The consecutive declines in Americans’ reported drinking the past few years are unmatched in Gallup’s trend and coincide with recent research indicating that any level of alcohol consumption may negatively affect health. This has been a sharp reversal from previous recommendations that moderate drinking could offer some protective benefits. Health is the state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This category includes metrics such as life expectancy, infant mortality rate, disease prevalence, and access to healthcare. There are also articles covering abortion, drug use, and vaccination status.
Effects of long-term alcohol use
Alcohol consumption – whilst a risk factor for a number of health outcomes – typically has the greatest negative impacts when consumed within heavy sessions. In a related chart, you can see the share who drink alcohol by gender and age group in the UK. Drug use disorders are often classified within the same category as mental health disorders — research and data on mental health can be found on our topic page here.
The AHA notes that drinking more than a moderate amount can raise certain fats in the blood, known as triglycerides. Combined with high “bad” LDL cholesterol or low “good” HDL cholesterol, this can lead to fat buildup in the walls of the arteries, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. If you feel that you sometimes drink too much alcohol, or your drinking is causing problems, or if your family is concerned about your drinking, talk with your health care provider. Other ways to get help include talking with a mental health professional or seeking help from a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar type of self-help group. Drinking too much alcohol can weaken the immune system, making the body a much easier target for disease. Drinking a lot on a single occasion slows the body’s ability to ward off infections–even up to 24 hours later.
- Genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors can impact how drinking alcohol affects your body and behavior.
- Economics is the study of how societies allocate and manage resources to meet human needs and wants.
- The consumption of alcohol in each country varies greatly and is affected by each country’s laws, culture, and other characteristics.
- These limitations make it hard to know how much to rely on studies that find health risks (or benefits) to alcohol consumption.
- The scatter plot compares the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in males versus that of females.
Legal Drinking Ages
Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time drinking age world map – can take a serious toll on your health. The whole body is affected by alcohol use–not just the liver, but also the brain, gut, pancreas, lungs, cardiovascular system, immune system, and more. Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them. You and your community can take steps to improve everyone’s health and quality of life.
Alcohol Consumption
You can expect to hear about more research, debate, and controversy in the near future regarding the potential risks and benefits of drinking, and how much — if any — is ideal. It’s worth noting that current guidelines advise against drinking alcohol as a way to improve health. By contrast, another 2023 study found similar rates of death between nondrinkers and light to moderate drinkers.
In most countries, men drink at least three times as much alcohol, on average, as women. For example, Czechia’s combined average is 14.6 liters, but the per-gender averages are 6.9 liters for women and 22.0 liters for men (both of which are global highs). In Turkmenistan, for instance, men drink 5.26 liters/year, more than five times as much as women (1.03 liters/year). The laws on drinking and consent ages worldwide can be complicated, as these laws vary between countries and even within regions of the same country.
U.S. history of alcohol minimum purchase age by state
In this study, the authors followed a cohort of more than 5,000 individuals with and without a mental health disorder (but without a drug use disorder) over a 10-year period. Following the ten-year period, they re-assessed such individuals for whether they had either nicotine, alcohol, or illicit drug dependency. The breakdown of alcohol use disorders by gender for any country can be viewed here; the majority of people with alcohol use disorders – around three-quarters – are male.
- Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism.
- As we see, following prohibition, levels of alcohol consumption returned to similar levels as in the pre-prohibition period.
- Listen to relatives, friends or co-workers when they ask you to examine your drinking habits or to seek help.
- Young adults had already become less likely to report drinking alcohol a decade ago, but that trend has only accelerated, with the rate falling from 59% in 2023 to 50% today.
- This legislative stance primarily stems from concerns regarding the impact of alcohol on adolescent brain development.
- Alcohol is produced by a process called fermentation, in which water and grains, vegetables, or fruits are mixed with yeasts or bacteria, which consume the sugars in the food to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.
People facing anxiety and depression drink intentionally to reduce stress and improve their mood. While drinking may provide a few hours of relief, it may worsen your overall mental health over time. Drinking alcohol appears to increase food and calorie intake during a drinking episode, which increases total calorie intake in a day. For this reason, your liver is particularly vulnerable to damage from alcohol intake.
Countries With No Minimum Drinking Age
Factoring in all drinkers, including those who did not drink in the past week, the average number of drinks consumed over the past seven days is 2.8, the lowest figure Gallup has recorded since 1996. This is down from 3.8 drinks a year ago and closer to 4.0 drinks over the seven years prior to that. The highest average number since Gallup has tracked this is 5.1 drinks per week, recorded in 2003. Declines in alcohol consumption do not appear to be caused by people shifting to other mood-altering substances — in particular, recreational marijuana, which is now legal in about half of U.S. states. Although marijuana use is higher today than a decade ago, it has been fairly steady over the past four years and thus doesn’t appear to be a factor in people choosing not to drink alcohol.
The death rates are typically higher in Eastern Europe and lower in North Africa and the Middle East. The scatter plot compares the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in males versus that of females. The prevalence of alcohol dependence in men is typically higher than in women across all countries. The first map shows this in terms of spirits as a share of total alcohol consumption. In many Asian countries, spirits account for most of total alcohol consumption. The charts show global consumption of spirits, which are distilled alcoholic drinks, including gin, rum, whisky, tequila, and vodka.