Drinking wine each evening

When do you drink - I crave one at 4.30 -my sugar levels are low as it’s approaching a meal time also I have to prepare the meal which after years of marriage I am sick to death of
ivestarted drinking v cold lucazade - it gives you the energy boost without the alcohol. So one box ticked.
if I drink wine I fall asleep in the evening - not great

You couldn't care less about the 14 unit limit?

Sorry, but choosing to ignore NHS guidelines and extensive scientific research simply because you "like wine" suggests to me that you have the beginnings of a drink problem.

You have asked on this thread whether your drinking is excessive, but instead of heeding the official advice from the NHS/scientific experts, you are choosing instead to listen to other random MNers who also exceed the recommended limits. The fact that they may also be drinking too much doesn't reduce the risks for you, it just normalises unhealthy drinking habits.

It's good that you're going to take a couple of nights off each week, but if you don't have an alcohol problem, it should also be easy enough to cut down your intake to the recommended limits. Isn't it worth doing that for the sake of your long term health?

Someone has probably said it but I havent
read each reply. A bottle is around 10 units and your advised that you should exceed 14. So really you’re drinking over 15units a week more than recommended. Personally I wouldn’t exceed the recommended amount but if you’re happy with it and also if you can go a night or two nights without a drink if you wanted to then it’s your choice.

That's because there's 2 clear camps - "a bottle a night never did me any harm guv" and "my granny had 2 whiskeys and smoked 40 fags a day and lived til she was 112!" versus those who think a sniff of the barmaid's apron is overdoing things.

Neither did I @Bestyearever2024 !

I'd drank a lot from a young age as self medication really - definitely more than 14 units a week that's for sure. I suppose the bingeing really over a long period of time. I don't know, I don't really want to get in to numbers because I don't think the line can be drawn snywhere. I searched for peripheral neuropathy on here when first diagnosed and the search came up with a poster who had been diagnosed due to alcohol, but still didn't want to give up her 'couple of glasses' a night.

Yeah, it's been quite the eye opener. Over the summer I'd started falling over in my very uneven garden (that had never been a problem before) this was sober, first thing going out to water my lovingly grown vegetables haha. I didn't realise my brain doesn't really know where my feet are, or my gait had gone due to numbness. So from June until now it's taken hold. I have to use a walking stick some days just to keep me in a straight line. It's ironic that I'm walking like I'm pissed!
No. I've completely given up alcohol. Next step is giving up smoking, but one thing at a time. I've adjusted my diet, but... You can't repair the damage done to your nervous system. You can try and halt it, but that doesn't seem to be working for me - yet, anyway.

I honestly thought, I'll stop when my liver shows as fucked. Well it didn't. Peripheral nervous system first.

I've just got to accept it. Painkillers don't work on your nervous system, so I'm Gabapentin, Duloxetine for the pain - which doesn't always work. I've got codeine if I need it, but I only take one if I wake at night in pain and try and nip it in bud.

My marathon dreams are over 🤣 seriously the thought of never being able to drive again hit me hard. I don't have a car at moment, but I've got an adult son and teen doing GCSE and I always dreamed that when she went to Uni that I'd get a little camper van. I'll probably need a mobility scooter before 50 🙄

Live and learn and if anyone takes anything from my lesson learned then that's a good thing.

Thank you for asking and it's no problem.

I'm not a preachy non-drinker. I love wine and gin an drink a lot. I drank far, far too much in my 20s but had so much fun.
However I'm aware of how much I love it and try to control my intake. I do dry Jan each year. It surprises me how hard I find it.

When im drinking I try to not drink Monday - Thursday BUT I work in the arts and my job involves lots of evening events where there is free wine. To curb this, I sometimes opt to drive so I've got an excuse.
My motivation is my mum, her mum and my sister who, whilst all incredible, successful women, all are far too reliant on alcohol. My mum cracks open the gin at 5 each evening now. My sister is really unhealthy and overweight and most of that is due to the amount of booze she consumes.
I'm trying my hardest to be a good example and have a healthier relationship with alcohol for my children.
I noticed this Christmas - whilst boozy, lots of the adults I was with had CBD drinks or dash cans earlier in the evening and then booze later on whilst the older generation hit the booze much earlier. Things are slowly changing.

