Alcohol and Your Health

"Here's to your health!" You may hear this toast often, but many of alcohol's effects on the body may actually be harmful to your health. It all depends on how you approach it.

The health hazards associated with heavy alcohol consumption are well documented and range from liver damage to heart disease. Just one night of heavy drinking can cause short-term maladies including headache, body aches, fatigue, nausea, and dehydration. And when heavy drinking becomes a pattern, it puts immense strain on vital organs, jeopardizing a person's health and making his or her RealAge much older.

But alcohol, in moderation, can be good for your health. A growing body of research shows moderate drinkers enjoy lower risks of heart attack and stroke and may live longer than nondrinkers or heavy drinkers. After years of demonizing the drink, some health experts now recommend a moderate serving of red wine, a nip of scotch, or a bit of beer each day. This is generally considered good news, but it has also caused some confusion.

Health experts disagree about alcohol's role in a healthy lifestyle. Although some doctors advocate a daily drink, other doctors question the value of alcohol consumption of any kind. Also, people are sometimes unsure of the definition of "moderate" -- a critical distinction.

"Moderate" can mean different things to different people. For some people it means having a glass or two of wine every night with dinner. For others it means drinking only on the weekends. Still others believe that partaking only at special events and celebrations is the definition of a moderate drinker. This makes it hard for people to know whether their particular drinking habits fit the "healthful" mold or whether they are putting their health on the rocks.

So what about your habits? Are you drinking too much? Just enough? Are you hurting your health if you don't drink at all? And how does your age and gender affect the equation?

Pouring Over Serving Sizes

For people who choose to drink, striking a moderate balance can take careful research as well as practice and experience.

The maximum amount recommended by RealAge for Age Reduction benefits, is no more than one drink of wine, beer, or liquor per day for most women, and two drinks per day for most men. This also is the general recommendation given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Although these guidelines may seem straightforward, studies and surveys reveal a strong possibility this recommendation could be misinterpreted. Many people tend to wing it when it comes to estimating the size of their drink or its alcohol content, and this can lead to unintentional overimbibing.

For example, you may think you're having only one drink when, because of the amount of alcohol in your drink, you're really having two; a small serving of the stronger beers, lagers, and spirits may contain many times the recommended daily amount of alcohol. Or the size of your glass may trick your eyes and lead to larger serving sizes than would be appropriate for maximum RealAge benefits.

A Look at Labels

The amount of alcohol a drink contains depends on many factors. Usually, the alcohol content is determined by fermentation, but different brewing styles and fermentation durations also mean there is little uniformity.

RealAge considers a standard drink to be about half an ounce of alcohol. This corresponds roughly to:

• 12 fluid ounces of regular beer
• 5 fluid ounces of wine
• 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof liquor/distilled spirits (standard shot glass)
• 1 ounce of 100-proof spirits

However, some drinks contain more than the typical amount of alcohol. The alcohol content can range from about 4% to as high as 18% or more for some beers and wines. Standard shot measurements of alcohol used by bartenders make it easier to gauge how much booze is in your mixed drink, but different glass sizes and heavy pours could result in too big of a drink. Even when mixing a drink yourself, you could make it too strong if you just eyeball it.

An occasional heavy pour or stiff drink is generally not cause for too much alarm, although if you consume alcohol regularly, your best bet is to stick to modest serving containers -- standard size glasses, tumblers, or shot glasses -- and to consult the label for information on alcohol by volume (ABV) or proof. You want your single serving of alcohol to contain about half a fluid ounce of alcohol, or about 12 grams.

Access the University of Prince Edward Island's chart of the alcohol content of common beverages.

What's in a Day?

Another area of confusion regarding the definition of moderate drinking lies in the distribution of drinks throughout the week. Having several drinks on Saturday night is not equivalent to having one drink each evening, as some might believe. These two patterns have very different health implications.

A recent study comparing two groups of drinkers -- one that drank one serving of alcohol every day and another that had several drinks one day per week -- revealed that once-a-week drinkers had more abdominal fat than daily drinkers. Known as binge drinking, this type of drinking behavior makes your RealAge older because excess abdominal fat is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

Binge drinking may also contribute to atrial fibrillation, a heart-rhythm disturbance that causes the upper chambers of the heart to quiver. This decreases the heart's ability to pump blood and increases a person's risk of developing blood clots and having a stroke.

Calculate your alcohol consumption over the last week with this tool from the British United Provident Association.