Regular excess drinking can take years off your life

Regularly drinking above the UK alcohol guidelines can take years off your life, 

A study of 600,000 drinkers estimated that having 10 to 15 alcoholic drinks every week could shorten a person's life by between one and two years and drinking more than 18 drinks a week could shorten it by four to five years.

The 2016 UK guidelines recommend no more than 14 units a week, which is six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine.

Scientists, who compared the health and drinking habits of alcohol drinkers in 19 countries, modelled how much life a person could expect to lose if they drank the same way for the rest of their lives from the age of 40.

They found people who drank the equivalent of about five to 10 drinks a week could shorten their lives by up to six months.

The study's authors also found drinking increased the risk of cardiovascular illness, with every 12.5 units of alcohol people drank above the guidelines raising the risk of:

• Stroke by 14%
• Fatal hypertensive disease by 24%
• Heart failure by 9%
• Fatal aortic aneurysm by 15%

Drinking alcohol was linked with a reduced risk of non-fatal heart disease, but scientists said this benefit was wiped out by a higher risk of other forms of the illness.

Previous studies have suggested that drinking red wine can be good for our hearts, although some scientists have suggested these benefits may be overhyped.

Another Danish study found drinking three to four times a week was linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

"This study makes clear that on balance there are no health benefits from drinking alcohol, which is usually the case when things sound too good to be true," said Tim Chico, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the research.

"Although non-fatal heart attacks are less likely in people who drink, this benefit is swamped by the increased risk of other forms of heart disease including fatal heart attacks and stroke."

Recommended limits in Italy, Portugal, and Spain are almost 50% higher than the UK guidelines, and in the USA the upper limit for men is nearly double this.

Read full story BBC

Japanese scientists make alcohol from wood

Researchers at Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute have developed an alcoholic beverage made from tree bark, the institute says the beverage resembles the qualities of an alcohol aged in wooden barrels.

The  alcohol is made by pulverising wood into a creamy paste and then adding yeast and an enzyme to start the fermentation process, when complete the alcohol is 15% abv, according to Tokyo’s Straits Times.

By avoiding using heat, researchers say they are able to preserve the specific flavour of each tree’s wood, and have already produced variants from trees including cedar, birch and cherry.

Having experimented with both brewed and distilled versions of the alcohol, the team said that the alcohol presents better as a distilled beverage, with 4kg of cedar wood producing around 3.8 litres of liquid.

The government institute aims to commercialise the product with a private-sector partner and have the liquor on shelves within three years.

For more information on this story please visit thedrinksbusiness

Surrey shops praised for challenging underage alcohol buyers

Nine outlets in Camberley, Frimley and Mytchett were targeted by police and Surrey Health Borough Council on 29th March. 

The test involved an underage customer being sent into each of the shops. They were told to try and purchase alcohol without ID. All of the shops refused to sell the customers alcohol.

Surrey Heath Licensing Officer Rab Carnie said: “This is an excellent result with all of the premises challenging the underage test purchasers.

"It shows that the outlets are heeding the advice to ensure they operate within the conditions of their licence and it also demonstrates that the message about responsible trading is being listened to following our ongoing operations.”

The head of the Association of Convenience Stores James Lowman said the successful test was "good news."

According to their website, staff members should be trained to ask the question "does the person in front of me look like they might be under the age of 25 years?". If the answer is yes, they should challenge the customer for ID.

For more on this story please visit https://www.eagleradio.co.uk/

 

Cheshire drink-driver tells court 'driveway too long to walk'

Barbara Woodward, a drink-driver, begged magistrates not to ban her from the road because her £6m mansion's quarter-mile driveway was too long for her to walk. The 56 year old also claimed she would struggle to do community service as she had never worked in her life.

Police arrested her for being three times the limit at 09:00 GMT in Chelford, Cheshire on 17 November, after they found her slumped at the wheel of her £79,000 Mercedes G-Class 4x4, with her make-up smeared and slurring her words.

