czech lager,
eight units), which we won, unexpectedly (two glasses of champagne, three
units). I was by far the most abstemious member of my team.
Nothing the next day. Then, needing to drink three units on Thursday to make
the 40 mark, I popped into Waitrose for an on-train G&T – to find a
three-for-two offer on Gordon’s. Obviously I bought three. Obviously I drank
them all (six units).
It was a great surprise to see how easy it is to neck more than double the
government maximum. One fairly tame weekend, a few glasses of midweek wine
and a pub quiz and, bang, I’m a hazardous drinker. Without a single
hangover.
The truth is that the 21 and 14-unit limits, first introduced in 1987, are
arbitrary. They have no basis in science whatsoever. You can pick your
scientific evidence to suit your argument. One study found that men drinking
21 to 30 units a week have the lowest mortality rate in Britain. Another
found that beer-drinking Germans have less exposure to heart disease than
non-beer-drinking ones.
Week two: 46 units. On Friday a glass of wine after work, a whisky at home and
a good viognier over dinner all seemed terri-bly civilised; but it was nine
units, triple the daily maximum.
I woke on Saturday with a clear head – beer then wine is fine, as we know; but
wine, then whisky, then wine is even finer – and proceeded to London with my
wife in a rare day off from parenting. Lunch at 32
Great Queen Street (four stars from AA Gill): glass of red, glass of
white. Cocktails at the hotel where we spent our wedding night. Ahhh, sweet,
but 13 units for the day without even trying.
Mercifully, I had a hangover on Sunday. My wife had drunk the same and felt
fine.
Isle of Wight for the next few days, holed up in a storm-battered cottage with
nothing to do but drink and argue about the best ways to light fires. The
closest I came to anything resembling inebriated was when, after a couple of
glasses of wine, I tried some of my son’s cough medicine to check it wasn’t
too strong. Clearly it was. I was retrieved from the sofa three hours later.
Nevertheless, another 24 units were imbibed by the end of week two.
Week three: 47.7 units. Once a year I’m allowed to go mountain-biking with
equally domesticated mates. As such, it is something of a release. Not this
time. By having to stick to a mere double the maximum government guideline,
I found myself spreading fear and mistrust.
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
“I am. I’ve had three pints.”
“That was three hours ago. Are you pregnant?”
“Yes. Now leave me alone.”
But when a pub shimmered into view at the top of a particularly painful hill
and it was open and it had a warm fire and a bottle of Jägermeister, I
forgot momentarily that I was supposed to be holding back.
Back home on Sunday night, counting the cost of a 25.2 unit weekend, I was
facing two Christmas parties and a long-haul flight over the next four days
on a limit of 20 units. I managed it but only by sipping my way through
party one, abstaining for the whole of the next day, drinking spritzers like
a girl at party two and then pretending I was on Tokyo time (already Friday)
from the moment the flight took off from Heathrow on Thursday.
Week four: 60 units. At 12.01am on Friday morning Tokyo time (3.01pm on
Thursday afternoon London time), I had a bloody mary followed by three
titchy glasses of wine and a whisky. I then slept, got a bus to my hotel in
Tokyo, slept again and went out for a meeting (two weak cocktails because
that’s what they drink in Tokyo), a visit to a Japanese pub (one Asahi lager
because that’s also what they drink) and dinner (three glasses of wine
because, frankly, they’ll drink anything). This completed a long 18-unit
day.
In my role as a travel journalist, I spent the next three days checking out
the city. But in my role as someone with jetlag, I spent the nights propping
up various bars trying to work out whether to stay awake until I got back to
London or to find a pharmacist selling horse tranquilliser.
Then my flight home was delayed so I missed another night and couldn’t work
out what time of the week – let alone day – it was, so I drank my way across
Siberia to Heathrow.
On Tuesday I drank nothing because evening felt like morning and, with three
whole days to go, I was already on 46 units. On Wednesday a long lunch added
another 10. And another four units the next day because I was at home with
my wife for the first time in ages. The only way she wouldn’t divorce me was
over a nice civilised dinner. With wine.
