How much alcohol is safe to not harm the liver?

Men should not drink more than two 100ml glasses of wine, two 330ml beers per day and not drink more than five days in a week.

Dr. Truong Dinh Bac, Deputy Director of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health said, healthy liver leaves can only be discharged 2 alcoholic drinks a day, if drinking too much, it will be very tired, waste through the liver of the muscle can also be limited.

Experts emphasize that no threshold is considered safe. Nearly drinking any level can be harmful, depending on the drinker's physical condition. Therefore, people should not try to drink alcohol, try to get used to it, it is difficult to give up. If you drink, do not abuse. Every day, men should not drink more than two units of alcohol, women should not exceed one unit and do not drink more than five days in a week.

One unit of alcohol according to the World Health Organization's calculation is 10 g of pure alcohol, equivalent to 3/4 bottles of 330 ml beer (5%), one glass of wine 100 ml (13.5%), one Steam beer cup 330 ml, or a cup of spirits 30 ml (40%).

According to the 2015 survey, more than 77% of men and 11% of women currently use alcohol in our country. Up to 44% of men drink harmful levels, ie at least one drink of 6 alcoholic units or more in three days.

The amount of alcohol consumed in our country is also the highest in Southeast Asia and the 3rd in Asia. The average per capita of our own pure alcohol is 27.4 liters while that of Asia is only 15 liters, Europe is only 16 liters and Africa is 19 liters. Estimated consumption of alcohol per year is 200 million but this figure is probably much less than reality. Similarly every year, Vietnam also consumes over 3 billion liters of beer.

In Vietnam, liver cancer ranks third among the 10 most common cancers in men; with more than 9,000 cases per year (may increase to more than 11,000 by 2020). The incidence and death rates are almost the same. This shows that the ability to treat liver cancer is limited. The World Cancer Research Organization puts ethanol into a group of substances that cause 7 cancers, including liver cancer.

Photo: Mercola.

According to Mr. Nguyen Phuong Nam, representative of the World Health Organization in Vietnam, 95% of alcohol is converted through the liver, the liver has to work a lot to convert alcohol into another substance in which acetaldehyde causes cancer. Drinking alcohol increases acetaldehyde in saliva, damaging DNA in the cells of the oral, throat, esophageal and upper respiratory tract. Alcohol also causes cirrhosis, liver cell damage, leading to liver cancer. The more you drink, the more working your liver is, the higher your risk of liver cancer and cirrhosis later.

In Vietnam, there are no specific statistics, but in countries that drink alcohol as much as Russia and Mongolia, it is the most popular. Medicine has made many progresses in the treatment of liver cancer, but in our country due to late detection, the death rate is very high. 70% of cases are diagnosed with cancer death in the first year.