HEALTHY DRINKING PART 1

DRINK, ENJOY AND REMAIN HEALTHY

Constantine Ntanguligwa(MD student Muhimbili university of health and allied sciences) 

1100hrs 20th July 2016

Telling someone to stop drinking is like telling a drug addict to stop abusing drugs which realistically its so impossible. Am here not to pursuade you not to take alcohol but trying to make sure that while you drink, you enjoy and you remain healthy. They say ,"acha kufananisha pombe na mambo ya kijinga" so am not going there. Stay with me and learn how to enjoy safe drinking.

Karibu tuzungumze:

We shall evaluate and concentrate in 4 main aspects but concentrate in the first two for this part 1:

1.WHAT IS THE HEALTHY AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION?
2.WARNING TO OUR NUTRITION WHILE WE DRINK
3.A TIME WHEN DRINKING CAN BE LIFE THREATENING
4.GOUT PROBLEM AFTER DRINKING AND CONSUMING MEAT

I drink and am an alcohol user. But all I do, is to watch how much do I take regarding to preservation of my health. In latin they say ,"Otium cum dignitate". Lesisure with dignity. Its this dignity i want to talk to you today. The dignity of limiting to safe levels of alcohol consumption. The healthy dignity.

It is recommended by experts:

• Men should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, no more than four units in any one day and have at least two alcohol-free days a week.
• Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, no more than three units in any one day and have at least two alcohol-free days a week.
• Pregnant women. Advice from the Department of Health states that ... "pregnant women or women trying to conceive should not drink alcohol at all. If they do choose to drink, to minimise the risk to the baby, they should not drink more than 1-2 units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk". ( http://patient.info/health/alcohol-and-sensible-drinking)

The question here now is how much is one unit? We have a brief summary in pictures about this where ABV (alcohol By volume) below. Unit value for our common Tanzanian beer is allocated below in each picture:

2.5 Units

1.4 Units

2.8 Units

1.8 Units

2.3 Units

2 Units( Inafanana na Tusker ingawa zina ujazo tofauti)

FOR WINES AND SPIRITS:

credit to:http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/alcohol/Pages/alcohol-units.aspx

That means that our Normal castle lite, we are adviced not to take more than one two bottles and one and a half to two for the others.

2.MEALS WHILE DRINKING
It has been found that most of people who drink, they skip nutritious meals. It is a behaviour and a custom that when you take a beer, you accompany it with well made meat. But, build a habit of eating well before drinking especially if you know that there after you will drink. Otherwise you will be eating meat only and miss so many other nutrients. It is for this reason as to why people who drink too much have a certain appearance which from outside one can know you. Most drinking people usually have a problem of  malnutrition and deficiency of vitamins.

JUST REMEMBER, EXCESSIVE DRINKING BEYOND THIS LEVELS HAVE A HIGH RISK OF DEVELOPING LIVER DISEASE(CIRRHOSIS), A VERY DANGEROUS DISEASE AND SOME CANCERS AND HEALTH PROBLEMS OF ALL KINDS ARE LINKED TO HISTORY OF ALCOHOL BEYOND SAFE LEVELS.

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO LIMIT TO SAFE LEVELS AND YOU FEEL YOU ARE FAILING. SEE A DOCTOR (MAY BE A SIGN OF ADDICTION)

ON MY WAY TO TAKE MY TWO BOTTLES OF CASTLE LITE TO MEET REQUIREMENTS OF THE DAY... 


PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. 
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 TOMORROW.