Understanding the Risks
Regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week risks damaging your health. The number of units in a drink depends on its size and strength. Evidence on the health harms of regular drinking has grown in recent years, strengthening the understood link between alcohol and various cancers — and the idea that moderate drinking protects the heart is now considered much less certain than it once was.
Low-Risk Drinking Guidance
To keep alcohol-related health risks low if you drink most weeks, it's recommended not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis, to spread this across 3 or more days rather than binging, and to include several drink-free days if you're trying to cut down. If you're pregnant, or think you might become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink at all, to minimise any risk to your baby.
Drinking under 14 units a week is considered "low risk" rather than "safe," since there's no truly risk-free level of alcohol consumption. Regularly drinking above this level for 10 to 20 years is linked to illnesses including mouth, throat and breast cancer, stroke, heart disease, liver disease, brain damage, and nervous system damage. Regular heavy drinking can also worsen mental health, with research showing strong links between alcohol misuse and self-harm, including suicide. The less you drink, the lower your health risks.
Single-Session Drinking
Drinking a lot too quickly on any one occasion raises the risk of accidents and injury (sometimes fatal), poor judgement in risky situations, and loss of self-control, such as unprotected sex or involvement in violence. To reduce these risks on a single occasion, limit how much you drink, pace yourself, drink alongside food, and alternate alcoholic drinks with water or soft drinks.
