And just as people learn to eat less by counting calories, she learned to count her drinks and set limits. To pull this off, she learned tools and techniques to help her keep it in check. For instance, her old routine was to drink one drink after another, back to back — what’s known as chain drinking. And there are as many kinds of drinkers along the continuum as there are personality types. Dr. Kling recommends that people going through menopause limit alcohol to one drink a day or less, in addition to eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly.
This provides you with the opportunity to create a plan that feels good to you and increases your accountability to those goals. If you’re looking to enjoy more than one drink in a sitting, diluting your drinks is a great way to stretch a smaller amount of alcohol. To do this, simply cut the amount of your hard liquor, cocktail, or wine in half and mix with sparkling water (flavored or plain) or just plain old filtered water. Depending on the drink and your taste preference, you can also add fresh fruit juice. Thankfully, there are many ways to cut down on your drinking to a more modest place. Here are some practical strategies, tips, and reminders to help you drink more mindfully and moderately.
Moderate drinking
And every so often she takes a monthlong break from drinking so it doesn’t start to creep up. But she also realized that her drinking was more of a habit than a compulsion. She realized that she used alcohol as a reward for a hard week’s work. “Getting through a Friday evening without my reward, you know, that was the tough one,” Dierker says. “So the actual cause (of any health benefit) probably wasn’t the alcohol at all,” Dr. Oesterle says. Additionally, alcohol can damage the nerves in the inner ear, affecting balance.
National Guidelines and Recommendations
In the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and other studies, gallstones 40, 41 and type 2 diabetes 32, 42, 43 were less likely to occur in moderate drinkers than in non-drinkers. Alcohol blocks the absorption of folate and inactivates folate in the blood and tissues. It’s possible that this interaction may be how alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast, colon, and other cancers. Of 30 things linked to diseases of your heart and blood vessels, it said, 90% are found more often among nondrinkers, including body weight. The medication naltrexone (commonly sold under the brand names Revia, Depade, and Vivitrol) has been found to help people learn how to drink in moderation by blocking the pleasurable effects of alcohol.
Nutrition and healthy eating
We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. If you are struggling with some of the following signs above, be sure to contact your physician or seek help at a substance abuse treatment facility. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website. Small changes can make a big difference for someone whose alcohol use is problematic but hasn’t risen to the level of official diagnosis, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
- Some past studies had suggested that moderate drinking might be good for your health.
- One variant of this enzyme, called alcohol dehydrogenase type 1C (ADH1C), comes in two “flavors.” One quickly breaks down alcohol, the other does it more slowly.
- Some options include going to the movies, enjoying nature, hosting a game night, cooking a meal together—the sky’s the limit.
- It’s possible that the fast-acting enzyme breaks down alcohol before it can have a beneficial effect on HDL and clotting factors.
That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. The bottom line is that alcohol is potentially addictive, can cause intoxication, and contributes to health problems and preventable deaths. If you already drink at low levels and continue to drink, risks for these issues appear to be low.
You may have heard doctors and dietitians say that it’s safe to drink alcohol in moderation, but we probably all have our own definition of how many drinks that actually consists of. Decide how many days a week you’ll drink and how much you’ll drink on those days. It’s also a good idea to have some days when you don’t drink at all.
The alcohol is still affecting their bodies, even if they do not immediately feel it, and they are still at higher risk of falls, cognitive impairment and other negative effects because they are drinking more. The goal of a moderation program is to support a person’s journey toward understanding their drinking behavior and create a safe environment for them to explore how to drink moderately. Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them. You and what is a roofi your community can take steps to improve everyone’s health and quality of life. In the Sinclair method, the participant takes Revia or Vivitrol one hour before drinking.
