Australian Alcohol Guidelines Released

[samhighley]

The new Australian Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol have finally been released.

Media release from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC):

New alcohol guidelines say reduce drinking to reduce risk

The new Australian Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol announced today recommend that both women AND men drink no more than two standard drinks a day over their lifetime if they want to reduce their risk of being harmed by an alcohol-related injury or disease.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Guidelines were released today in Melbourne following three years of extensive research and consultation by a committee of high level experts, chaired by Professor Jon Currie, Department of Addiction Medicine, St Vincents Hospital Melbourne, and Melbourne University.
Chief Executive Officer of the NHMRC, Professor Warwick Anderson, said the previous 12 guidelines had been simplified to 4. "The new guidelines are based on the risk over a lifetime, and provide advice on lowering your risk from alcohol related harm, but ultimately its your choice."

Professor Currie said "The guidelines aren't telling you what you can or can't do. They aim to help Australians make their own informed choices about alcohol and how much risk they want to take with their health. Two standard drinks a day keeps your risk below 1 chance in 100 of dying as a result of drinking. This is slightly less than your risk of dying in a car accident one day."

The guidelines also look at drinking on a single occasion, like going to the pub, having a drink with friends or having drinks at home. (A single occasion is defined in the guidelines as a sequence of drinks taken without blood alcohol concentration reaching zero in between). For healthy men and women, drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion reduces the risk of alcohol related injury arising from that occasion.

Young people under 18 are advised not to drink, as are pregnant and breastfeeding women.

State and Commonwealth Health Authorities will use the guidelines to develop community awareness campaigns.

 

[Jakechan]

Ahh....bollocks. :unsure:

 

[Pollux]

Ahhhhh, no....

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

After all, look at the Queen, she is 83 and looking well enough, and she lives on Gin and Corgies...

 

[jimmybee]

what a bunch of arse.

 

[clean brewer]

Bloody hell, now a keg has gotta last me a month.. Not happy, 1 brew day a month?? Just as I was getting into it...

 

[David Sinclair]

The World Health Organisation claims 60grames of alcohol a day is moderate, that's 2 pints of 5%ABV a day, i like the sound of WHO better

It hard to believe anything these guys say, lets start a list of what is claimed to cause cancer ... wait a minute there's only one thing on the list - living!

Drink on and be happy :beer:

 

[joecast]

recommend that both women AND men drink no more than two standard drinks a day over their lifetime

i think thats a misprint. should be "two standard drinks per day". and since i didnt start drinking till i was about 18 or 19, i've got some serious catching up to. dont want to be unhealthy and all that :chug:
joe

 

[Bribie G]

I expect this claptrap came from the same lesbian separatist keep the whales in the ground skinny pathetic little schoolteacher bank johnny wimps with names like Jeremy and Alistair (and beards and fat wives who wear straw hats) who invented the so called healthy food pyramid hahahaha the one that has produced the fattest generations in human history.

For a really good read on why lard and butter is actually good for you read the following:

linky

Having said that I might cut back a tad on my twenty or thirty standards per session.



edit; just kidding it's more like fifteen

 

[chappo1970]

Better grab a coldie from the fridge all this talk of drinking guidelines makes me thirsty!

 

[Muggus]

So what they're saying is I should stop myself short 2/3 of the way through a stubbie of 12% barley wine?
Sounds wasteful!

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I believe the figure to include all forms of risk that are associated with drinking alcohol, meaning that it also takes into account the likelihood of you getting into a bit of an altercation with your drinking buddies (or some other tosser in the pub), walking through a plate-glass window and falling onto a tiger snake and all that sort of stuff (or at least that is what the doctor who gave me my tetanus booster a couple of weeks ago said - he also said I should be adding less sugar to my beer, so ignoring the small quibble that I don't usually add any sugar to my beers, he clearly knows his stuff and should be listened to).

If that *is* the case, then sitting at home and quietly drinking yourself into oblivion each night becomes a more attractive option, doesn't it? :huh: :huh:

 

[Effect]

c'mon...this isn't for us...

its for all the carton a day, wife beaters that drink drive and have bad families...

 

[Fatgodzilla]

I expect this claptrap came from the same lesbian separatist keep the whales in the ground skinny pathetic little schoolteacher bank johnny wimps with names like Jeremy and Alistair (and beards and fat wives who wear straw hats) who invented the so called healthy food pyramid hahahaha the one that has produced the fattest generations in human history.

For a really good read on why lard and butter is actually good for you read the following:

linky

Having said that I might cut back a tad on my twenty or thirty standards per session.



edit; just kidding it's more like fifteen

Good rant. Feel better ?

My favourite T shirt in the early 80s had "Land Rights For Gay and Lesbian Aboriginal Whales" printed on. Might have to get one made up again.

Chaps, please remember these are guidelines only. If you post to this site, I doubt you follow the guidelines.

Second half of the rugby union has started on Fox, the 'Canes are beating the Cheetahs (and if I have to explain that, then fair dinkum, follow the guidelines).

 

[microbe]

I believe the figure to include all forms of risk that are associated with drinking alcohol, meaning that it also takes into account the likelihood of you getting into a bit of an altercation with your drinking buddies (or some other tosser in the pub), walking through a plate-glass window and falling onto a tiger snake and all that sort of stuff (or at least that is what the doctor who gave me my tetanus booster a couple of weeks ago said - he also said I should be adding less sugar to my beer, so ignoring the small quibble that I don't usually add any sugar to my beers, he clearly knows his stuff and should be listened to).

