New evidence around the harm caused to health from regular drinking have emerged in recent years.
There is now a better understanding of the link between drinking and some illnesses, including a range of cancers. Studies show that alcohol can cause up to 7 different types of cancer. It is the alcohol itself that causes damage so what type of alcohol you drink makes no difference. By cutting down you reduce your risk.
This does not mean everyone who drinks alcohol will develop cancer. However, looking at the whole population, people who drink alcohol are more likely to develop cancer than people who do not.
Drinking alcohol causes 11,900 cases of cancer a year in the UK. Cutting back has lots of benefits other than reducing your cancer risk- including reducing the risk of accidents, high blood pressure and liver disease.
The previously held position that some level of alcohol was good for the heart has been revised. Some studies suggested drinking a little bit of alcohol may be good for the heart due to a group of compounds called polyphenols. However, the evidence is mixed and you can find these compounds in lots of other things, such as berries.
Low-risk drinking advice
To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level if you drink most weeks:
- men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis
- spread your drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week
- if you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week
There is No ‘safe’ drinking level
If you drink less than 14 units a week, this is considered low-risk drinking.
It’s called “low risk” rather than “safe” because there’s no safe drinking level.
The type of illnesses you can develop after 10 to 20 years of regularly drinking more than 14 units a week include:
- cancers of the mouth, throat and breast
- stroke
- heart disease
- liver disease
- brain damage
- damage to the nervous system
There is also evidence that regular drinking at high-risk levels can affect your mental health.
Regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week risks damaging your health.
The recommended weekly limit of 14 units is equivalent to 6 pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine.
Calculating units of alcohol in your drinks
Using units is a simpler way of representing a drink’s alcohol content – usually expressed by the standard measure alcohol by volume (ABV).
ABV is a measure of the amount of pure alcohol as a percentage of the total volume of liquid in a drink.
You can find the ABV on the labels of cans and bottles, sometimes written as “vol” or “alcohol volume”, or you can ask bar staff about particular drinks.
For example, wine that says “12% ABV” or “alcohol volume 12%” means 12% of the volume of that drink is pure alcohol.
You can work out how many units there are in any drink by multiplying the total volume of a drink (in ml) by its ABV (measured as a percentage) and dividing the result by 1,000.
- strength (ABV) x volume (ml) ÷ 1,000 = units
For example, to work out the number of units in a pint (568ml) of strong lager (ABV 5.2%):
- 5.2 (%) x 568 (ml) ÷ 1,000 = 2.95 units
For a quicker method, use Alcohol Change UK’s unit calculator.
Drinks and units
A 750ml bottle of red, white or rosé wine (ABV 13.5%) contains 10 units.
See the guide below to find out how many units are in your favourite tipple.
Type of drink | Number of alcohol units |
Single small shot of spirits * (25ml, ABV 40%) | 1 unit |
Alcopop (275ml, ABV 5.5%) | 1.5 units |
Small glass of red/white/rosé wine (125ml, ABV 12%) | 1.5 units |
Bottle of lager/beer/cider (330ml, ABV 5%) | 1.7 units |
Can of lager/beer/cider (440ml, ABV 5.5%) | 2 units |
Pint of lower-strength lager/beer/cider (ABV 3.6%) | 2 units |
Standard glass of red/white/rosé wine (175ml, ABV 12%) | 2.1 units |
Pint of higher-strength lager/beer/cider (ABV 5.2%) | 3 units |
Large glass of red/white/rosé wine (250ml, ABV 12%) | 3 units |
*Gin, rum, vodka, whisky, tequila, sambuca. Large (35ml) single measures of spirits are 1.4 units.