Alcohol: How much is too much?

[weekend addiction]

So I've been looking around the internet and I keep seeing the government's definition of too much alcohol. Somewhere between 2-4 drinks per day for men and 1-3 for women are the numbers I keep coming up with. However their number is low partially based on the potential to become an alcoholic for people having several drinks on a regular basis.

I want to know at what level is it physically too much for most people? I'm not worried about becoming an alcoholic I just want to have a reasonable amount of drinks on a daily basis. I have between 6-10 drinks a night but usually on the lower end of that spectrum. Is that terrible for me?

 

[pasha]

Depends how long you've been drinking. Whether or not you feel physically dependent eg. needing to drink to sleep, to socialize, to relax. Drinking on a daily basis for long uninterupted peroids is asking for physical depence, and at the least a psychological addiction.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

^This. Alcohol causes all sorts of issues if used in higher doses (and my definition of "higher doses" is higher than the U.S. Government's definition - I'd say if you're consuming more than 5-6 standard drinks per day that counts as "high dose") for long periods of time. How long have you been having 6-10 drinks per night? And have you been doing this continuously or have you been taking breaks? It's really hard to tell because individual reactions to alcohol vary considerably (just like with all drugs).

 

[crazycatman]

Well, if you think you're drinking to much, you probably are.

You could get a liver function test and see how you'r liver is doing. Even if you don't have insurance (or don't want to get them involved) it shouldn't be that expensive.
And then you'll see where you stand. This is as far as physiological problems go.

Psychological ones are harder. After your test do a month without touching any alcohol and report back on how you feel.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

In the case of alcohol, physical dependence is often less of a concern then the damage produced by regular, long-term use. Physical dependence is serious and often fatal but another aspect to consider is the effect of long-term, regularly use in people who are not destroying their lives with their drinking but still consuming a considerable amount daily.

Here are a few examples of the effects of regular, immoderate consumption (which 6-10 drinks daily certainly falls in to) -

Typically with similar threads, people seem to latch on to posts that make them feel better about their behavior and just tend to ignore the rest and I have to wonder if that was the purpose of asking this or if you're genuinely concerned enough to make real changes.

If you consume 6-10 drinks everyday for the rest of your life, it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when' you will start to develop the conditions on the left-side of that image. Alcohol is treated as a toxin by your body and in small amounts on occasion, you're body can handle that. Start exceeding that regularly, and it can destroy nearly every system in the body.

There is no number of drinks/day that can clearly differentiate who is or who is not an alcoholic but the CDC puts it concisely, "Drinking is a problem if it causes trouble in your relationships, in school, in social activities, or in how you think and feel." Since alcohol is cheap and readily available, many people can drink on a daily basis without breaking the bank, losing jobs, etc. but that doesn't mean that over time, they aren't destroying themselves physically.

My main point in this is that you might not have a 'problem' with alcohol, but that doesn't mean that those levels aren't going to do damage over time.

 

[weekend addiction]

Well, if you think you're drinking to much, you probably are.

I don't feel like I am. People cant really tell if I'm drunk or not because I have such a high tolerance. I haven't experienced any major problems due to alcohol (blackouts, stupidity,etc.). And I feel healthy enough. With my level of tolerance being relatively high this doesn't "feel" like a lot. I'm just worried that I am seriously shortening my life span.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

How long have you been drinking 6-10 drinks per day and what are you counting as a drink? If you are fairly young and drinking 6-10 beers a day or something, I wouldn't expect that to pose immediate health problems, but that doesn't mean that it's safe long-term. A lot of things 'feel' ok until... they don't and by then, you've done a lot of damage. You can not feel your liver getting fatty or your pancreas getting inflamed until those are pretty advanced.

A friend of mine was concerned about his father's drinking but kept saying he only had 2-3 drinks per day but later I found out each drink was about 8oz of jack and 4oz of coke so in reality, he was drinking 10-16 standard drinks per day.

You should also consider the effects on weight - I don't know if you are overweight or not and if your are young and active you might be able to consume a lot of empty calories, but you won't be able to consume ~1000 extra empty calories per day your whole life without it affecting your weight... or if you are compensating by not eating enough, adversely affecting your health in other ways by not consuming enough vitamins and nutrients.

Regarding your specific concern - If you continue this indefinitely, you are certainly shortening your lifespan, whether YOU consider the amount 'serious' or not, I can not say

 

[Hiltoniano]

I would say any sort of regular drinking to where you end up drunk and/or hungover is too much. But honestly its not the worst of all drugs, it can be abused much to easily though due to social standards and its legality. Trust me though, the amount of alcohol that almost anyone drinks in one sitting, is likely considered "too much"( at least in the medical field). But it all really depends, its a cost/benefit thing like any other situation.