Doctors talk about drinking in moderation or drinking a moderate amount. What is moderation?
A. Medical and scientific studies define drinking in moderation as being equal to drinking two standard drinks on any one day for an average man and woman, so that any potential harm to the human body is minimised and any potential benefit is maximised. A standard drink is defined as 10gm of ethanol. Both the amount and the pattern of consumption are important. For example, it is not considered moderate to save up’ over a week and drink your daily two to three drinks on only two days, that is, 14 drinks over one to two days. This is defined as binge drinking’. When you binge drink’, you significantly increase your blood pressure and the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. The potential harms of immoderate drinking are related to your maximum blood alcohol concentration, the amount of time alcohol and its first breakdown product, acetaldehyde, are circulating in the blood throughout your body, as both alcohol and acetaldehyde in high concentration are toxic to human tissues. Diseas
