Anyone drink 4-5 bottles of wine per week and how is your health ?

[fartoobig]

Mid forties. Just wondering g if it impacts you? I enjoy wine as it brings me back to when I was really happy.
I am Going through immense stress and sadness now.
No hangovers but feel mildly better on days where I haven't had wine the night before .

I did in lockdown and felt terrible for it. My resting heart rate increased, I put on weight, suffered from low moods and I had a lot of acid reflux.

I'm sorry you're going through a tough time, but that is a huge amount of alcohol especially if you're a woman.

Have you tried stopping? It's going to damage your health and there's no going back.

Take care.

Hahaha same! Apart from the dry January.

But I do cut back massively when Im trying to lose weight. I then limit myself to wine on special occasions, and not Wednesday!

I recently had some tests done, and both liver and kidney function are perfectly fine.

Where Im from it is not unusual to drink that much. Drinking with every meal is a regular thing, so even if you drink only one or two glasses with every meal, as opposed to a bottle at dinner, it still adds up!

Personally, I dont have many hangovers, as Im fairly used to drinking. And I always drink plenty of water as well!

I also dont drink as a response to my emotions. I drink because I like the taste, and also the slight buzz!

Don't know about your health short term but it can give you a beer belly which on its own can be pretty depressing..

Also, just because those randoms are ok today, it doesn't mean they're not building up some nasty health problems for another day. They are likely to be.

OP, don't think about the next day. How do you feel upon waking if you give up for 4 days? Alcohol is a depressant. You'll still feel depressed by it if you're drinking that much, and have only been clear of it for 36 hours. You even feel better then, when you're still in its grip.

*this much

My mum does and claims she’s fine.. the rest of our family think she’s an alcoholic. It definitely isn’t doing you any good both lifestyle/mental health wise and definitely not general health. Quite the opposite… can you consider getting some help? There is a v good online detox programme, free, can’t recall the name but you can find it on Google easily x

I did. I’m now in recovery.

ExMIL used to drink this much. She was a functioning alcoholic. She got dementia in her sixties. Not nice to see.

DUnc drank a lot. It gave him mouth cancer.

I notice a few posters who also drink heavily have said that their liver function tests have come back normal. Whilst this is certainly encouraging and hopefully means that there is currently no liver damage, people shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security by such tests. From the NHS website:

‘Blood tests used to assess the liver are known as liver function tests.
But liver function tests can be normal at many stages of liver disease.’

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-related-liver-disease-arld/diagnosis/

And besides, liver disease is only one of many possible diseases which can be caused by alcohol misuse.

I'd say I drink circa 4 bottles a week and have done for years, I'm 42. I know cognitively that it's doing me no good and comments like those above are scary.

It's so easily done and I'm always shocked that people manage to drink less... I was in the pub on Monday afternoon for 3 hours, 3 large glasses of wine is 1 bottle... Had nice dinner on Saturday with 2 glasses then another couple in front of the TV, that's 1 bottle etc etc. I'm very rarely "drunk" or hungover, am always fine if kids need me in the night etc etc. I eat really healthily and exercise a bit. However my skin has gone crap in recent years and I've crept into the overweight BMI which could be booze related?

I regularly don't drink for a few days but when I have 1 glass I start to relax and feel better about life. Obviously this is really sad but nothing else has the same effect and most of the stresses in my life (eg caring for elderly parents while juggling work and kids) aren't going anywhere soon. A lot of the things I'd consider relaxing I don't have the time or money to do however they can be done with a glass of wine in my hand.

I have CPTSD which maybe the route cause of all this - I've loved booze since I was 14 and missed it every day when I was pregnant.

Anyway OP, you're not alone! It's so easy to say "drink less" but you need to get to the route of why you're doing this (stress / boredom??) and address that, while finding other things that give you a boost. I really like going for a walk in the evening now it's light with a podcast or friend. Think we need to focus on what we gain from not drinking - better skin / more money / more energy etc etc rather than what we loose.

If you’re 40s. You’ll soon face peri menopause. Most women find alcohol & peri menopause really don’t mix.

Im mid 50s now, it’s really obvious among the bunch of mates who drinks drinks & those who have stopped or drink very moderately.

I did, and more, until a few months ago. Everything seemed totally fine until it wasn't, realised it was causing all the problems I was drinking to forget. I was close to losing my marriage. A year ago I was drinking much less than you. Its progressive, will only get worse if you carry on. I really don't want to happen to you what happened to me. Just have a think on what other posters are saying. Maybe it will make you think a bit differently. Best of luck to you op.

My husband and I share a bottle of wine 4 or 5 nights a week. I am overweight.

