Reasons To Reduce Your Alcohol Intake

Reasons To Reduce Your Alcohol Intake

If you like a little tipple once in a while (or even a little more than once in a while), there’s probably nothing wrong with that. Alcohol in moderation is something that a lot of people enjoy, and many like to unwind with a glass of wine or beer or perhaps a spirit at the end of the day, for example. 

However, there can come a point when you’re drinking more than what most people would call ‘moderate’ amounts of alcohol, and it’s at that point that you need to do something about it. The fact is that too much alcohol is dangerous for many reasons, so let’s take a look at the best reasons to reduce your alcohol intake so you can see why it’s crucial to get started.

• Improve Your Health 

What does alcohol contain? Amongst other things, you’ll find there’s a lot of sugar in alcohol, and it comes with plenty of calories attached too, which is why diabetics have to be careful when they’re drinking. That means it’s going to have a seriously detrimental effect on your health, causing you to put on weight or, conversely, lose too much weight (when you drink too much, your body’s hunger signals can get lost, so you don’t eat). In either case, it’s not good for you. 

Perhaps the most dangerous thing that too much alcohol can do is affect your liver, causing it to effectively stop working. When that happens, your blood isn’t cleaned how it’s meant to be, so you have ‘bad’ blood circulating through your body, leading it to entirely shut down in an effort to protect itself. 

• Save Money 

Alcohol isn’t cheap (if it is, it’s probably not a good idea to drink it), and the more you have, the more it’s going to cost you. Perhaps you don’t think you spend that much on drinks at the moment, so why not add it up and see? It could be fine and well within budget – a few bottles of reasonable wine a month isn’t going to hurt in most cases – but what if it’s not? What if it turns out you’re spending way more on alcohol than you thought or, scarily, than you can comfortably afford? In that case, it’s definitely time to cut down. 

The best thing to do, at least at the start, is to take any money you would have spent on alcohol and put it into a savings account instead. As you see it mount up, you’ll be far less willing to use it to buy a drink, especially if you’ve got something like a holiday or a car to use the money for. 

• Better For Your Mental Health 

We’ve discussed the problems that too much alcohol can have on your physical health, but it’s important to know that it can also affect your mental health, so again, it’s wise to think about how much you’re drinking and cut down (or get help to cut down) if it’s too much. 

One reason that your mental health can be affected is because alcohol affects how well you sleep, and over time, too little sleep can affect your mind. Alcohol also exacerbates depression and anxiety, so although you might think you feel good, the truth is that your problems are only getting worse.

Contributed Article.