How to drink alcohol during Tet without getting drunk or harming your liver
Even high-quality alcohol is essentially ethanol, which does more harm than good. Even a healthy liver can only eliminate 2 units of alcohol per day.
In recent weeks, the Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital has frequently received emergency patients related to alcohol.
In addition to cases of acute alcohol poisoning, there are also cases of pancreatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. Most cases of cirrhosis are from patients with long-term alcoholism.
According to statistics at Bach Mai Hospital, the number of patients with cirrhosis due to alcohol ranks second only to cirrhosis due to hepatitis B. Meanwhile, cirrhosis is the cause of 80% of hepatocellular carcinoma cases.
Alcohol is the direct cause of at least 30 diseases and the indirect cause of 200 diseases. However, many people still have the misconception that drinking "genuine" alcohol, medicinal wine, wine... does not affect health.
At the online session on preventing and controlling alcohol poisoning during Tet, Dr. Le Quang Thuan, Deputy Director of the Poison Control Center, analyzed that regardless of the concentration or flavor of beer or wine, its essence is still ethanol. Therefore, if you drink too much beer or wine, it will harm your liver and the whole body.
Drink less than 30ml of strong alcohol
Around the world, each country has recommendations for drinking beer and alcohol with different total amounts, ranging from 10-40g of alcohol/day.
The general recommendation is no more than 2 units of alcohol per day for men, 1 unit of alcohol per day for women and no more than 5 days per week.
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| Do not drink more than 30ml of strong alcohol per day. |
According to the World Health Organization, 1 unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10g of pure alcohol contained in a drinking solution, which is about 3/4 of a 330ml can of beer (5%) or a 330ml glass of draft beer or a 100ml glass of wine (13.5%) or a 30ml cup of strong alcohol (40%).
According to Dr. Thuan, with the short stature of Vietnamese people, to be safe, the amount of alcohol consumed needs to be lower than the recommended level above.
When alcohol enters the body, the level of impact on health depends on the physical condition, age, gender of each person as well as the circumstances and way of drinking.
“It is best to drink at a level appropriate to each person’s physical condition and absolutely not abuse it. In particular, people with chronic diseases such as cirrhosis, diabetes, high blood pressure... pregnant women, children, drivers... should not drink,” Dr. Thuan emphasized.
Dr. Truong Dinh Bac, Deputy Director of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, added that no matter how healthy a liver is, it can only detoxify 2 units of alcohol per day. If you drink too much, it will overload the liver, reducing its ability to detoxify.
The Ministry of Health recommends that people should not try drinking alcohol, because if they try, they will gradually get used to it and it will be very difficult to quit. Children and adolescents should not drink alcohol. They must use alcohol of clear origin.
If you drink, try to control the amount you drink at the lowest risk level. Drink slowly, eat and drink, drink water alternately and after drinking, absolutely do not drive or participate in outdoor activities.
