Older tipplers need aged based drinking guidelines

Jul 23 2007

A British expert says alcohol drinking guidelines need to be introduced which are based on age, in order to protect consumers' health.

Professor of gerontology Mary Gilhooly from Brunel University, says recommended maximum intakes should take into account age as well as gender.

Professor Gilhooly says the baby boom generation are likely to drink more alcohol in old age than previous generations because they have always done so and she warns this could create problems because age affects the body's ability to metabolise alcohol.

Research has shown that older people have higher blood alcohol levels after drinking the same amount as younger consumers, and Gilhooly says in many cases the elderly should be advised not to drink at all.

Professor Gilhooly is director of the Brunel Institute of Ageing Studies and she says middle-aged and older people need to be aware of the impact of ageing on alcohol metabolism and need to reduce alcohol consumption levels as they age.

Gilhooly believes the recommended drinking levels were currently set too high for many older people and that could become more of a problem if baby boomers did not cut their alcohol consumption down in old age.

Gilhooly has called for more research into what the new alcohol consumption guidelines for older people should be.

The Department of Health in the UK recently changed its advice for women who are pregnant or trying to conceive and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) say otherwise, women should drink no more than two or three units of alcohol per day or 14 units of alcohol per week.

For men the recommendation is no more than three to four units per day and no more than 21 units per week.

One unit is half a pint of standard strength (3% to 5% ABV) beer, lager or cider, or a pub measure of a spirit; a glass of wine is about two units.

Doctors also say the risk of brain or liver damage as a result of regular drinking increases as a person gets older and the British Medical Association is said to be concerned about the health consequences of the country's drinking culture.