The court heard she had tried to buy sparkling wine at a petrol station to make bucks fizz for friends.
The Petrol station attendant Sharid Butt described her as "stumbling all over the forecourt"

He called police after she drove off at 5mph and staggered out of another shop.

The court heard it happened two days after her husband's funeral.Mrs Woodward said: "He did everything, and then when he died I had to take over. I had never paid a bill in my life."

She denied drink driving but was banned for two years after being convicted at Stockport Magistrates' Court.

Magistrates ordered her to do 15 days' rehabilitation and fined her £560 with £760 surcharges.

For more information and images on this story please visit BBC

Low and no-alcohol lifestyle booms

About 5 million people will drink their first beer or glass of wine that they have consumed in a month next week as “dry January” comes to an end.

However for an increasing number of people it will be an entirely dry year, as low and no-alcohol becomes the lifestyle of choice for many people.

Tesco says its sales of low-alcohol wines have more than doubled. The supermarket’s wine expert Alexandra Runciman, says: “Consumption of alcohol in the UK down is down by 18% over the last decade and we’re seeing more customers looking for a quality wine-drinking experience without the alcohol.”

Drinking rates among British adults are at their lowest since 2005. A recent Office for National Statistics survey found the proportion who drank alcohol at least once a week declined from 64.2% to 56.9% last year. Almost 100,000 people officially signed up to the “dry January” challenge this year – about 40% up on 2017 – while millions more joined in unofficially.

The trend is particularly prevalent among young people: more than a quarter of 16- to 24-year-olds do not drink.

Stuart Elkington, founder of specialist online store Dry Drinker, says his sales have more than doubled in the last 12 months. He believes an improvement in the taste of low- and no-alcohol beers and wines has combined with a general desire to cut calories, be healthy and avoid waking up with a hangover.

For more on this story please read the Guardian

Sugar tax ‘could increase amount of alcohol that we drink’

A new study suggests that the introduction of the sugar tax on soft drinks could have the unintended consequence of driving up alcohol consumption.

Experts examined if price hikes to soft drinks could lead to higher rates of purchase for other drinks – such as alcohol.

The model used data from the expenditure of 32,000 British households in 2012/13 and analysed six million drinks purchases including milk, juice, high-sugar drinks and alcohol.

The experts found that people from poorer homes were more likely to buy high-sugar drinks and spirits while richer homes were more likely to buy juices and wine.

Taking this model in to account it would indicate that an increase in the cost of diet or low-sugar drinks could lead to hikes in the sales of beer, cider and wines.

But an increase in the price of medium-sugar drinks could actually reduce sales of alcoholic drinks, according to the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

For more on this story visit metro

'Crashed car' displays urging you not to drink or drug drive this Christmas

FIREFIGHTERS are warning motorists who have overindulge in Christmas spirit to keep out of their cars with a dramatic display.

Cars which appear to have crashed with the boundary walls of two Bournemouth fire stations are now in place.

The cars are in place in Redhill and Springbourne alongside banners which read: 'Drink, drugs, drive - don't do it!'

The displays will stay in place until the new year, and have been marked as ‘police aware’ in case members of the public believe them to be a real accident.

Source : bournemouthecho

Breath tests for alcohol have fallen by a quarter

Breath tests for alcohol have fallen by a quarter over five years, figures show, as campaigners warn that drunk drivers are getting away with it.

Experts said a hard core of drink drivers had not responded to efforts to make it socially unacceptable leading to a stalling in the number of people killed on the roads.

John Scruby, former police traffic officer and campaigner against drinking and driving, said that a certain type of offender would continue to drink and drive unless the law was better enforced.

"With the education that we do, they're aware that drink driving is something they shouldn't be doing," he said.

"It's the same with mobile phones or anything - certain people think they've become immune to it, but they haven't."

 Christmas is a peak time for drink-drive offences. Last week police revealed that during last year's crackdown they stopped more than 100,000 vehicles, with 5,698 breath tests that were positive, failed or refused.

