Later life Talkback - 32

Who`s drinking too much?   

Hate to inform you, but according to a market research survey among people over 55 in Europe, the Brits are the most likely to be regular drinkers (20%) and are the only population to have a statistically significant number (1%) drinking over 6 units of alcohol per day.

Sure, it doesn’t sound that worrying, till you realise that the numbers exceeding weekly guidelines in 2000, were 644,000 for men and 372,000 for women. Department of Health's (DoH) guidelines for sensible drinking are 4 units per day for men and 3 units for women, totting up 21 and 14 units per week respectively. (A unit is a glass of wine, a glass of beer, a single spirit.)

Although general population figures indicate that alcohol use and misuse decrease with age, there’s a horrible suspicion among researchers that the problem of drinking too much has been underestimated. There’s been a 75% increase in drinking problems in women over 65 during the last 10 years.  And we all know that while moderate drinking does us good, too much causes health problems we can do without in laterlife.

It has generally been assumed that more older people abstain from drinking than younger ones, but the survey blew that myth: 33% of men and 57% of women aged 65 and over reported that they were abstinent in the previous week compared to 40% of the population as a whole.

I sometimes suspect that there is a killjoy element in these warnings about alcohol. There’s a tendency for people to get jokey about ‘OAPs becoming tiddly’, as if they are naughty children caught out doing something illicit. I prefer to recall a paper written by some researcher many years ago called ‘Pub or Drug?’  which advocated  bars offering alcohol in hospital wards and residential homes, on the basis that they would cheer people up and relax them much more than antidepressants, and generally make them feel more civilised and part of the real world. 

And it is worth pointing out that alcohol does not, in moderation, kill off the brain cells, damage the digestive system, ruin the liver or cause Alzheimer’s disease.  True, women can tolerate smaller amounts than men, and wine or beer are easier than spirits for everyone as they get older. 

There’s some evidence that abstinence from alcohol is associated with a higher risk of stroke than moderate drinking, and a small nightcap is as good as, and much nicer than a sleeping pill. Two or three glasses of red wine reduce blood clotting time by 8% within half an hour of imbibing.

So the message, as ever, is enjoy drinking in moderation, spread the allowance over a week and give your system a day or two off in any week. But just do a quick sum of the units every now and again, to stop things getting out of hand. 

PS  I must admit to chickening out of approaching my local superstore about my idea of a Send Someone Round Service (September Talkback), mainly because of the resounding silence from laterlife visitors. I guess you didn’t like the idea, huh? 

However, a spy put me on to a service called Hire-A-Husband at Mrs Hunt’s Agency. The London-based service (open to husbands, wives and the unattached) claims to help rescue DIY jobs, sort out leaky taps, and deal with other minor household crises. But when I rang to enquire further, the pleasant-sounding female voice (Mrs Hunt?) said that Mr Hire-A-Husband was on the ‘phone and would ring back. He never did, which is not a great omen, but I give you the telephone number anyway: 020 79371788.

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