If you couldn't care less about safe limit guidelines then why ask the question? Ethanol is a poison, the more nights you can avoid it, the better. You're drinking almost double the recommended maximum weekly amount, surely you know that's not healthy?

It comes from a lot of research by doctors/scientists and is on the NHS website.

Liver damage can remain hidden for many years, and then catch up quick smart in your later years. Then again, you might be lucky.

Speaking from experience...

It's fine as long as life is good.

When life starts getting rough though, you're already in a habit of daily drinking and can slip from 2 glasses to a bottle a night easily.

^^This.

But too much sugar, salt , caffeine, saturated fat isn't good for us either, we all know it.

Just keep things in moderation and enjoy your life.

Bloody hell. I didn't even know this was a thing. I'm so sorry that you're going through this. May I ask how much you were drinking? I often wonder if the 14 unit 'rule' is too high

@Mamabear2424 Mumsnet is NEVER going to tell you it's ok to drink more than a sherry at Christmas! I can't believe you asked 😂

Thank you for the reply. This post is not aimed at you at all. I just to reply to thank you....

I can't think of anything worse than one glass before bed. That's because I've lived my life drinking to get drunk you see.

All or nothing. Quite often nothing. More often all.

I've recently had full bloods done and I was gobsmacked that my lft was normal.

Then... Over the summer burning pain in my feet, stabbing pains, so bad at night that I'd be crying. I have a high pain threshold but the relentlessness and the lack of sleep - feeling someone is sticking red hot needles under my toenails.

Within these 6 months I've gone rapidly downhill, there is no feeling in parts of my feet, my toes are numb - except of the stabbing pains and burning from the inside. It's affecting my hands now, thumbs are numb the touch, yet the pain of trying to reach and pick something up is immense.

Alcohol induced neuropathy.

It will never get better.

As a poster said above - would you take a neurotoxin pill? Because that's what has happened. My peripheral nerve system is fucked. It's constantly sending pain signals to my brain or vice versa. Numb on the outside. The most unimaginable pain on the inside.

It's only going to get worse.

The 'you've got to die of something' brigade just strike me as so naive now. I'm not going to die due to alcohol, but I am going to live the rest of my life in worsening pain and lose control of my feet, lower legs, hands and arms.

I'm in my 40s.

I'm not telling anyone what to do. I thought drinking too much caused liver problems etc etc.

No, that's all fine. Assuming I live until an average age I get to spend 30 odd years in pain, unbalanced and with useless hands. I'm not allowed to drive anymore, and because of my hands it's unlikely even an adapted car would be approved.

So, there we go. It was all shits and giggles at the time 🙄😁

Too much and unhealthy.

No. Its not OK to drink every evening

It's not OK to drink more than 14 units a week

Try having a month off. See how you go. If you can't stop thinking about wine, then you have an addiction - mental/emotional and or physical

Once the alcohol free month is over , make sure you have 3 days a week alcohol free and stick to 14 units a week

That is twice the recommend amount though, before any Weekend drinking.

Good for you, Poppet.

When I was young a glass of wine was much smaller it was 125 ml now it’s 250ml. I’m pretty sure it used to be six glasses of wine to a bottle. This is the issue with everything food and drink wise that’s problematical people have forgotten moderation. Just have a smaller amount per day. I bought some really lovely old wine glasses from a charity shop and the size is much smaller, I get drunk ridiculously easily, I am an absolute lightweight so this was better for me.

Surely the reason that you drink is likely to dictate how much you drink? If you are drinking to forget, you will drink a lot more than a glass with your dinner.

Indeed. Or a Spaniard. I have a glass of wine with my dinner every evening. Have done for years. Never more than that!

If you like it & it suits you / your lifestyle, then fine.
I rarely drink. Wine makes me sick. That’s fine, too.

And your body doesn't care if you are drinking to enhance food, to get drunk, to relax or to erase memories

So by increasing the acceptable units we are going to change UK drinking habits?
Also this idea of french drinking habits being somehow classy as opposed to us uncouth Brits is sooo outdated.