For more on this piece please visit telegraph

It is time to BAN alcohol on aeroplanes?

I came across an interesting online article by Martin Townsend in the Express.co.uk entitled "It is time to BAN alcohol on aeroplanes"

Did you know that the death of 31 people 30 years ago in the King’s Cross fire was the trigger for the ban on smoking on the London Underground?

Then in 2008 The ban on alcohol on the Underground came in to force and succeed in making Tube travel more pleasant. (this ban was not introduced because of a disaster)

With a sizable minority of plane passengers not behaving appropriately under the influence of alcohol, (despite it being illegal to enter an aircraft when drunk or to be drunk on an aircraft). Could this end in the ultimate disaster of bringing a plane down if a complete ban doesn't take place?

The maximum penalty for entering an aircraft when drunk or to be drunk on an aircraft is two years’ jail.

A total of 387 people were arrested at British airports and on flights between February 2016 and February 2017 – a rise of 50 per cent in a year.

Mr Townsend made another great point in his article that "Aggressive pub drunks are bad enough but innocent bystanders can always head for the exit. There is no such option on a plane where onlookers are left to quietly fret."

What do you think? should more be done? have you ever seen someone stopped from boarding a plane due to drunkenness? Were you aware that it is illegal to be drunk on a plane before reading this article?

Drivers who kill will now face life sentence

Dangerous drivers who cause death while using their mobile phones or speeding will now face life in prison.

Drivers who kill while under the influence of drink or drugs will also face a life sentence. And there will be a new offence of causing serious injury through careless driving, as part of renewed efforts to improve road safety.

The new measures mean such drivers could face the same length of sentence as those convicted of manslaughter, with maximum penalties raised from 14 years to life.

Read the full story in the guardian

Generation Z Could Dramatically Affect Alcohol Market

In 2016 Millennials drank 42 percent of the wine sold in the U.S., more than any other generation. They also have helped to boost the craft beer industry and the cocktail market.

“Generation Z” are just coming of age and it looks as though this generation is far less interested in intoxicants of all varieties–from alcohol to cigarettes and marijuana–than their older siblings and cousins.

Demographically speaking, Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2010) is only slightly smaller than the Millennials (born between 1980 and 1995). According to census numbers, there are about 62.5 million members of Generation Z and 65 million Millennials in the United States. Much of this generation is still too young to legally drink, but already market trends show that the period of rapid sales growth enjoyed by the alcohol industry may be slowing down.

For more information and statistics ee the Inside Sources Article by Erin Mundahl

Hangover Free Alcohol

MANY of us are familiar with the consequences associated with a big night of drinking.

• headache
• dry mouth
• uneasy stomach 
• general feeling of self-pity

Everyone has a "Cure" that works for them, anything from drinking a pint of water before going to bed to a greasy fry up in the morning.

However these rituals may become a thing of th past thanks to the invention of a new synthetic alcohol that eliminates the risk of a hangover all together.

The synthetic alcohol 'alcosynth' was created by David Nutt, a Drugs scientist and Imperial College Professor.  Alcosynth is designed to mirror the effects of alcohol minus the throbbing headache. Its also designed to carry less health risks.

In an interview with The Times, Professor Nutt said that he has plans to roll out alcosynth in over one hundred cocktail bars by 2020.

Professor Nutt and his team are trying to raise $11.8 million (£7 million) to fund the final round of safety checks to ensure that the product is fit for human consumption before it can be put forward to be sold to the public.

Professor Nutt has hopes that alcosynth will be able to replace all regular alcohol by 2050.

"It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they'll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you'll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart," he told The Independent.
"They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste."

More at centraltelegraph 

'Wide awake drunk' on energy drinks and alcohol mix

Research carried out in Canada suggests that mixing energy drinks with alcohol could potentially be a risky combination that leads to a greater risk of accidents and injuries.

