People should drink just a half unit of alcohol daily in order to cut the number of deaths from cancer, liver disease and other conditions linked to drinking, health experts are urging.
The government's safe drinking guidelines should be revised downwards to make the recommended limits much closer to half a unit – the equivalent of barely a quarter of a pint of lager – they say.
Current official advice is that women should drink no more than two or three units of alcohol a day up to a maximum of 14 units a week and men no more than three or four units daily and no more than 21 units weekly, though that is being reviewed and may be changed.
But the half-unit suggestion, made in a new study in the medical journal BMJ Open, sparked claims that the idea is "extreme" and will be disregarded as unrealistic. > > > > Read More
