Increasing-risk drinkers
Drinking at this level increases the risk of damaging your health. Alcohol affects all parts and systems of the body, and it can play a role in numerous medical conditions.
Increasing-risk drinking is:
• regularly drinking more than 3-4 units a day if you're a man
• regularly drinking more than 2-3 units a day if you're a woman
If you're drinking at around these levels, your risk of developing a serious illness is higher than non-drinkers:
• Men are 1.8 to 2.5 times as likely to get cancer of the mouth, neck and throat, and women are 1.2 to 1.7 times as likely.
• Women are 1.2 times as likely to get breast cancer.
• Men are twice as likely to develop liver cirrhosis, and women are 1.7 times as likely.
• Men are 1.8 times as likely to develop high blood pressure, and women are 1.3 times as likely.
If you're an increasing-risk drinker and you drink substantially more than the lower-risk limits, your risks will be even higher than those above.
At these levels of drinking, you may already have alcohol-related problems, such as fatigue or depression, weight gain, poor sleep and sexual problems.
Whatever your age or sex, you’re probably in worse physical shape than you would be otherwise. Also, you could easily have higher blood pressure due to your drinking. Some people argue a lot when they drink, which can negatively