Drinking and you

Regularly drinking more than the recommended daily amounts has its risks. Increased anxiety and sexual difficulties such as impotence, loss of consciousness, accidents and injuries, are common when people have drunk too much. Longer term, heavy use of alcohol increases your risk of heart disease, liver disease, some cancers (especially breast cancer), stomach ulcers, memory loss or even dementia.

NHS advice is that men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units a day. Women should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units a day.

You can calculate your intake on the Drink Aware website in an easy ready reckoner – try it!

Alcohol is fattening: if you added three or four gin and tonics a day to your usual diet, you would put on 4lbs over 4 weeks. It has been linked to skin problems and signs of premature ageing too, and increases your risk of breast cancer.

If you need help your first port of call should be your GP. West Kent PCT also provides advice, support and brief intervention through special alcohol clinics in Maidstone, Larkfield, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Swanley and Edenbridge. You can refer yourself to these -  just call the Wealden Centre 01732 370413 in business hours to book an appointment.

In Kent, 11.6% of men and 5.5% of women regularly drink too much. The ages when you're most likely to overdo it are between 45 and 64 if you're a man (13.5% of men of this age are heavy drinkers) and between 16 and 24 if you're a woman (9.7%).