Staff Reporter
DRINKING above UK alcohol guidelines could take years off your life, a new study has found.
The huge analysis of 600,000 drinkers in 19 countries estimated that having 10 to 15 drinks every week could cut your life by between one to two years.
People who consume more than 18 alcoholic beverages a week could lose four to five years.
The latest British guidelines recommend a maximum of 14 units per week, which equates to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine.
In Spain, the recommended limit is a much bigger 35 units for men and 22 for women.
Scientists modelled how much life a person could expect to lose if they drank the same way for the rest of their lives from the age of 40.
They found people who drank the equivalent of about five to 10 drinks a week could shorten their lives by up to six months.
The study’s authors also found drinking increased the risk of cardiovascular illness, with every 12.5 units of alcohol people drank above the guidelines raising the risk of:
Stroke by 14%, fatal hypertensive disease by 24%, heart failure by 9%, fatal aortic aneurysm by 15%.