Sixty units. Almost three times the limit. And it didn’t hurt a bit. Well, a
little bit. But was that alcohol, jetlag or insomnia? It gave me an excuse
if the doctors found my liver had packed up and left the building when I
took my tests next morning.
First the electrocardiogram. This involved running on a treadmill for as long
as I could with 12 wires attached to my chest measuring how my heart was
doing. The month’s boozing had not had the slightest impact.
The blood and urine tests had more interesting results. My mean corpuscular
volume (MCV), or average red blood cell size, increased in the month from
90.7 to 92.4. Elevated MCV is a sign of alcoholism but this increase was
negligible and within the range considered okay (80-100). Still, there was
an increase.
The same was true for the liver function tests. My bilirubin (the stuff that
gives bile and bruises their yellow colour) increased from 18 to 22. I have
no idea whether this would make my bile yellower, but the fact that there
was more of it floating around my blood is an indicator of liver imbalance
(though again, this increase was not enough to cause even a raised eyebrow).
The three most sensitive blood-indicators of liver problems are AST, ALT and
Gamma GT. You (and I) don’t need to understand why, beyond the fact that
these are the liver-dwelling enzymes responsible for breaking food into
molecules that power the rest of the body. They’re important but you don’t
want more than a certain amount of them in your blood.
My AST stayed the same, ALT rose from 19 to 20 and Gamma GT, the most
party-pooping enzyme of the lot, rose from 12 to 17. It sounds worrying but
when I pop on to the net, land of hypochondriacs, to see how worrying, I
find plenty of lost souls asking if their Gamma GT level of 170-plus is
really all that bad.
Four weeks of what I think is civilised drinking did have an effect on my
liver function. But none of the laboratory results was even close to being a
problem. One month, of course, is not long enough to ruin your liver, your
kidneys, your heart or your lungs with alcohol; but it is long enough to
spot subtle changes that might, if I was to continue in the same boozy vein,
cause health problems.
I thought back to the results of the first set of tests – before my month of
drinking dangerously. Having diligently measured my alcohol consumption over
a month, I can now confirm that I must have been drinking not far off 40
units a week for the past 15 years. Yet, after only a few weeks off the
sauce, my internal organs were fighting fit. Moreover, I met nobody in my
alcoholic journey who did stick to the 21/14 weekly limit. I’m not sure how
you could and enjoy a nice drink with dinner.
When I asked the Department of Health how Dawn managed to stick to 14 units a
week, it replied the following day: “You requested a quote from Dawn
Primarolo on alcohol consumption – just to confirm we’ll be declining the
bid on this occasion. Best wishes and a merry Christmas.”
And a happy new year. Cheers.
The telltale signs of overindulgence
As the nation heads for its new year hangover on Tuesday, many people may be
worrying about their level of alcohol consumption.
The government guidelines on the amounts that are thought to represent safe
and healthy drinking for men and women suggest just three to four units of
alcohol a day for men and two to three for women. But keeping track is a
challenge for many drinkers.
A pint of ordinary beer or a 175ml glass of wine counts as about two units. A
pub measure of spirits is one unit, but a pint of strong lager counts as
three.
The problem is that glass sizes and the alcoholic strength of wines and beers
can vary widely. Many wines now have an alcoholic strength of 13%-14%,
making it hard to keep a mental running total of how much you are drinking.
Moreover, people come in all shapes and sizes and react to alcohol in
different ways.
For those unsure how much they drink but concerned at their consumption,
experts suggest taking a test of 20 simple questions (right).
If you are worried your alcohol intake is too high, the Department of Health
recommends that you see your GP or contact Drinkline, a free, confidential
helpline on 0800 917 8282.
Are you an alcoholic?
Ask yourself the following questions and answer them as honestly as you can.
