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Alcohol:
Individuals

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Why Drink Moderately?

If you drink alcoholic beverages, keeping your alcohol use at moderate levels helps maintain your health and is a benefit to society. Risky drinking involves drinking more than your body can healthfully absorb at one time, or drinking in situations that put you or others at risk (such as drinking before or while driving). Risky drinking can harm your physical and mental health, your family life, and your work performance. Excessive alcohol use is implicated in a number of illnesses, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and depression. At-risk drinkers who decrease their alcohol consumption can lower improve their cardiovascular health, lower their triglyceride levels, lose weight, experience fewer family problems, improve their sleep patterns and work more productively.

Is Your Drinking Putting You at Risk?

The term moderation is a common one but few people know exactly what the guidelines for moderation are. To assess your level of risk, think about how often you drink and how many drinks you have in a day. The guidelines below come from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

NIAAA Guidelines for Moderate Drinking 1,3
Men No more than 2 drinks/day and at least 1 day each week with no alcohol 2
Women and those over 65 No more than 1 drink/day and at least 1 day each week with no alcohol 2
For everyone Avoid even moderate drinking in certain situations such as driving, caring for children, or taking certain medications

Self-evaluation

Another method of evaluating whether you may be making risky choices with alcohol is to compare your usual drinking practices with those listed below. Ask yourself if the following statements are True or False.

  1. I have more than 10 drinks per week (men) or 6 drinks (women or over age 65) per week. A "drink" is 12 ounces of regular beer, 4 ounces of table wine, 1.5 ounces of liquor, 12 ounces of wine cooler or 3 ounces of fortified wine.
  2. I have more than 2 drinks (men) or 1 drink (women or over age 65) on any day.
  3. I sometimes drink and drive.
  4. I have more than one drink per hour.
  5. I drink every day.
  6. I drink to become intoxicated.
  7. I drink before or during work.
  8. I drink when I am taking medication.
  9. I drink before or during physical or sports activities.
  10. I drink to help deal with depression, loneliness or stress.
  11. Most of my leisure time involves drinking.
If you answered true to even one statement, you should consider cutting back or quitting or changing your drinking habits. The more questions to which you answered true, the higher your risk of developing serious problems. You are unlikely to experience alcohol-related consequences if you answered false to all the statements. It is much easier to turn things around before developing serious drinking problems.

If you want to change the choices you make regarding alcohol:

  1. Write down the pros and cons of your current alcohol use. Changing any behavior involves a series of steps and an understanding of why you want to change. Write down all the positive things about your current alcohol use. This could include things like, feeling more social, liking the high, and feeling more confident. On the opposite side of the page write down all the negative things, including such things as hangovers, weight gain, declining academic or job performance and embarrassing situations. Ask yourself whether the positive things about drinking really outweigh its negative aspects.


  2. Keep a drinking notebook. Successful change depends on a clear and measurable goal as well as feedback that shows you the number of drinks you have every day.


    • where you drink, whom you are with when you drink
    • what you are thinking and feeling when you are drinking
Tips for Lower Risk Drinking

You now have a goal, you know why you want to cut down or quit, and you have a method for recording your results. Listed below are some tips for helping you to get the results you want.

  • Drink slowly (no more than one drink an hour) so alcohol does not build up in your system.
  • Eat before you drink.
  • Drink for quality not quantity.
  • Alternate each alcohol beverage with a non-alcoholic one.
  • Avoid drinking games.
  • Have a goal in mind when you enter drinking situations (for example, "Tonight I will have no more than two drinks."). Keep your drinking goal within the above lower-risk limits.
  • Rehearse saying "no" to drink offers.
  • Reward yourself for sticking to your goal.
  • Ask others for support.
  • Have fun without drinking.
The above recommendations about alcohol moderation stem from a study that examines the impact of wellness counseling on alcohol risk reduction and the impact of alcohol risk reduction on overall health. It was funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through its Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).

Notes:
  1. Individuals with a personal or family history of alcoholism are more at-risk for alcohol dependency and should use more caution in applying these guidelines.


  2. A drink equals 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of table wine, 3 ounces of fortified wine, 12 ounces of wine cooler, or 1½ ounces of liquor.


  3. Alcohol is not recommended for women who are pregnant or lactating, or for individuals with certain illnesses. Check with your health care provider to be sure.


  4. Adapted from How to Cut Down on Your Drinking, a pamphlet published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Updated February 2001.
  
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