Government unit guidelines
The Government's guidelines say that a man should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units a day and a woman should not regularly exceed 2-3 units a day. To find out more about alcohol and its impact on your health, take a look at our Facts section. If you're worried about your drinking, you should consult your GP.
What is a unit?
One unit is 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol. This equals one 25ml single measure of whisky (ABV 40%), or a third of a pint of beer (ABV 5-6%) or half a standard (175ml) glass of red wine (ABV 12%).
Can’t find your drink?
Work out your units for yourself with this handy sum: Strength (ABV) x Volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = No. of units
E.g. Pint of Stella - 5.2 x 568 ÷ 1000 = 2.95 
Everyone who drinks too much knows the unpleasant flip side of a night on the tiles – the dreaded hangover.
That horrible morning-after feeling can range in strength and intensity and vary from person to person, but it usually involves a banging headache, sickness, dizziness, dehydration, mild diarrhoea, tiredness and weakness.
A hangover can also leave you struggling to concentrate, irritable and sensitive to light for a prolonged period after your last drink – not a good combination if you want to enjoy the next day and not spend it suffering in bed.
So, what causes a hangover and how can it be treated?
The principal cause is ethanol – the alcohol in your drinks. It is a toxic chemical that works in the body as a diuretic, causing the headache, dry mouth, dizziness and constant nausea. Your hangover eases as the body turns the ethanol into a less toxic chemical. The other factor that affects a hangover is the type of drink you have been downing. Dark drinks tend to make hangovers worse. So does mixing drinks.
What precautions can you take to prevent a hangover?
The Government recommends that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day, and women not more than two to three. Units can be complicated to understand, so arm yourself with knowledge before you go out and find out how many units are in your chosen tipple. It may be more than you realise – a large glass of wine, for instance, contains around three units. Follow these guidelines to kick hangovers into touch:
- Keep well within the Government’s recommended limits. That’s the best way to avoid a hangover altogether.
- Try not to drink on an empty stomach; eat something – preferably carbohydrates - before you start drinking. The food will help slow the body’s absorbtion of the alcohol.
- Avoid dark coloured drinks if possible. They contain natural chemicals (congeners) that can worsen the hangover.
- Drink plenty of water or soft drinks in between alcoholic drinks.
What can you do to treat the symptoms?
- Drink as much water as you can before hitting the sack and keep more by the bed to slurp if you wake in the night.
- Take a painkiller – a soluble one in water is best.
- Take an antacid to settle your stomach.
- Remember alcohol is a depressant. A tea or coffee may give you a slight temporary lift, but they may also dehydrate you further, so keep up with the water to counteract this.
- Go for a gentle stroll if you feel able and get some fresh air and light on the face.
- Avoid hair of the dog – you might think it helps but all you’re doing is easing the alcohol withdrawal and delaying the problem.
- Get plenty of rest and relaxation and stay away from booze for at least 24 hours after a heavy session.
Alcohol and cancer
- There is no doubt that alcohol can cause seven types of cancer.
- The more you cut down on alcohol, the more you reduce your risk of cancer.
- There is limited risk if you only drink a little - such as one small drink a day for women or two for men.
- You don’t need to be drunk to increase your risk.
- Drinking and smoking together are even worse for you.
The consequences of drinking too much alcohol go well beyond the evening’s embarrassing antics or the morning’s hangover. Scientific studies have confirmed that alcohol can also cause cancer.
Obviously, not everyone who drinks will develop cancer. But on the whole, scientists have found that cancer is more common in people who drink alcohol than people who don’t.
Test your knowledge
How much do you know about the effects of alcohol?
Which cancers are affected?
Drinking alcohol can increase your risk of:
- Mouth cancer
- Pharyngeal cancer (upper throat)
- Oesophageal cancer (food pipe)
- Laryngeal cancer (voice box)
- Breast cancer
- Bowel cancer
- Liver cancer
Every year, alcohol causes about 6% of cancer deaths in the UK, killing over 9,000 people.
Along with smoking, alcohol causes the vast majority of mouth and food pipe cancers. In the last decade, mouth cancer has become much more common and this may be because of higher levels of drinking.
Can light drinking increase the risk of cancer?
Alcohol can increase the risk of cancer at levels far too low to make an average person drunk. It’s not just people who have ‘drinking problems’ who have higher risks.
As little as 3 units a day can increase the risk of mouth, throat, food pipe, breast and bowel cancers. That’s the amount in one pint of premium lager or a large glass of wine!
Alcohol has a weaker effect on the risk of breast cancer than on other cancers, but it starts having an effect at a lower level.
What about heavy drinking?
The more alcohol you drink, the higher your risk of developing cancer. Heavy drinking can cause cirrhosis of the liver, which can in turn cause liver cancer.
Heavy drinking can also cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, pancreatitis and, of course, injuries.
Are there safe limits?
There is limited risk if you only drink a little, such as:
But remember that:
Which is worse: binge drinking or spreading my drinking across the week?
Research tells us that the total amount of alcohol you drink over time has a much bigger effect on cancer risk than when or how it is drunk.
People are more likely to develop cancer if they drink a lot of alcohol, no matter whether they save it up and drink it in one go, or drink it steadily over a week.
Does drinking matter if you smoke?
People who smoke and drink multiply the damage they receive, because tobacco and alcohol work together to damage the cells of the body. Alcohol makes it easier for the mouth and throat to absorb the cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco.
Studies have found that, on average, people who smoke and drink are up to 50 times more likely to get some types of cancer than people who neither smoke nor drink.
Do all types of alcohol increase the risk of cancer?
All types of alcohol increase the risk of cancer, even red wine. It is the alcohol itself that does the damage, regardless of whether it is in the form of beer, wine or spirits.
Elsewhere in this section, you can read about whether alcohol has any benefits for your health.
Why are women recommended to drink less than men?
The slightly different recommendations for men and women are based on biological differences between the two sexes.
- A woman’s liver produces less of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase that breaks down alcohol. So alcohol stays in a woman’s body for longer.
- There is some evidence that drinking just one unit of alcohol a day can significantly increase the risk of breast cancer. Smaller bodies can absorb less alcohol than large ones and on average, women are smaller than men.
- Because of their curvy shape, women also tend to have more body fat and less body water than men. This means that any alcohol a woman drinks becomes more concentrated in her body that it would be in a man of the same size.
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