1. Do you lose time from work due to drinking?
2. Is drinking making your home life unhappy?
3. Do you drink because you are shy with other people?
4. Is drinking affecting your reputation?
5. Have you ever felt remorse after drinking?
6. Have you got into financial diffi culties as a result of drinking?
7. Do you find yourself in bad company or in a bad environment when
drinking?
8. Does your drinking make you careless of your family’s welfare?
9. Has your ambition decreased since drinking?
10. Do you crave a drink at a definite time of day?
11. Do you want a drink the next morning?
12. Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
13. Has your efficiency decreased since drinking?
14. Is drinking jeopardizing your job or business?
15. Do you drink to escape from worries or trouble?
16. Do you drink alone?
17. Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result of
drinking?
18. Has your doctor ever treated you for drinking?
19. Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?
20. Have you ever been to a hospital because of drinking?
If you have answered YES to any one of the questions, it is a warning that you
may be an alcoholic. If you have answered YES to any two, the chances are
that you are an alcoholic. If you have answered YES to three or more, you
are in all likelihood an alcoholic.
(These questions were compiled by Dr. Robert V. Seliger for use at John
Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, in deciding whether patients are
alcoholic.) Copyright © Recovered Alcoholic Clergy Association, 2000
I agree that a limit has to be set, but...the information is confusing. If sober I hit a drunk in my car its classed as drink related. I can and do abstain but if the bottles open..I will finish it, 75 cl is the average bottle.
I like the relaxation wine gives me.
Maybe make the bottles smaller!!
Graham, Exeter, UK
Dear all,
I finished off a 75cl bottle of port last night with lots of stilton cheese, goatscheese and my own bodyweight in chocolate and sweets. I don't know how I did it but I felt sh1t in the end!
I threw up before I went to bed but was all right this morning. I don't drink every week even so it was all a bit too much. It's the same with smoking for me. I can go without cigarettes for years and then smoke 60/day for a week.
I think it's a control issue as well. You have to let off steam once in a while...
Xxx
Kristina, London,
To suggest that if you answer 'yes' to any of the 20 questions at the end of the article you are an alcaholic is silly. People ignore advice that's over the top and not credible and then the important message gets trashed with it. Number 16 and seventeen are an example. It's the amount you drink over time and your body's ability to deal with it which is the issue and not whether you drink alone or not or whether you may have had a memory blackout on you 21st birthday 20 years ago.
James, Jakarta, Indonesia
Is there such a thing as a part time alcoholic i live 6 months england 6 months thailand 120 units england per week 40 units per week thailand 52 years old fit and strong and a lot of work to do in both countrys drink what you need
roy thai, UDONTHANI, THAILAND
Ever since joining a gym my desire to drink has pretty much gone out of the window. The harder i train, the more it makes sense to have a healthier diet. Cutting out alcohol, as well as changing what i eat, has left me a lot fitter, happier and confident than i originally was. If i am out and about i am happy to drink a soft drink, and i can still have a good time and socialise. As well as being good for my health, my wallets in a much better shape to! I don't that there is nothing wrong with having a drink, all i am saying is that i feel better now that i rarely do.
Sam, manchester,
Matt acts like it's a hardship to have a few days off the booze, with excuse after excuse of why he NEEDS to drink. I was, before new year, a bottle-of-wine-a-day drinker (on a quiet night) but with the desire to lose a bit of weight, I realised that rather than food, it was the booze that was adding on the pounds. Since then, I only drink 2 days a week and have never felt better. Excuses of parties and dinners don't fly, I just make those my drinking days. As far as the train and plane journey's go, is he kidding? You'd think a self proclaimed "middle-aged, middle-class" man would be above that kind of peer pressure. I think he seriously needs to consider his attitude towards drinking. When you consider a long-haul flight, alone, one of the difficult times not to drink, to me, that's cause for concern.
Jo, Manchester, England
All you people who say the goverment shouldn't be telling us what to do, remember that the government is us. That's what a democracy is.
