My first recollection of alcohol was as a child having a thimble of sherry at my parent’s party and dancing around the sitting room floor to the great amusement of the adults, who didn’t realise what I had done.
Throughout college I only consumed alcohol when exams were over, I had such a low tolerance to alcohol (not consuming it regularly) 2 drinks was my limit. Nowadays I never drink alcohol, apart from what I add to the Christmas cake or pudding!
Unfortunately Ireland has not received great press with regard to alcohol consumption. In a previous blog I referred to the finding that Ireland has the second highest binge drinking rate in the world. You could brush this off and say its “part of our culture”. However this means the effects of alcohol on health will also be “part of our culture”. It should be possible for us to “still be Irish” but limit our alcohol consumption to the guidelines recommended and not be the “second highest binge drinking nation in the world”. In doing so we would be minimising adverse effects alcohol has on health so giving ourselves the potential for longer happier healthier lives!
Alcohol has an enormous potential to affect our health, this includes mental and physical health. Personally speaking I think people find it difficult to believe alcohol can be that bad for you. But it is well known to cause cancer of the breast, bowel, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, pancreas, head and neck. This is due to alcohol’s ability to change the structure of DNA, our hereditary material. When DNA is changed, the new cells which form divide more rapidly, and may form a tumour.
The ability of alcohol to change DNA has long been known but the effect of alcohol on cancer risk seems to be gaining increased focus. I do wonder if this could be due to the increased level of binge drinking, perhaps with more people binge drinking the effects of alcohol on cancer are becoming greater and clearer.
Alcohol Action Ireland present some excellent statistics in relation to alcohol and state 900 cancers per year in Ireland are alcohol related. For females drinking 1 drink per day, increases breast cancer risk by 9%, while drinking 3-4 drinks per day increases breast cancer risk by 41%. This is worrying since drinking 3-4 drinks per day is classified as binge drinking and Ireland has the second highest rate of binge drinking in the world. Breast cancer seems to be so common today I do think it’s very important all females know alcohol can be a very important factor increasing its risk.
The average Irish person is now drinking more alcohol than our European counterparts at a level of 11 litres pure alcohol per year. If you think about it, that’s a huge amount of pure alcohol to be processed by your liver. Unfortunately Ireland also has a higher proportion of alcohol related deaths from cancer compared to the European average. As well as that the projected number of deaths from alcohol related cancers for females is to double by 2020 and increase by 81% in males. I cannot emphasise how important I feel it is that this increase does not happen.
All these statistics present a very bleak picture of Ireland. Minister for Health Leo Varadkar just published an alcohol bill in the hope of reducing alcohol consumption from 11 litres to 9.1 litres per person per year by 2020. However a bill on its own will not reduce alcohol consumption. We must help ourselves; especially our young people realise the danger alcohol has on health. This is extremely important considering the fact new research has found the earlier young females drink, the greater their risk of getting benign breast disease and breast cancer in later life, with the suggestion teenage girls should delay the onset of drinking for as long as possible. There are so many young girls drinking today it’s important we realise the effect it could have on their future health.
Females have a reduced ability to produce alcohol dehydrogenase to deal with alcohol, in comparison to males, hence it’s extremely important females understand their biological make up means they cannot drink the same as a male, and may suffer much greater health effects. Unfortunately young Irish girls now drink as much as Irish boys, so while the effect of binge drinking on health for both girls and boys is detrimental, its effect on female’s health is much more serious.
The UK new guidelines have advised reduction of alcohol consumption from 28 to 14 units (6 pints of beer) per week, with consumption being spread out over the week. These new UK guidelines were set out since they realised the harmful effects a high level of alcohol consumption could have.
We all want to reduce our risk of cancer; hence the importance of alcohol reduction cannot be overemphasized. It would be wonderful if we also reduced our alcohol consumption to 14 units per week, which I suppose should be considered moderate alcohol consumption. It could result in a reduction in mental health issues and risk of cancer, not to mention health expenses and general health and happiness. So please think about your alcohol consumption and for the sake of yourself and everyone around you make sure you keep your consumption within the recommended limits. Drinking too much does so much more harm than good. You will feel a lot better the day after and in the long run.
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