Drink no more than 7 drinks a week
Alcohol makes you drowsy at first, but as it wears off it raises your heart rate, wakes you more at night and cuts REM sleep.
You may have heard that a glass of red wine with dinner is good for your heart, perhaps from a friend topping up your glass. Larger and better-designed studies found that this apparent benefit mostly came from comparing light drinkers with less healthy non-drinkers, and that risk rises with each extra drink. This habit is a ten-second count at bedtime that keeps your weekly total at or under a limit you have chosen.
What it helps with
Poor sleep after drinking
Alcohol makes you drowsy at first, but as it wears off it raises your heart rate, wakes you more at night and cuts REM sleep.
Is moderate drinking healthy
The apparent heart benefits of light drinking disappear once you account for other health differences between drinkers and non-drinkers.
Alcohol and brain health
Regular drinking is linked to less gray matter and weaker white matter, the brain tissue that processes information and connects brain regions.
Key facts
- 1Among nearly 600,000 drinkers in 83 studies, risk of death from any cause was lowest at about 100 grams of alcohol weekly or less.
- 2In a genetic study of about 371,000 UK adults, heart disease risk rose with drinking, gently at low amounts and much faster at higher ones.
- 3In the same group of UK adults, the apparent heart benefit of light drinking was largely explained by light drinkers' healthier lifestyles.
- 4Among more than 36,000 UK adults, drinking two daily units instead of one was linked to brain changes similar to about two years of aging.
- 5About 4% of new cancer cases worldwide in 2020 were linked to alcohol, including more than 100,000 linked to moderate drinking.
Why your weekly total matters
The health effects of alcohol depend mostly on how much you drink across weeks and months. A single evening can feel harmless, yet the risks to your heart, liver and brain build with your usual weekly amount. Many people underestimate that amount, because home pours are often bigger than a standard drink. The simple fix is to count every drink, every day, so a vague feeling turns into a clear number.
As far as the research can tell, fewer drinks means lower risk. Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges of the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe put it plainly in a 2023 news release: "It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage." A weekly limit lowers your risk without removing it, and a smaller limit lowers it further.
What counts as one drink
A standard drink in the US holds about 14 grams of pure alcohol. Counting in standard drinks lets you compare a strong beer with a small glass of wine fairly.
| Drink | One standard drink | Typical strength |
|---|---|---|
| Beer | 12 oz (355 ml) | 5% alcohol |
| Wine | 5 oz (150 ml) | 12% alcohol |
| Spirits | 1.5 oz (45 ml) | 40% alcohol |
Restaurant and home pours often run larger than this. A 250 ml glass of 13% wine holds about 1.8 standard drinks, so two of those on a Saturday count as nearly four. Public health guidance also advises against saving your drinks for one night, because several drinks in one sitting carry extra risks. Spreading them out and keeping a few dry days, meaning days with no alcohol at all, is the pattern guidance recommends.
What the research found
A large analysis combined data from nearly 600,000 current drinkers in 83 studies. The risk of dying from any cause was lowest among people who drank about 100 grams of alcohol a week or less, roughly seven US standard drinks. Above that level, risk climbed steadily as drinking rose. A separate study of about 371,000 UK adults used genetic data to look past lifestyle differences between drinkers. Heart disease risk rose at every level of drinking, gently at first and much faster at higher amounts.
Brain and cancer studies point the same way. In more than 36,000 UK Biobank adults, drinking two UK units a day instead of one was linked to brain changes similar to about two years of aging. A UK unit holds 8 grams of alcohol, a little over half a US drink. A global study estimated that about 4% of new cancer cases in 2020 were linked to alcohol, including more than 100,000 linked to moderate drinking. One limit is worth knowing: most of these studies followed people over time, so they show links rather than proof, and most participants were middle-aged or older Europeans.
Making it stick
Pick one fixed moment to update your total, such as getting into bed. A phone note, a drink-tracking app or a tally on the fridge all work, though the fridge tally may draw comments from housemates. At the start of the week, choose your dry days, so the limit becomes a plan you made in advance. When you are out, a glass of water or seltzer between drinks slows your pace without drawing attention. After a few weeks, you become someone who knows their number instead of guessing it.
Some weeks will go over, especially around holidays, so note the total honestly and start the next week fresh. On a messy day, your only job is to count every drink, every day, even when the number is higher than you hoped. If cutting down feels hard, or you feel shaky, sweaty or anxious when you skip a drink, talk to a doctor before stopping on your own. Which evening this week could you already mark as alcohol-free?
Action steps
- 1Count your drinks every night. When you get into bed, add up the standard drinks you had that day in a phone note or app, using the table to convert your pours.
- 2Keep your weekly total to 7 standard drinks or fewer. Decide at the start of each week which days will be dry, and spread your drinks so no single evening holds most of them.
- 3Have water between alcoholic drinks. When you finish a drink, at home or out, pour or order water, seltzer or an alcohol-free drink before deciding on another.
Suggested routines
- Poor sleep quality
Stop drinking coffee 9 hours before bed
Studies show mistimed caffeine use reduces total sleep by about 45 minutes and deep sleep by 11.4 minutes.
- Trouble falling asleep
Take a 10-minute warm shower before bed
A warm shower or bath 1 to 2 hours before bed helps people fall asleep about 10 minutes faster.
- Ultra-processed food risks
Check food labels for processed ingredients
Eating more ultra-processed food is linked to a 50% higher risk of dying from heart disease.
References
- Wood, A. M., et al. (2018). Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies. The Lancet, 391(10129), 1513-1523. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30134-X
- Biddinger, K. J., et al. (2022). Association of habitual alcohol intake with risk of cardiovascular disease. JAMA Network Open, 5(3), e223849. doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3849
- Daviet, R., et al. (2022). Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1175. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28735-5
- Rumgay, H., et al. (2021). Global burden of cancer in 2020 attributable to alcohol consumption: a population-based study. The Lancet Oncology, 22(8), 1071-1080. doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00279-5