PK, London,
I am 54 years old and have been a 'hazardous drinker' for 30 of those years. Like Matt, I could drink a great deal with virtually no ill effects. I have never had a hangover except for a dry morning mouth. I have never been in a fight or in a jail and I have never had a drink driving charge. LIke Matt I am a writer and do a lot of business related interviewing and socializing. I took the '20 questions' in the mid-nineties and had a score of 18. But that didn't stop me -- I assumed I had a liver made of asbestos.
Ah, those were the good old days. I hit 45 and all of a sudden my 'best friend' turned on me. Detox, rehab, hospitals, alcoholic paralysis of the legs, neuropathy, mild brain damage, my wife left me and all my money is gone. Etc. I have no liver or pancreatic damage -- for some reason it's been neurological. I am now attempting with limited success to reclaim my rep within my field.
To all those, like Matt, with a larky attitude towards alcohol - just wait.
Richard, Edmonton, Canada
I used to drink way more than 14 units a week but since falling pregnant seven months ago, have had about 10 glasses of wine. With a really good reason not to drink, I've found it surprisingly easy and now I never want to go back to drinking what I used to.
Matt writes about his drinking habits like it's all a bit of a joke but from my sober point of view, he's almost an alcoholic. He makes days without booze sound unusual and meals without booze sound like, well, breakfast. I suspect he doesn't feel as interesting when he doesn't drink which is why ALL his socialising has to involve alcohol. Call me smug but I'm grateful to my pregnancy for showing me another way!!
Laura Cronin, SE London, UK
I think the less time government spends meddling in the minutea of peoples personal habits the better. If one is treated like an adult one generally behaves like an adult. And, while we at it, what's wrong with binge drinking? How many people could suffer a wedding without getting utterly wasted.
And why is "It's my turn to drive..." usually prefaced with 'unfortunately'?
As for Dr. Seliger (quack psychologists and their power to label, grrr...), five of his 20 guilt questions could be answered YES by the merely underconfident.
Howard Wiley, Uxbridge, Middlesex
I'm not sure why this article has confused so many normally clearheaded teetotallers. I drink and the whole piece looks quite straightforward. It seems that the premise was to test the scientific basis of the government's guidelines by exceeding the recommended daily allowance and testing the effects. That's what Matt did, finding that in the short term there was no significant detriment to his health and thus apparently proving the Department of Health's guidelines to be irrelevant at best and alarmist at worst. He wasn't testing drink driving limits, nor was he investigating the effects of Saturday night binge drinkers or boasting about how many pints he could sink without falling over. Maybe I'm not sober enough but I can't see the bit where he defends the effects of chronic alcoholism or makes fun of those thus afflicted. For most of us booze is not an obsession but an enjoyable part of life, and I'd advise those so irritated by this article to have a drink and calm down.
David Lyons, London, UK
Someone in England and Wales dies every 13 minutes from drinking alcohol. (Statistic derived from figures of Alcohol Concern).
Alcohol causes 2/3 of all suicides. It is the number one cause of both violence and traffic accidents. It is a major cause of fires. Every one of the five leading causes of early death is associated with alcohol.
Alcohol has been associated with racist and repressive regimes throughout history: Hitler's rise started in Vienna's beer halls. The Nazi guards at Auschwitz were always drunk. Today, child soldiers in the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda are paid with beer.
Alcohol is a personality- altering, addictive drug. In the current scheme of classification, it deserves to be class A along with heroin and crack cocaine, simply on the basis of its health and social consequences.
Sean, London, UK
The drink problem is two tier problem the young drink to much, but we dare not tell our children off as lets face it the government has all but made it illegal to discipline your child in any way shape or form.
And the more important problem, that the people who bother to leave their house and vote can not get a drink after 11 (well that's how it used to be) Now who do think the government is going to listen to, the people who want a drink and vote, and those of you that have given up and don't vote?
At the end of the day I want to drink after 11 and I Vote...
