New draft Australian drink guidelines rubbished as unrealistic

The recently released Australian draft guidelines on alcohol which set a two-drinks-a-day limit on adults while warning pregnant women and young people not to drink at all, have been come in for some harsh criticism.

One of Australia's leading authorities on alcohol abuse, Paul Dillon, of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, says they are unrealistic and lack credibility.

The new guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council recommend men and women drink two or less standard drinks a day, while women who are pregnant or breastfeeding drink no alcohol.

The guidelines dramatically curtail the current advice of no more than six standard drinks a day for men and four for women.

Current UK guidelines recommend that men drink no more than three or four units of alcohol a day, and that women limit their intake to two or three units a day.

They also say units should not be 'saved up' through the week in order to binge at the weekend, and at least one day a week should be alcohol-free.

A substantial body of research in recent years has come down in favour of the health benefits of moderate drinking as against being teetotal.

It has shown in particular that for men over 40 and women after the menopause, having one or two small drinks a day can help prevent coronary heart disease.

However, overdoing the recommended daily amount of alcohol can lead to health problems and experts suggest an episode of heavy drinking, as a short term measure, should be followed by an alcohol free period of 48 hours.

Dillon says he will not even refer to the federal guidelines when teaching school students about the dangers of drinking because they would simply dismiss them.

Dillon says though alcohol creates many problems many people have been drinking far more than two glasses for a long period of time and most will completely ignore the new guidelines.

Mr Dillon has worked in drug and alcohol education for 25 years and he believes the focus of the guidelines should on the consequences of alcohol abuse, amid soaring rates of binge drinking and alcohol-related violence, particularly among young people.

The guidelines dramatically curtail the current advice of no more than six standard drinks a day for men and four for women.

The draft guidelines to be published by the National Health and Medical Research Council next month, dramatically curtail the current advice of no more than six standard drinks a day for men and four for women.

The recommended British limits are said to be lower for women than for men because the body composition of women has less water than men, so, even if a man and woman weigh the same and are of a similar size, the woman will tend to get drunk faster.

Some experts also suspect that women develop liver disease at lower levels of drinking than men, although this appears to only be the case in higher levels of alcohol consumption.

According to experts a person is considered to be dependent on alcohol when they have experienced three or more of the following symptoms during a year:-

• A strong urge to drink, difficulty controlling how much they drink, or difficulty stopping.
• Physical withdrawal symptoms, such as sweating, shaking, agitation and nausea when they try to reduce drinking.
• A growing tolerance to alcohol - needing larger quantities to get the same effect.
• Gradual neglect of other activities.
• Persistent drinking even though it is obviously causing harm.

Alcohol abuse, or problem drinking, happens when a person is not dependent on alcohol, but is drinking enough to cause themselves actual physical or psychological harm.

Alcohol is involved in a large proportion of fatal road accidents, assaults and incidents of domestic violence and can be a dangerous drug.

Drinking too much too often will cause physical damage, increase the risk of getting some diseases, and make other diseases worse.

Women who drink heavily during pregnancy are at risk of having babies with a condition called fetal alcohol syndrome which can result in growth deficiencies, nervous system problems, lowered intelligence, and facial abnormalities in the child.

Certain people are advised not to drink alcohol, such as women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, people who plan to drive or engage in other activities that require alertness and skill, people taking certain over-the-counter or prescription medications, people with medical conditions that can be made worse by drinking, and recovering alcoholics.

One standard Australian drink equals a can of mid-strength beer, 100ml of wine or 30ml of spirits.

Tipplers beware! the average glass holds more than the recommended amounts.