Alcohol: How Much is too Much

How much alcohol qualifies as too much? Many Americans ask themselves this question every day due to concerns over their health, their behavior, or the legal repercussions of public intoxication and driving under the influence. Individuals who find their lives unmanageable due to their alcohol consumption often choose to give it up altogether. Others try to figure out whether they have in fact exceeded a reasonable threshold in an effort to cut down on their drinking.

Accepted Limits vs. "Heavy" Drinking

Medical science has tried to make the issue more straightforward by setting some general rules, establishing two drinks per day, or 14 drinks per week, as an acceptable amount for adult males and one drink as day, or 7 drinks per week, as acceptable for adult females. 4 or more drinks per day for men, and 3 or more drinks for women, enters the "heavy drinking" range. Binge drinking on a Saturday therefore counts as excessive, even if the drinker has abstained throughout the week, because it violates the daily drink limit.

What Is a Drink, Anyway?

But what constitutes a drink? This question seems simple enough, but variations in portion size and alcohol content can make reliable measurements difficult. Accepted general standards for "a drink" include:

• 12 ounces of beer
• 7 to 8 ounces of malt liquor
• 5 ounces of table wine
• 3 to 4 ounces of sherry or port
• 2 to 3 ounces of liqueur or cordial
• 1.5 ounces of brandy
• 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits 

Even within these reasonably predictable portion sizes, however, actual alcohol content of the substances at hand can vary considerably. A sweet white wine, for example, will typically have a lower alcohol content than a dry red wine, while beer percentages hover up and down from brand to brand. Individuals must view the percentage marked on the container to get an idea of how much alcohol they are consuming.

Health Considerations

Pre-existing health conditions may force some drinkers to call it an evening earlier than others. Impaired organ function, for instance, may reduce alcohol tolerance to the point where one drink causes drunkenness. These individuals can do their health a tremendous favor by swearing off alcohol altogether, despite its association with certain cardiovascular benefits. The combination of prescription drugs with any amount of alcohol can have wildly unpredictable results. For those who take medication on a regular basis, any amount of alcohol may prove excessive or even dangerous.

The Tricky Nature of Blood Alcohol Levels

Drinking's effects also vary by gender. Women tend to show elevated blood alcohol levels more quickly than men, due to their relatively slighter build and higher percentage of body fat. Police use blood alcohol levels to determine whether drivers have operated their vehicles while intoxicated. While the intoxication level can vary from state to state, "legally drunk" generally means a blood alcohol level between .08 percent and .1 percent. Since different people can reach this number after differing degrees of alcohol intake, anyone who drives regularly has an excellent reason to simply give up drinking for good.

Making the Right Choice

Beyond all of these other determining factors, however, drinkers must ask themselves a personal question -- whether their behavior has had a damaging effect on their everyday lives and health. Concern over drinking habits doesn't generally occur in a vacuum; many people begin to question their drinking only after a specific incident brings the subject to the fore. These incidents, however regrettable they may seem at the time, can provide a powerful incentive to change things for the better and embrace rehabilitation or other treatment. In the end, the individual must choose what kind of life he wishes to lead as the ultimate benchmark for the question, "How much is too much?"