The new alcohol guidelines – what has changed?

The UK’s chief medical officers have said the risk of disease can remain “low” if people drink 14 or less units per week.

It has also mentioned that even if people drink, they should indulge into moderate drinking only over three or more days.

Today’s announcement is the first full review of drinking guidance in the United Kingdom since 1985.

U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, often pictured in a pub with a pint of beer in his hand, said he’d carry on drinking.

Penny Spring, director of public health for Northumberland, said: “Northumberland suffers from high levels of harm caused by alcohol and the new guidelines are based on the latest evidence that people’s health can be damaged when alcohol is consumed at relatively low levels”.

UK’s new guidelines for alcohol consumption warn that drinking any level of alcohol increases the risk of a range of cancers, according to a statement released Friday by the Department of Health.

Pregnant women are being told to abstain from drinking completely as a precautionary measure.

Since the short-term risks for individuals vary widely, guidance about a set number of units for a single occasion or day are not now included in the guidelines. Drinking alcohol is also a risk factor for mouth and throat cancer.

She added: “I’m also pleased that the other United Kingdom nations have followed Scotland’s precautionary approach in advising women that it is safest not to drink at all during pregnancy, meaning we have harmonised advice to mums-to-be across the UK”.

Modelling for the study shows that, compared with non-drinkers, women who drink two units a day on a regular basis have a 16 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying from it. It has been long known that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of breast cancer, but the risks associated with other diseases are less clear.

Northern Ireland’s chief medical officer has said any amount of drinking alcohol, no matter how small, carries a risk.

The advice is not a change for women but is a reduction from 21 units – about 10 pints – for men.

The government has issued new alcohol consumption guidelines which has changed the amount of recommended weekly units that should be consumed for men and pregnant women.

Meanwhile, the Society for Independent Brewers (SIBA) said that benefits on wellbeing and happiness which stem from the “responsible enjoyment of alcohol in a sociable environment such as a pub, have been ignored”.

The previous advice to limit intake to 1-2 units of alcohol once or twice per week has been removed to provide greater clarity as a precaution.