Americans drink almost ten times as much beer as they do "hard" liquor. Although the content of alcohol in beer is relatively low, this means that one-half the alcohol drunk is consumed as beer. Given these facts, it seems reasonable to say that there are many alcoholics who are only beer drinkers.According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, almost 18 million Americans abuse alcohol. Each year more than 100,000 Americans die of alcohol-related causes. Alcohol is a factor in nearly half of all U.S. traffic deaths.
You may continue to abuse alcohol despite serious adverse health, personal, work-related and financial consequences. Alcoholism usually involves physical dependence on alcohol, but genetic, psychological and social factors contribute to the addiction as well.
It's possible to have a problem with alcohol, but not display all the characteristics of alcoholism. This is known as "alcohol abuse," which means you engage in excessive drinking that causes health or social problems, but you aren't dependent on alcohol and haven't fully lost control over the use of alcohol.
Steady drinking over time can produce a physical dependence on alcohol. Drinking more than 15 drinks a week for men or 12 drinks a week for women increases the risk of developing dependence on alcohol. For people over 35, it's less straightforward. In light drinkers, there is less heart disease than in non-drinkers. However, there's more cancer. But the reduction in heart disease is much greater than the increase in cancer, so there does appear to be a net benefit.
The amount of alcohol required to produce this benefit in healthy adults - less than one standard drink (10 grams of pure alcohol) a day for women and about one for men - is much less than the upper limits set by the NH & MRC. There are no further health benefits to be gained by drinking more than this amount.
A blood alcohol level of about 300-400 mg per 100 ml will usually cause loss of consciousness. However, highly tolerant individuals may show only moderate drunkenness at 400 mg per 100 ml, the normal LD50.
While it's clear that heavy drinking is very unhealthy, there is also evidence that light alcohol consumption can decrease the probability of death from ischemic (loss of blood supply) heart disease. But there's a catch.
Recently researchers found that moderate drinking may lengthen your life, while too much may shorten it, Their conclusion is based on pooled data from 34 large studies involving more than one million people and 94,000 deaths.
According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol -- up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women -- reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
However, "things radically change" when consumption goes beyond these levels, study leader Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo, from Catholic University of Campobasso, said in a statement.
Men who have more than four drinks per day and women who have more than two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, the data indicate.
The reason why men are protected at up to four drinks per day, while women lose the protection after two glasses has to do with how men and women metabolize alcohol, researchers say. It's been shown that when men and women who drink the same amount of alcohol, women experience higher blood alcohol levels than men.
Therefore, women who consume more than two glasses of alcohol per day may be at increased risk for diseases of the liver and certain types of cancer.
"Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in terms of survival," the Italian team concludes.
"Heavy drinkers should be urged to cut their consumption, but people who already regularly consume low to moderate amounts of alcohol should be encouraged to continue," they add.
The manner in which alcohol is consumed also appears to be important, the researchers report. "Little amounts, preferably during meals, this appears to be the right way (to drink alcohol)," said Dr. Giovanni de Gaetano of Catholic University, another author on the study. "This is another feature of the Mediterranean diet, where alcohol, wine above all, is the ideal partner of a dinner or lunch, but that's all: the rest of the day must be absolutely alcohol-free."
"The message carried by scientific studies like ours is simple," Dr. de Gaetano continued. "Alcohol can be a respectful guest on our table, but it is good just when it goes with a healthy lifestyle, where moderation leads us toward a consumption inspired by quality not by quantity."
All alcoholics who try to merely cut down on drinking are unable to do so indefinitely. Instead, cutting out alcohol (that is, abstaining) is nearly always necessary for successful recovery. However, if you are not alcoholic but have had alcohol-related problems, you may be able to limit the amount you drink. If you cannot always stay within your limit, you will need to stop drinking altogether.
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