MR W B Jones, Liverpool, England (United Kin,
"You Brits seem to drink a bit much"
We dont drink a bit much. We drink enough to get where we want to be. I have to be honest here - the only people who really care are those who have had an unpleasant experience arising from it or those whose profession depends upon its cessation.
For the rest of us less morally handicapped mortals - it sees us through the week.
Frankly, we, your target audience, don't really give enough of a sh1t to stop.
Welcome to life my friends. Cheers
steve, Cambridge,
I know very little about safe levels of alcohol consumption, but I do know that when your government is telling you how you should live your life, as opposed to you controlling your government, you have a very unhealthy - possibly lethal - imbalance. I think everyone would benefit from a much reduced government intake.
ScottQ, Boise, Idaho
I found this article interesting, but I cannot identify with the writer's life. I am not teetotal but I frequently go several weeks without an alcoholic drink at all. Over the last few days I have had one or two glasses of wine each day because I wanted to. I don't like hangovers and I enjoy social occasions more if I don't drink. Why is alcohol so important to people of all ages? That is the question everyone should be asking themselves. In Europe adults drink every day but the only drunkards you see are the British on holiday.
Jill, Boston, England
as the child of alcoholic parents I can confirm that they both can drink their weekly ration in about 1/2 an hour, and they have been drinking huge amounts constantly for around 45 years. Health problems? Nothing more than you'd expect for people in their late sixties. Mind you, they are both emotional wrecks.
john motor, ldn, ldn
the government fails to understand that the labour party was made electable by the middle class who were persuaded to support them. in no small measure, this was due to mr. blair. he is now gone and now there is the equivalent of mr. major in the job. worse: the labour left does not understand its true situation. now, we have a nanny state attacking the middle class and its private drinking habits. the labour party (no longer New Labour) is falling under the venomous influence of militant feminists who, before long, will be seeking 'an amendment' to make adultery a criminal offence. this is rather like the taliban (is it not?).
bruce, apt, france
I thought this article was totally childish to be honest. My mum works in a hospital and has had to nurse chronic alcoholics - not a pleasant task I can assure you. Alcohol is a drug where if you overindulge on a regular basis you are setting yourself up for potentially big health problems in the future. Try speaking to any liver specialist in any big city hospital and they will tell you about the alarming rise in chronic liver failure which has occurred over the last 25 years.
Excess and long term alcohol abuse is dangerous, not only on the body but it also increases you risk of being involved in a serious accident or being injured through a fight on the street etc.
As for drink driving no mention was made of the fact that he was almost certainly over the limit some of the mornings after his binges of the night before.
Jonathan Baker, Fakenham, United Kingdom
I agree that the government's 'limits' are arbitrary, but I don't think there could be a single safe limit of alcohol consumption for all people. Some people's livers can cope better than others. I bet we all know of someone who's drunk all his life and lived to a ripe old age. However, in the past three years, three 'pub acquaintances' of mine have died from alcohol-related illnesses. It's not pretty to watch. I'm reducing my alcohol consumption from the hazardous level - it would be daft not to.
Fuchsia, Leeds,
In the UK we seem to be a bit befuddled - maybe because of all the alcohol consumed?
We want regulations and guidelines from officialdom for everything we do - but when we get them we love to stick up two fingers and keep drinking to excess. It's like we have never managed to grow up as far as drinking is concerned.
I'm of Spanish origin and though I've lived in the UK for decades I still can't manage to consume even a fraction of the alcohol that the British drink as a matter of course. You have to be really dedicated to get so much booze down you.
The price of alcohol may have something to do with it. I notice that in Spain, where drinks used to be cheap but are now more expensive since they joined the Euro, a new phenomenon has arisen with young people. They can't afford to buy drinks at bars as before, so they buy huge quantities of cheaper drink at a supermarket and congregate in massive groups in town centres to get as drunk as possible. Sound familiar?
Cathy, London,
I never drink a drop of alcohol. It is possible to go through life without drinking alcohol.
