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Alcohol advice

Risks

Regularly drinking more than the recommended limits of alcohol risks damaging your health. It increases your risk of:

  • liver disease,
  • cancers,
  • strokes,
  • heart attacks and
  • it can make your mental health worse.

Drinking too much in single sessions can lead to:

  • accidents,
  • misjudging risky situations,
  • breakdown of family relationships and friendships,
  • as well as getting involved in violence.  

Low risk drinking guidelines

There is increasing evidence that there is no ‘safe drinking level’. The risk of developing a range of health problems (including cancers of the mouth, throat and breast) increases the more you drink on a regular basis. In other words, not drinking at all is better for your health than drinking alcohol.  

If you do drink alcohol most weeks, the Chief Medical Officers (CMO) of the UK recommend the following to keep health risks to a low level: 

  • Men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis.
  • If you do drink as much as 14 units a week, it is best to spread this evenly over 3 or more days.
  • If you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week.
  • If you’re pregnant or plan to become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to keep risks to your baby to a minimum.

For more information on how to calculate how much units of alcohol you are drinking, visit Alcohol units - NHS

Get to know your alcohol risk - DrinkCoach Tower Hamlets

Many people often underestimate how risky their drinking is. DrinkCoach is a free, quick and confidential online alcohol test, which determines how risky your drinking is and can provide personalised advice on where to get support in Tower Hamlets. It takes just two minutes to complete the test and you can also download the app on your mobile to keep an eye on your drinking and set goals. 

Work we are doing locally to tackle this issue

Tower Hamlets has established a new Combatting Drugs Partnership, which aims to address harms related to alcohol, as well as drugs, in the borough. Public Health works closely with licensing, community safety, hospitals and emergency services to understand levels of harm related to alcohol, and to prevent and reduce the consequences from alcohol misuse. There are a range of services in place in the Borough to address alcohol-related harms. If you want to work with us to address alcohol related issues

Email: viknesh.akilan@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Support services

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