I have good BP and cholesterol and no problems whatsoever with my teeth. I also don’t have any mental health issues, but my baby blues were chronic last time around. Lasted months and I felt suicidal. Wasn’t drinking at all during that period, obviously.

Anyway, I am about a stone overweight. When we want to lose a few lbs for a holiday etc, we curb the drinking altogether for a month or so and the pounds do come away. So that is the effect on me. I am not proud of my lifestyle but I am answering your question honestly.

My husband is a normal weight. He drinks the same amount as me, except sometimes on a weekend he might forgo his second glass of wine and have a whiskey instead.

Preparing self to be MN lambasted now. 😂

I used to drink at least that much. And I was fine. Or so I thought.
But I aged massively, and put on over 3 stone after about age 38. I started getting on top of things a few years ago and now drink just two glasses of wine, once or twice per week.
I look and feel better and mentally sharper. I sleep better now.
I'm also better able to cope with stress than with the escape of alcohol.

OP, you drink too much. It's not easy to see the harm from one day to the next but really you're harming yourself. You may think "I'm OK". Maybe. But you could have been much better.

Alcohol is a disgusting drug. Best thing I ever did was give it up. Britain has such a dysfunctional relationship with booze. One of my earliest memories is of walking through my local town centre as a child and being frightened of the drunken idiots screaming and shouting and fighting in the street. I also remember the shame I felt when I went into town with some American friends one Saturday night. The sight of girls urinating in shop doorways and vomiting in side alleys really shocked my friends. You just don’t get that in other countries.

I used to drink to help me cope with anxiety and insomnia. And it seemed to work. In reality, that’s an illusion. Yes, it knocks you out at night, but in the long run it exacerbates depression and anxiety. I use yoga and meditation instead, and I would urge anyone else out there to do the same.

no judgement at all... I have times when I drink but am single mum so never want to drink on my own so this helps... only drink when with friends/ out.
I'm sure you will feel better after a few weeks of not drinking as it definitely makes you feel worse, even if you're not aware. Maybe put your wine money aside for the first month and buy yourself something nice with it - it's how I gave up cigarettes 30 years ago.
I wish you the very best xx

@fartoobig You mention that it reminds of when you were happy. It sounds like your drinking is a symptom of something much bigger. Have you tried speaking to someone?

It’s not recommended that you drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week. Depending on the ABV, some wine contains 14 units in one bottle. The average standard 750ml bottle of wine contains between nine and ten units, so if you’re drinking five a week that’s around 50 units of alcohol - 3.5 times the recommended maximum weekly intake. There’s no point in beating about the bush, this will damage your health.

Damage from alcohol is cumulative and the effects don’t show up straight away, but the damage is being done now, and if you continue to drink like this sooner or later it will take it’s toll. My SIL died just before Christmas last year, from alcohol related liver cancer. She was 61. She had a seizure which resulted in a coma, and was put on a ventilator. Subsequent investigations discovered advanced liver cancer and she was taken off the ventilator and allowed to pass away as there was no more they could do. The seizure was the first sign that her health was affected by alcohol. Ten days later she was dead.

Her son knew she was drinking a bottle of red wine most days, but didn’t think it was harmful because it was ‘only’ wine. No one else in the family knew how much she drank - I think she was what people refer to as a functioning alcoholic and hid it for years. Sorry to be blunt but from what you say, you’re drinking similar amounts. If you’ve been drinking this amount for a while, it’s worth getting an appointment with your GP to get checked out, and maybe get help with cutting down to safer levels.

4-5 bottles a week?! - Good grief. I'm sorry, but that is concerning.

This. Liver tests are often fine until they arent and this can happen scarily quickly due to the liver being such a regenerative organ. I used to work on a detox ward and know lots of people who had "normal" liver tests and died like, a year later. Liver tests also dont reveal the damage alcohol is doing to the heart either- heavy drinking raises blood pressure a significant amount.

That is way to much.I am sober almost 20years,when I stopped drinking my cholesterol was the highest my GP had ever seen,I am still under the care of a Consultant at my local hospital.Alcohol does a lot of damage that is unseen.My Mother had a wet brain from her Alcoholism,she went from normal to like someone with dementia very quickly and died,it was a matter of weeks.

Never underestimate alcohol.

You are at real risk of damaging your liver. Women need to drink far less than men before getting liver damage. You do not need to be an alcoholic to get liver damage.

your liver can only put up with so much abuse, and one day it gives up. The stuff you hear about it being the only organ that can regenerate itself is true up to a point, but once you hit decompensated cirrhosis there isn't much going back.
Your liver does so much for you, most of which you aren't even aware of. And if you do happen to escape liver damage the effect drinking has on your brain is equally as catastrophic.
This happens to younger and younger people, and it doesn't matter if you kid yourself that you are 'only' drinking lager or wine, the outcome is the same.