Millions of us feel the negative effects of alcohol in our daily lives. But because we’re surrounded by slick adverts pushing the idea that every occasion needs an alcoholic drink, and because parts of our cultures still treat alcohol as essential, rather than optional, it’s much harder for us to connect the dots.
When we as a society do talk about the downsides of alcohol, it is usually something that happens to ‘other people’, or in hard-to-comprehend, faceless statistics about rising alcohol deaths. The reality of alcohol harm – of a much messier middle of tiredness, anxiety, accidental spending, relationship problems, health conditions, chronic illness and days off work – is pushed to the sidelines in favour of severe stories about others.
This report is a wake-up call. It shows that the negative impact of alcohol on the health and wellbeing of the UK population is widespread. Even among those of us drinking under 14 units of alcohol a week, which the Chief Medical Officers have defined as “low risk”, we see links with reduced daily functioning, lower sleep quality, poorer dental health, and higher prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Those of us consuming more than 14 units of alcohol a week, but below the levels associated with alcohol dependency, are experiencing harm at a significant scale.
The report also highlights disparities in alcohol-related harms, with men, and people from lower socioeconomic groups, showing stronger links between health problems and their alcohol consumption.
This harm isn’t inevitable, and the solutions are right in front of us. Our environment can be improved so that whenever we want to make a positive change to our relationship with alcohol, we are supported and not hindered: with more accurate information about the dangers of alcohol, better protection from efforts to get us to drink more, and improved access to independent, evidence-based support.
Preventing alcohol harm across the drinking spectrum is possible with strategic, cross-government action. The Health Mission Delivery Board is ideally placed to drive the changes we need: to intervene early, embedding and properly resourcing alcohol advice, support and treatment in our neighbourhoods and workplaces; tackling the rise of cheap, strong alcohol by introducing minimum unit pricing; ensuring the societal costs of alcohol harm are properly covered by the alcohol producers through reintroducing the alcohol duty escalator (while supporting pubs, bars and restaurants); and properly regulating alcohol labelling and marketing.
The time to act is now. Three quarters of the UK population consume alcohol and a large proportion of us are in this ‘messy middle’, experiencing lower mood, sleep quality, energy and daily wellbeing. If we can encourage everyone who consumes alcohol to explore the benefits of cutting back, then we will improve the UK’s health and wellbeing, reduce the number of health appointments we need, increase national productivity, and enhance our quality of life and work. That better future is within our grasp.
