[throwawaywayway]

Honest question: How much is too much?

I drink about 2-4 fairly strong beers a night (5-7% ABV), almost every night, and while I certainly feel it, I've only been "shitfaced" (or whatever you call "drinking to the point that you lose control") maybe half a dozen times in my life. The fact that I'm not doing the (apparently) normal thing for young folk and getting trashed every Friday night (or ever, really) gives me some relief, but I often worry about how much damage I'm doing with my less intense but sustained drinking habit.

[tangue]

The toxic effects of alcohol are cumulative over time, so in the long run you might be at greater risk than binge drinkers. And if you're drinking 4 beers you 're not far from the threshold for liver disease [1] ( 1 liter of beer at 7% = 56 g of alcohol; the threshold is 50g). Alcohol is also linked to high blood pressure; you should check yours. Besides all that alcohol is also high in calories and you'll have to deal overweight issues too.

I have a friend like you, he drinks to unwind, and I don't consider him an alcoholic, I'm just sad that in ten years he 'll be in bad shape.

[1] http://www.institutdanone.org/objectif-nutrition/nutrition-a... (in French)

[throwawaywayway]

Thank you for your response. It's a bit of surprise to me, because I had always heard the opposite, that daily drinking lets one build up a tolerance while binge drinking repeatedly hits the liver with more than it can handle, but I suppose that was just folk wisdom. I've cooled off a bit over the years (originally I drank to deal with depression that I eventually "got over"), but maybe it's time I took another hard look at myself.

[jorisw]

  And if you're drinking 4 beers you 're not far
  from the threshold for liver disease [1]
  ( 1 liter of beer at 7% = 56 g of alcohol;
  the threshold is 50g).

It is exactly this type of information that the public needs to be made aware of. Not "drinking is bad", but factual information that a person can measure their behavior against.

[Scoundreller]

This is more of a general comment, and not by any means specific advice to anyone: "Binge" drinking may give enough time between consumption episodes to allow the liver to heal, avoiding fatty liver diseases and cirrhosis, while daily heavy drinking may not, though this does take a long period of time to start.