I am neither a religious fanatic nor a recovering alcoholic. I just can't stand the stuff.
June, Los Angeles, Calif USA
The point of this article is not how much or little Matt likes to drink, or how alcoholic or not the English are, but rather how arbitrary the government's limits are. They may be too high, they maybe too low, but it seems that they are based on little scientific or statistical evidence. For people to take them seriously, the government really needs to provide some better evidence before recommending lifestyles to people.
Paul, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
To Gina and fellow thinkers:
You completely missed the point of the article. You're also clearly confusing issues here, i.e. arbitrary advice from Government regarding a personal and legal habit, and the education of "our young" or effects of alcohol excess.
Slow down. Nobody's laughing at the adverse effects of alcohol or bad parenting. This is a different conversation.
Radu, Amsterdam, Netherlands
No wonder you jokers have a problem when you don't know the difference between alcohol and alcoholic beverage. But what else can you expect from people that don't know the difference between translator and interpreter, cement and concrete... whisky and whiskey. Why and I surrounded by ...
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan Alps
no, i agree with Matt. What we want are proper guidelines based on proper research and facts, not arbitrary figures.
like with drink driving, i asked a policeman how much i could drink and he said 'it depends on which beer, how much you eat at the same time and how big you are. some people can drink 4 pints and blow clear, others are over the limit after half a pint'
what use is that? i could get a ban after a pint of ale with a sunday lunch when i'm not drunk in the slightest.
if the weekly limit was properly researched and shown to be 30 units, it would make sense to stick to it, but it's like being told that smoking cannabis will make you murder your mother - it simply isn't true and bad advice will always be ignored, making any problems worse.
jack, London, UK
OUCH! I got 14 out of 20. >45 units a day, think I'll have a drink to forget........
Tim, Peterborough, UK, CAMB'S
I find this article incredibly childish. Why on earth is Britain so obsessed with alcohol? Why do you need to drink on the train on the way home? What is it about your life, both at work and at home, that makes you so desperate for a glass of whiskey or a G&T at the end of the day? The whole exercise of tallying your alcohol consumption, heading straight to the first pub you see after being out mountain biking with friends, the fact that people get so excited about drinking as if it is the closest thing to heaven on earth, is truly depressing. I can understand that a teenager who's just left home to go to uni would be excited about being able to drink unsupervised for the first time. But I think for most "normal" people, or at least the "normal" people I socialise with (and I've now lived and worked in three different countries) that excitement soon wears off. Only in the UK do you hear people constantly boasting about how much they can drink, Sad, really sad.
serge, hong kong, hong kong
"Friday, a G&T on the train (3.3 units in one tiny can, but you’re weird on my train if you aren’t drinking) "
How the hell do you travel? Club Class?
Phil Q, London, UK
This guy Matt Rudd is making light of something serious, serruptitious and health sapping. While some of us are less susceptible than others, he at no time makes the point of what return on his investment in all that booze has given.
One suspects that he is boring company to begin with.
Edward Jones, South Petherton, Somerset
As Matt appears to be, I am frustrated by the arbitrary lines drawn by professionals who want to influence my alcohol consumption.
Where did the 21- and 14-unit limits come from? If there were published data rather than sage advice, then I could use my brain to understand the facts. Instead, it's common to find alcohol listed as a contributor for many ailments, but it's hard to find evidence.
As for the "Are you an alcoholic" quiz - a single person who has beer in the 'fridge at home (drinks alone) and who has ever had a hangover (resulting in remorse after the fact) has a chance of being an alcoholic. How useful is that?
Paul, Atlanta, USA
I had a few drinks with Matt some time ago and I can testify to the fact that the boy can drink like a fish.
Matt G, Santa Monica, CA, US
Looking at the comments on the board you brits got the government you voted for. One which would have you living in a plastic bubble where nothing bad could ever happen to you. A more joyless existence I could not imagine.
Christina, Copenhagen,
You Brits seem to drink a bit much.
