By now we all know that pregnant women should refrain from alcohol but can regular drinking be harmful to other women as well?
According to some experts having that glass of wine at the end of the day may not have much effect on you now but it could resurface in the form of a problem decades later.
According to researchers, the dramatic increase in the number of young women binge drinking is worrying because it is a daily occurrence which rises in prevalence as the woman ages.
According to Dan Lubman, a professor of addiction studies at Monash University, alcohol has a range of functions for us – including using it to celebrate, relax and unwind, dealing with stress and even helping us fall asleep but the problem comes in when this becomes a daily experience.
The following excerpt from a post on www.watoday.com.au explains:
In the decade to 2011, the proportion of women drinking daily at risky levels rose from 9 per cent to 13 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Foundation for Alcohol Research Education chief executive Michael Thorn said daily drinking tended to kick in when women hit their 30s. They started having a couple of glasses of wines a night instead of drinking themselves into oblivion once a week as they may have done in their early 20s.
Women aged 55 to 64 are the most likely to be daily drinkers, with 13 per cent of this age group drinking more than the recommended two standard drinks a day. One in 10 women aged 35 to 44 are daily drinkers, rising to 11.5 per cent of 45 to 54 year olds. More than 70 per cent of women cite wine as their favourite drink, according to the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research.
Experts warn that the bad effects of binge drinking are immediately apparent such as hangovers but the health risks of binge drinking every night may only show after 20 years.
According to the professor the general consensus is that you can drink every day without getting drunk and this is acceptable but there are “hidden health harms” associated with this kind of drinking that women should be aware of.
The professor said drinking on a daily basis can lead to diseases in women later in life such as osteoporosis, liver disease and cancer. Also surprisingly one fifth of breast cancers are caused by alcohol. Drinking daily may also increase women’s risk of anxiety and depression as they age.
Groups such as FARE are lobbying the federal government to have warning labels put on bottles of alcohol, such as wine which states that alcohol causes cancer, because this is not something that is widely known.
Moderate drinking has been recommended by researchers in the past but this should not be an every-day occurrence and binge drinking should be avoided altogether because of its immediate and long term effects on health and safety.