The caffeine within energy drinks can make people feel wide awake and encourage them to drink more than normal. Medics say that this can also cause problems sleeping as well as a raised heart rate.

Charity Drinkaware does not recommend mixing alcohol and energy drinks.
Mixing spirits and liqueurs with energy drinks, such as Red Bull and Monster, has become increasingly popular - in pubs and clubs, and at home.

What are the risks?

In a review of 13 studies published between 1981 and 2016, researchers at the University of Victoria, Canada, found a link in 10 studies between intake of alcohol mixed with energy drinks and an increased risk of falls, fight and accidents. They were unable to pin down the size of the injury risk because of the varied nature of the studies and the difficulty of comparing results.

What is in energy drinks? 

Energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine, usually about 80mg in a 250ml can - equivalent to a mug of instant coffee. Some smaller "energy shot" products can contain as much as 160mg of caffeine in a 60ml bottle.

Drink	Amount of caffeine
Red Bull (250ml can)	80mg
Monster (500ml can)	160mg
Coca-Cola (330ml can)	32mg
Mug of instant coffee	100mg
Filter coffee	150mg
Cup of tea	40mg

Energy drinks also contain lots of sugar as well as other ingredients, such as glucuronolactone and taurine, and sometimes vitamins and minerals or herbal substances


How much caffeine is too much?

High levels of caffeine can lead to: 

• anxiety
• panic attacks 
• increased blood pressure.

Pregnant and breast-feeding women are advised not to have more than 200mg of caffeine over the course of a day. European advice says that most other adults are safe to drink up to 400mg a day.

Children should have caffeine in moderation - a daily intake of less than 3mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight in children and adolescents is safe, the European Food Safety Authority says.

(More information on NHS choices.)

Under current UK rules, drinks that contain more than 150mg per litre of caffeine (apart from teas and coffees) must carry a warning saying: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women".

But there are currently no legal restrictions on the amount of caffeine that may be present in a food or drink product in the UK.


What are the recommended limits on alcohol?
 
Men and women should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week. (equivalent to six pints of average strength beer or seven glasses of wine)


What's the advice on mixing both?

Audra Roemer, study author and doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Victoria, says: "Usually when you're drinking alcohol, you eventually get tired and you go home.
"Energy drinks mask that, so people may underestimate how intoxicated they are, end up staying out later, consume more alcohol, and engage in risky behaviour and more hazardous drinking practices."
 
But Gavin Partington, director general at the British Soft Drinks Association, said there was no indication that energy drinks had any specific effect related to alcohol consumption.

Should drink and drug-drivers who cause fatal crashes face life sentences?

Came across an article in the Telegraph today about nine in ten people saying that "Drink or drug-drivers who cause fatal crashes should be charged with manslaughter and should face life sentences in prison"

Motorists who are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs should also face hefty sentences of 10 years or more, two-thirds of people believe.

The figues come from a survey of 1000 people carried out by road safety charity Brake, campaigners recently called for the Government to urgently review the guidelines for charging and sentencing criminal drivers.

Current Laws

Death by dangerous driving
minimum sentence of one year in prison, with those convicted also disqualified from driving for at least two years. While judges can hand out prison terms of up to 14 years, although this is extremely rare.

Death by careless driving
Minimum one-year disqualification - an up to five years in prison.


Roads to Justice campaign

Brake wants officials to consider introducing long sentences, getting rid of the charge of careless driving and stopping those convicted from being “automatically released” upon completion of half their prison terms. (please see the Telegraph article for examples of sentences that have been handed out in various situations)

What do you think? should penalties be made larger?

Going Sober for October?

This October Macmillan are asking people to embark on a heroic quest - to go 31 days without any alcohol and prove that they are a Soberhero.

You won't be booze-free alone. You'll be joining thousands of other heroes across the land Going Sober for October, raising money to do something amazing for people with cancer. Whose in? Visit www.gosober.org.uk for more information and to sign up!