Smith, Beirut,
It seems that your life is absorbed by alcohol both during and before this "TEST". It seem to be a very important part of your life. Now, try to stay sober for a few months, prove that you are not dependant. If you are an independant and intellegent person it should not be a problem. Will it be? I think it will be.
Bjorn N Brussels
Bjorn Nilsson, brussels, Belgium
Stuart, Gina, the point here is not that we should all drink ourselves to death, but that we have a government that seems to think it has a right to a very strong opinion on how we drink.
Living abroad I notice two things :
(1) Whatever the rights and wrongs of alcohol, nobody expects to be told how to behave
(2) Good wine costs less. Its a tax thing.
oh yes and its normal here to have a brandy on your way into work.
James Cameron, Barcelona, Spain
I suspect people vary a lot in their tolerance of alcohol. I seem to have a low limit and a strong dislike of hangovers, the result of a horrible sleepless night and an appallingly washed-up morning after which were the result of student over-indulgence. Never again! At a recent office 'do', one pint of cider was sufficient to make me feel relaxed, including a dance with one of the women involving lifting her bodily off the floor.
I agree it is a drug and should, maybe, be compared more often to other mood-altering substances like cannabis, and treated with a similar degree of caution. Having said that I can't see that the occasional fling (like the author's) can do much harm, provided there are no underlying problems from which the user's trying to escape.
Humphrey Reader, Weston-super-Mare,, UK
I'm sorry, but if enjoying an occasional glass in one's own home, if one lives alone, potentially marks you out as an alcoholic, then hey-ho, I'm an alcoholic. What utter nonsense.
Melanie, Farnborough,
The interesting bit would be when he keeps this level of alcohol consumption up for 4 to 6 months.Then he can tell us his MCV and GGT levels.1 month of excess alcohol does'nt classify you as alcoholic
tornado, Little Rock, USA/AK
Matt's lackadaisical view of such limitations in alcohol consumption in such a time of festive excess is a bit careless really. After hearing that my friend has just lost his driving license for drink driving (a noticeably absent point from this article), what purpose does this article have in helping 'middle england' and those who do have a seemingly unknown chronic addiction? I have to agree with Gina; so what if he can - there shouldn't be such social pressure for drinking nor a cultural theme. It's all just a bit sad. Alcohol is not part of our natural diet but still adapt to metabolise it, why push our toxin limit? I would have much preferred to read about the social effect of alcohol abstinence, if really does matter whether we drink or not, or none at all instead of undermining efforts to what only can be a good thing to drink less.
Drinking does not equal civility as this article seems to imply. A pint of social clarity and conscience please.
Li Lung, London Bridge, United Kingdom
Why don't they ban alcohol? Oh, I know there's too much money invloved.... says it all really, doesn't it?
Graham Palfrey, Littlehampton,
Do you know anyone with alcohol induced Pancreatitis?
If not, you should find out about this disease, 'if' you survive an attack, you could find that you have permenantly damaged your Pancreas and develop Chronic Pancreatitis. There is no cure, you would be on a restricted diet, and having to take strong pain killers, for the rest of your life.
Stuart, Kendal, England
so matt rudd can drink up to 60 units in a week, and has apparently been drinking 40 units a week for the past 15 years. good for him. but alcohol is not a laughing matter. it is a very powerful drug which also happens to be legal. he highlights the fact that the recommended sensible drinking levels are not based on scientific research. they were however introduced because in our culture we do not apparently have the sense or the willpower to use this drug sensibly. what is a fact, scientific or otherwise is that the more units you drink the more you put yourself at risk of damaging your heart, stomach and brain, to say nothing of the liver. matt may think it clever and newsworthy to show he is no worse off for drinking excessively. far more valuable for him to do his research on the streets on a saturday night where our young regularly risk their health and safety, or in the hospitals to see the ravages of years of alcohol abuse.
how about some sensible reporting?
gina rotherford, edinburgh, UK