Yes, it’s OK to have a tipple. But beware the... Toxic truth about WINEO’CLOCK

There’s no doubt that for some people there are social benefits to be had from enjoying a few drinks. This is true for both of us — Chris wouldn’t have met his wife without the confidence boost of alcohol (they met in a nightclub in Ibiza).

But like all drugs, there is a useful dose, with a desirable effect — but take a dose above this and the side-effects outweigh the benefits and it becomes an impediment to a healthier, longer life.

The first couple of drinks might produce pleasurable disinhibition and increased confidence. This is because alcohol is able to reduce ‘inhibitory control’ in the part of the brain associated with decision-making and social behaviour, and stimulate production of the feel-good hormone dopamine.

This combination causes the loosening up and lowering of inhibitions that can lead to a feeling of increased sociability.

however, it is impossible for your fifth or eighth glass to have the same effect — the ability of the chemicals to affect your brain in the same way is exhausted. The central chemical in alcohol — ethanol — is harmful even in small doses. Intoxication has a powerful effect on the brain, causing impairment of all cognitive functions.

But it’s not just the brain that gets drunk. The ethanol is distributed around the body and is broken down into an even more toxic chemical called acetaldehyde. It is acetaldehyde that you can smell on a drunk person’s breath, not alcohol itself, which is odourless.

EFFECTS THAT LAST FOR WEEKS

The combination of ethanol and acetaldehyde triggers an inflammatory response that can cause the lining of the gut to become leaky. As a result, a substance called bacterial endotoxin can enter the bloodstream.

This leads to further inflammation and, over many years, is likely to be a major contributor to serious conditions such as liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.

It can take four to six weeks for a regular drinker to return their body to normal after a binge, and much longer for heavy drinkers. The process is likely responsible for many of the short and long-term harms of alcohol, including cancers.

Alcohol is not only bad for your brain and body. Intoxication is likely to entice you to make poor decisions about money, sex, eating and everything else. These often have long-term consequences which cause immense further stress.

BINGE DRINKING IS WORST OF ALL

so Be warned: alcohol carries double jeopardy in that it causes stresses on the body plus the increased likelihood of you making poor decisions.

every drink you have is doing you some harm, as was vividly brought home in an experiment we did for a horizon documentary a few years ago.

Using ourselves as guinea pigs, we set out to assess just what binge drinking does to the body. These questions are important because the current data on how alcohol causes harm or benefit is contradictory.

some studies suggest tee - totallers die sooner than alcohol drinkers, while animal studies show benefits from compounds found in wine.

For the test, we would drink exactly the same amount each week for four weeks, but in different ways.

We would stick to the low end of the government guidelines for men — in 2015, when we did the experiment, it was 21 units per week or three units per day (it’s now 14 a week).

Chris would drink three units a day, which counts as moderate drinking; Xand would drink the entire 21 units in one go on a saturday night.

Xand felt confident: he was sure he’d got the better deal, not least because the liver can withstand huge amounts of abuse, so six days seemed like loads of time to recover. Chris, on the other hand, would be getting in from work then drinking his glass of wine or pint-and-a-half. his organs would never get a break and he’d never have any fun. Xand was confident that drinking his way would be no more harmful and much more enjoyable. In fact, apart from the indignity of the experiment, including spending the final half hour crying inconsolably before slipping into unconsciousness, Xand’s tests showed key markers of inflammation were raised.

THERE’S NO SAVFE LOWER LIMIT

XAND had expected the markers to be sky-high after the first binge — but six days later, just before he was about to start the second binge, they hadn’t gone down at all, and by the end of four weeks they’d soared.

Inflammation is linked to an array of diseases, from cancer and severe infection to heart disease and dementia.

Chris’s test results were almost identical to Xand’s: the three units per day were doing him significant harm, too.

so from that, it seemed the amount we were drinking was more important than the way we drank it.

There was one huge difference, though. The blood tests also revealed Xand had three times the amount of bacterial endotoxin in his blood.

That meant the binge was so irritating to the lining of his stomach and intestines that they’d begun to leak bacteria into his bloodstream; effectively poisoning him. We don’t know exactly how much you have to drink to cause this effect, but it’s likely to be much less than Xand was drinking.

What our experiment showed was that government guidelines are misleading in several ways.

First, 48 hours off after a binge isn’t nearly enough. We don’t know how long you need, but it is likely to be weeks not days.

second, there probably isn’t a ‘safe’ lower limit for alcohol.

The acetaldehyde that your body makes from breaking down alcohol is carcinogenic, and with more than a couple of drinks the effects are considerable.

These negative factors don’t mean no one should drink: we both still enjoy drinking on social occasions. But we are careful to avoid binges and make sure our consumption is within the government guidelines. You can mitigate the damage of drinking by planning ahead.

Aim to have one drink when you arrive so you can enjoy the ‘ buzz’, and then order a soft drink or water, and make a point of drinking mindfully.

If you are going to have a few drinks, it is important to know why you’re drinking ( i. e. because you are celebrating with fizz or unwinding with a gin and tonic) and have a plan in place to stop.

If you’re out with friends or family, share that plan so that no one feels tempted to keep refilling your glass.

If you drink at home in the evening, do that mindfully, too. even half a bottle of wine three or four nights per week technically counts as a binge.