At your NHS Health Check, you may have discussed your drinking habits with your healthcare professional. If you're drinking more than is recommended, you may also have discussed how to cut down.
You may be cutting down in order to lose weight, or lower your raised blood pressure or cholesterol.
You don’t have to be a binge drinker or an alcoholic for your drinking to harm your health. Many social drinkers regularly consume more than the recommended daily amount of alcohol, which increases their risk of vascular diseases, such as heart attack, stroke and kidney disease.
There's lots of information and advice on this website that can help you to cut down.
How much alcohol?
The government advises 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
'Regularly' means drinking this much every day, or most days of the week.
How much is 1 unit?
Your favourite drink may contain more units of alcohol than you think.
For example:
- One pint of 4% lager contains 2.3 units
- One large glass of wine contains around 3 units
- One large shot of vodka contains 1.4 units
- One bottle of a typical alcopop at 5% contains 1.4 units
You can find out how your drinking is impacting on your health by using our Alcohol quiz.
Cutting down
If you're cutting down on alcohol, a few simple actions can help.
Before you start drinking, plan how much you'll drink. Set a realistic limit, and stick within it.
It can also help to tell friends and family that you’re cutting down.
You can learn more in Tips on cutting down.
Find out how you can keep track of your drinking using our desktop and iPhone tools in Track your drinking.
If you think you need help in cutting down on alcohol, find out more in Alcohol support.
More information
There's more information and advice on the health benefits of cutting down on alcohol, and how to do so, in Drinking and alcohol.
