Friday 8th January 2016- The Independent: New alcohol guidelines: How much is 14 units?

BBC News article explaining new changes:

The Independent:-

‘The UK’s chief medical officer has fully reviewed alcohol guidelines issued in 1995, and reduced the recommended maxium number of limits to 14 for both men and women per week. Previously, men were told they could safely drink 21 units.

The guidelines also warn pregnant women that they should aim to abstain from drinking entirely, when they were previously told they could safely drink one or two units a week at most.

Below, we outline how what the 14 unit limit is equivalent to.

One unit of alcohol (10ml) is the equivalent to:

A single measure of spirits (ABV 37.5%); half a pint of average-strength (4%) lager; two-thirds of a 125ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine; half a 175ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine; a third of a 250ml glass of average-strength (12%) wine.

14 units of alcohol equal:

14 single measures of spirits (ABV 37.5%); seven pints of average-strength (4%) lager; nine and one-third 125ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine; seven 175ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine; four and two-thirds 250ml glasses of average-strength (12%) wine.’

The Telegraph:

Binge Drinking Across The UK:

Weekly Alcohol Consumption Guidelines Across Europe:

Related Articles:

New alcohol guidelines: How much is 14 units?

Alcohol limits cut to reduce health risks- BBC News

Weekly alcohol limit cut to 14 units in UK for men- The Guardian

Mapped: How the UK’s new alcohol guidelines compare with the rest of Europe- The Telegraph

Mapped: The binging regions furthest from the new alcohol guidelines- The Telegraph

Saturday 2nd January 2016- The Telegraph: Scottish ambulances attend 60 drink-related calls a day

‘Ambulances in Scotland have to attend more than 60 incidents every day where a patient is so drunk that it has to be formally recorded by medics, according to official figures.

Paramedics had to treat around 12,000 people in the six months to the end of September who were so intoxicated it was noted on Scottish Ambulance Service systems.

More than 90,000 incidents have been recorded since 2012/13 where alcohol is not the primary reason for the call-out but has been named as an “additional factor”, for example where a drunk has cut their head after a fall.

Scotland’s largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, had the highest number of alcohol-related 999 call-outs in the last six months at 3,849, followed by NHS Lothian with 1,935 and NHS Lanarkshire with 1,470.

The figures, unearthed by the Scottish Conservatives, followed a staff survey last month which showed anecdotally paramedics thought alcohol played at least some part in half of weekend call-outs

The Scottish Ambulance Service report also found that drink was also involved in 42 per cent of incidents on weekday evenings and one in six during the daytime.’

See:

Scottish ambulances attend 60 drink-related calls a day

Thursday 31st December 2015- The Guardian: Woman whose body turns food into alcohol beats drink-drive charge

‘Drunken-driving charges against a woman in upstate New York have been dismissed based on an unusual defence: her body is a brewery.

The woman was arrested while driving with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit. She then discovered she has a rare condition called “auto-brewery syndrome”, in which her digestive system converts ordinary food into alcohol, her lawyer Joseph Marusak said.

A town judge in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg dismissed the charges after Marusak presented research by a doctor showing the woman had the previously undiagnosed condition in which high levels of yeast in her intestines fermented high-carbohydrate foods into alcohol.

The rare condition, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, was first documented in the 1970s in Japan, and both medical and legal experts in the US say it is being raised more frequently in drunken-driving cases as it is becomes more known.

“At first glance, it seems like a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. “But it’s not that easy. Courts tend to be sceptical of such claims. You have to be able to document the syndrome through recognised testing.”

The condition was first documented in the US by Barbara Cordell of Panola College in Texas, who published a case study in 2013 of a 61-year-old man who had been experiencing episodes of debilitating drunkenness without drinking liquor.

Marusak contacted Cordell for help with his client who insisted she had not had more than three drinks in the six hours before she was pulled over for erratic driving 11 October 2014. The woman was charged with driving while intoxicated when a breath test showed her blood-alcohol content to be 0.33%.

Cordell referred Marusak to Dr Anup Kanodia of Columbus, Ohio, who eventually diagnosed the woman with auto-brewery syndrome and prescribed a low-carbohydrate diet that brought the situation under control. Her case was dismissed on 9 December, leaving her free to drive without restrictions.’

See:

Woman whose body turns food into alcohol beats drink-drive charge

Friday 31st October 2014- The Guardian: Put calorie labels on beer, wine and spirits, say public health experts

‘Beer, wine and spirits are fuelling the obesity epidemic and should be labelled with the calories they contain, say public health experts.

A large 175ml glass of 13% ABV (alcohol by volume) wine contains 160 calories, a bottle of alcopop contains 170 and a pint of 4% ABV beer contains 180’.

‘The RSPH polled 2,000 people to find out what they knew about the calories in alcohol and found that the vast majority had little idea.

More than 80% did not know, or incorrectly estimated, the calorie content of a large glass of wine. And almost 60% did not know how many calories there were in a pint of lager.’

‘In England about two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight, which is a risk for serious life-shortening diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes’.

See:

Put calorie labels on beer, wine and spirits, say public health experts