If that *is* the case, then sitting at home and quietly drinking yourself into oblivion each night becomes a more attractive option, doesn't it? :huh: :huh:

Yeah, that was my take on it too. Basically the dangers of life which may or may not be increased by partaking of alcohol, included with the risks that alcohol does actually have.

Just another report to take bits of because they don't really spell it out for you. Read between the lines.

My 2c.

Cheers,

microbe

 

[Pollux]

Well, I just bought a 5L keg of Konig Pilsner while at the shops, thought I'd try one with lunch and then AFTER pushing the little plug at the top realised it couldn't be resealed...

The wife don't like beer and the daughter is a touch too young (26months) to help out......

Looks like I am in for a long session. Thank god I'm on annual leave.

 

[SJW]

I guess we should expect this type of response from a Homebrew forum. The way I see it, I don't smoke, dont race cars, don't sky dive or do anthing else that could increase the chance of dying more than normal, so a little/lot of excessive drinking only brings me up to par with the rest of the nation I would say.
Who cares anyway.
NOT ME!
I have had cancer and survived, and that was after 28 days of my first ever month off the beer, the last Dry July. Never again.


Steve

 

[RdeVjun]

These guidelines have 'committee' written all over them, but that's not surprising for the NHMRC as tearing the fork clean out of this type of thing is their role and it is a complex issue to quantify, analyse and report on but most of it is fairly obvious and just plain common sense, just from a largely medical perspective.
One useful comparison though that's made is the lifetime risk of death from two drinks per day with another well- known death cause- the Motor Vehicle Accident. So, that level of consumption is slightly less likely to cause death as one day dying in an MVA. Well, I decide that for now, this is a risk I can accommodate. Without disrespecting the memory of anyone who as died in an MVA (probably every single one of us have known someone who has died in such a traumatic way) that's a risk I am prepared to take in enjoying good drink or twen... err, two.
Comparing this with other choices like smoking or illicit drug taking, I think drinking alcohol comes in fairly well, as some would say, 'mostly harmless', even at above- guideline values. So, when they say, "choose your poison", this is the sort of information I'll take into account in doing that.

Jeezus though- I'd recommend folks actually read at least some of the guidelines, well maybe not 'coz its waaaay to long and boring, but maybe the FAQ before slagging it too fiercely, and when done, perhaps then realise that all the NHMRC has done here is provide statistics from observations of what presumably all of us on these forums actually do (drink alcohol) and assess the possibility of negative or adverse health impacts from doing so. Then they've formulated recommendations for drinkers to decide for themselves what level of risk is appropriate.
I know it hasn't really been suggested directly, but they DO NOT suggest anything stupid like, "you can't drink more than two drinks a day", "four drinks in a session will kill you" or any such shite, but rather, they try to explain to us what, based on statisitics, the RISKS are if we choose to do so. They're not trying to tell us what we can and can't do as consuming alcohol is still a choice- this helps us to make better and well- informed CHOICES. So, come on, FFS- why on earth is that so bad??? Fark...
/Rant. Sorry... I needed to get that off my chest- we all could do to use our brains a bit.

Now, as with much scientific/medical research, putting findings into a broader context is a notoriously difficult, prickly beastie. WRT

I believe the figure to include all forms of risk that are associated with drinking alcohol, meaning that it also takes into account the likelihood of you getting into a bit of an altercation with your drinking buddies (or some other tosser in the pub), walking through a plate-glass window and falling onto a tiger snake and all that sort of stuff

<snip>
Fair enough, I believe it does too, although there is qualification:

Guideline 1 is based on a modelling approach that uses the best available data and relates specifically to alcohol-related disease and injury . This narrow focus is necessary because of the nature of the available evidence [i.e. as reported at A&E]. However, it does not take into account the consequences of drinking on others, particularly violence and anti-social behaviour.

So...

If that *is* the case, then sitting at home and quietly drinking yourself into oblivion each night becomes a more attractive option, doesn't it?

Well, that looks to be the case! But they don't seem to be able to quantify how much more attractive it is. Damn...

Anyway, I think its great news as I, for one, feel much more comfortable about my alcohol consumption, I don't think I'll change anything, and I have a much clearer picture of what the stats indicate the risks are in doing so. I don't mean to say that every word in it should be taken as gospel as its as dry (as in its been sitting out in the summer sun for a few weeks now), repetitive (did I say repetitive?) and boring as batshit (a given), but, its the latest data and I've got something useful from it- am pretty sure others would've as well. The usual heated discussions raged away over on aunty too.

Oh, an yessiree, for all you fellow conspiraciasts, it'd be just more of dem low down gov'ment germs tellin us we caint be brewin so much of our sweet moonshine, dang nabbit! I say Mavis, please be passin me that there shot gun!.
Lol! :lol:

 

[Bizier]

Well, I just bought a 5L keg of Konig Pilsner while at the shops, thought I'd try one with lunch and then AFTER pushing the little plug at the top realised it couldn't be resealed...

The wife don't like beer and the daughter is a touch too young (26months) to help out......

Looks like I am in for a long session. Thank god I'm on annual leave.

"I'll save you Pollux!!!"

*changes to wearing undies on outside and a fruity lycra getup*

 

[Pollux]

Shit, you actually know where I live..............

Actually, that reminds me, I owe you a longneck......Once I have bottled by my upcoming first AG I'll let you know and you can drop by and grab a couple to taste for me.....

 

[Bizier]

What are you talking about dude? I am on my way over now... see you in 5.
Kidding.