Facts: The National Board of Health and Welfare’s new recommendations
The National Board of Health and Welfare’s recommendations to the health and medical services are to offer support to people who have a risky use of alcohol.
Risky use can be drinking smaller amounts often, and/or drinking larger amounts on one occasion (intensive consumption). Both patterns of behavior involve health risks, intensive consumption also increases the risk of accidents.
The limit values are the same for both men and women:
* Ten standard glasses or more per week, or
* Four standard glasses or more per drinking occasion, once a month or more often.
The quantities, calculated over, for example, a month, are not comparable. They indicate two different types of risky drinking.
It is not possible to specify a limit for when alcohol consumption is risk-free. Alcohol should be avoided completely before the age of 18, during pregnancy and before an operation.
A standard glass of alcohol contains 12 grams of pure alcohol. This corresponds to, for example, 50 cl of folk beer, 33 cl of strong beer, a small glass of wine or 4 cl of spirits.
The new report “Alcohol and the brain” has been produced by alcohol researchers from Sweden, among others, on the initiative of organizations for several healthcare professions and voluntary organisations.
Sources: The National Board of Health and Welfare and the report “Alcohol and the brain”
Many have raised their eyebrows at the fact that three million Swedes drink above the limit for risky use. This is according to a report from the Central Association for Alcohol and Narcotics Information (CAN), which relies on the National Board of Health and Welfare’s new guidelines on what should be classified as risky use.
Now comes a new report that points out that reducing alcohol drinking for many is the most important thing to promote a healthy brain.
One of the conclusions of the report, which analyzed a number of studies, is that alcohol consumption accelerates the natural shrinkage of the brain that occurs as we get older.
Affects problem solving
It has been known for a long time when it comes to heavier addiction. But now research shows that alcohol, even in small amounts, causes the brain to age prematurely. The more alcohol during life, the more the brain shrinks.
— Now we see such an effect even with moderate alcohol consumption, five to six glasses a week. The shrinkage affects everything from memory and problem solving to motor skills and balance. Even though it is about fairly discrete effects in everyday life, they are clear in tests, says Sven Andreasson, professor emeritus of social medicine at the Karolinska Institute and one of the authors of the report.
There are probably few who connect teenage drunkenness with dementia. But because the brain is developing a lot in teenagers and young adults, it is extra sensitive to alcohol, especially in large quantities at one time.
“Drinking during adolescence leaves a mark on the brain and increases the risk of alcohol addiction, but it is also the single strongest risk factor for developing early dementia,” says Andréasson.
Alcohol affects most structures in the brain, in both the short and long term. This appears in the report that the alcohol researcher Sven Andréasson was involved in producing. Archive image.
When it comes to fetuses, exposure to alcohol can have a major negative impact on brain development and there is no safe level of drinking for pregnant women, according to the report.
“No protective effect”
There is also a strong link between alcohol and depression in adults. And more and more research points to alcohol causing depression – not the other way around. Alcohol also contributes to anxiety and suicide.
— Of course we can drink, but you have to think about it. And there is no positive, protective effect from drinking a little, which is a notion that probably lives on with some, says Sven Andréasson.