FAQs

Balance is the North East alcohol office and aims to improve the health of people in the North East of England and to make communities safer. This is achieved by encouraging people to change their attitude towards alcohol. Balance still wants people to enjoy themselves but to consume less and be aware of the dangers – both health and social.

The North East has one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption and the highest number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in the UK. Balance aims to reduce alcohol consumption in our region, improving the lives of people in the North East, resulting in healthier, happier and safer communities.

Balance is funded by North East Primary Care Trusts and also recieves the full time support of a police officer seconded from Durham Constabulary.

The Government recommends no more than 2-3 units a day (two small glasses of wine) for a woman and 3-4 units (two pints of regular strength beer or lager) for a man.

The limits are given as ranges ('two to three' and 'three to four') because the same amount of alcohol can affect different people in different ways, depending on your sex, weight, height and many other factors. This means there is no exact threshold where your drinking moves from low to higher risk.

The limits are lower for women because women and men process and tolerate alcohol differently. For example, women's bodies have a higher ratio of fat to water, so they generally can't process alcohol as easily. The NHS uses daily figures for regular consumption because it's important to realise that regular daily amounts quickly add up. The NHS wishes to discourage the belief that you could drink ‘your weekly limit' all at once - because binge drinking is harder on your body and may put yourself or others at risk.

 

We describe the pure alcohol content of a drink in units. One UK unit is 10ml (8g) of pure alcohol. The strength of any drink is described as the proportion of the drink's volume that is pure alcohol, using ‘alcohol by volume' or ABV.

One unit is the amount of pure alcohol in a 25ml single measure of spirits (ABV 40%), a third of a pint of beer (ABV 5 to 6%) or half a 175ml ‘standard' glass of red wine (ABV 12%). You can work out how many units there are in any drink by multiplying the total volume of the drink (ml) by its strength (ABV %) and dividing the result by 1,000. You'll need to know a drink's exact ABV, because different brands of the same volume may be stronger or weaker. You can find this information on the labels of cans and bottles, or you can ask bar staff. That way you can easily keep count and know your units when you're out drinking. 

Binge drinking is essentially having a lot of alcohol in one go – usually meaning enough to get drunk or feel intoxicated. Researchers refer to drinking more than eight units of alcohol for men (three pints of strong beer) and more than six for women (two large glasses of wine) in one go or on one day as binge drinking. This is a helpful guide but not a final definition, everyone's tolerance for alcohol varies. The important thing is to avoid drinking until you feel drunk. Binge drinking is part of drinking culture for some, including many young people. It doesn't necessarily mean you have a drink problem, but it's a major factor in accidents, violence and anti-social behaviour.

In the short term, drinking above the recommended limits can result in anxiety, sexual difficulties such as impotence, impaired judgement leading to accidents and injuries, slowed breathing and heartbeat, loss of consciousness and potentially fatal poisoning.

Long-term health risks include high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke, mental health problems and liver damage.

Not everyone who drinks too much is an alcoholic. But you also don't need to be an alcoholic for alcohol to have an imapct on you and those around you.

There are many different options if you're looking for a chat about your drinking or that of someone close to you. You can find out more in our Get Help section.