Scottish middle-class women drinkers on rise

In Scotland women are drinking too much of wine then recommended limits without realizing they are over doing it. Scottish Government officials and health experts want to target this problem of dangerous alcohol consumption culture for which the women are falling more than before.

In Scotland nearly 1 in 8 men and 1 in 10 women have alcohol related problem.

Alcohol abuse is no longer a problem found only among teenagers or poorer people of society. Drinking wine along with food has become an important ritual of many families and middle aged woman can't stop themselves pouring glasses of wine and drinking more than required.

Health experts warn that women's over indulgence in alcohol can lead to various health problems. Drinking wine could lead to liver diseases, breast cancerdefine, reduces chances of conceiving, obesity and harms unborn child.

The public health minister of Scotland, Shona Robison said that females had become the "new drinkers", abusing alcohol much more now than 30 to 40 years ago.

She said links to breast cancer, fertility and other health and wellbeing issues needed to be urgently highlighted.

Ms Robison said, "We are very keen through our campaign to really spark that debate among women."

"One of the world's largest studies of drinking behaviour and breast cancer found that the risk of breast cancer increases by 6 per cent for every extra alcoholic drink you drink every day over the sensible limit.

"Clearly we need to get messages across that it is not just things like liver cirrhosis, which is important, but there are also these other links to things like breast cancer."

Women can't drink like men because the bodies of both sexes react differently to alcohol. While women are of small stature as compared to men, hence there's less of us all round to absorb the alcohol.

Females have on an average 10 percent more fat than men, which means women's bodies have less body fluid to dilute alcohol, so it travels around their bodies in more concentrated form and causes more harm. Lastly, women livers cannot repair themselves as quickly as men's livers when they become damaged.

Liver disease:

Woman's liver produces less of protective enzyme called 'alcohol dehydrogenase' which breaks down alcohol and is the first line of defense against alcohol poisoning. This means women not only get drunk quicker but the effects last longer.

Infertility:

Women who consume too much of alcohol for a long period of time can become infertile. A study reported by the British Medical Journal showed that as few as 5 or less drinks every week would decrease a woman's chance of becoming pregnant.

Breast cancer:

Nearly as many as several hundred cases of breast cancer in UK each year could be linked to alcohol. If a woman is consuming more than 3 glasses of wine a day then her risk of developing breast cancer increases three-folds. a study says.

Pregnancy:

If you are drinking during pregnancy, it means your unborn baby is drinking too - any alcohol in mother's blood will cross the placentadefine and get into the foetus' bloodstream too.

Women who are trying to conceive or are pregnant should give up drinking alcohol. Remember there is no 'safe amount' of alcohol during pregnancy. Foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can occur when the babies are exposed to drinking while they are in the womb and thus they develop various disorders like mental retardation, learning disability, problem in arithmetic, behavioral and learning difficulties, ADHD etc.

Weight gain

A large glass of wine consists of almost 200 calories. Alcohol also stimulates appetite while reducing self-control, making it easy to eat too much. A person who drinks too much gets overweight and at the same time is malnourished - replacing food with alcohol.