Alcohol (ethanol) is consumed by many throughout the world. Consumed in low amounts (up to 1 drink per day for women who are not pregnant, 2 drinks per day for men) it can have some beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. But the excessive use of alcohol creates many serious problems: physical, psychological and social. In addition to alcohol use disorders, many other diseases are affected by alcohol exposure, including alcoholic cirrhosis, alcoholic pancreatitis, cancers of the upper GI tract and the liver, cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, diabetes and fetal alcohol syndrome1. Men tend to drink more heavily and more frequently than women, putting them at higher risk of disease and death. The World Health Organization Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health2 and The Global Burden of Disease Study 20103 both list alcohol as the third leading risk factor for deaths and disabilities. WHO estimates that it causes approximately 2.5 million deaths per year, almost 4% of total deaths worldwide and 6.2% of all male deaths2.
