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HAVE YOUR SAY

ARE BRITAIN'S DRINKING PROBLEMS EXAGGERATED?

Are we drinking ourselves to death?

Monday June 18,2007

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(8)

BRITAIN will be gripped by a liver disease epidemic within 15 years because of binge drinking, doctors warned yesterday.

They blame cheap alcohol and said they fear the NHS will be unable to cope.

The doctors were reacting to the results of surveys in two cities where half the people tested in random samples had liver damage caused by alcohol.

Dr Rajiv Jalan consultant at University College Hospital, London, said: “I’m stunned. The prevalence of liver disease in people in their 20s and 30s is rife.

“If we do not do anything about it right now, we are looking at a cirrhosis epidemic within 15 to 20 years that the health service will find impossible to deal with.”

The Government launched a new alcohol strategy earlier this month which identified eight million problem drinkers. Young, successful professionals are most at risk of liver disease, the UK’s fastest growing illness.

The investigation in Birming-ham and London was carried out by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.

It used technology not yet available on the NHS to monitor the liver health of 70 passers-by. The results, due to be screened tonight at 8pm on Dispatches, Drinking Yourself To Death, stunned medics who had expected raised levels of liver damage in five per cent of people tested. The results showed 10 times this figure.

What do YOU think? Is the problem being exaggerated or are we drinking ourselves to death?

YOU NEVER HEAR

19.06.07, 2:33pm

The thing that gets me is this.
a man may smoke 40 cigs a day but too many ciggies don't make him go out and beat somebody to a pulp or worse stamp on their head or stab them . yet a too much alcohol is making men and women commit these crimes on a daily basis , so what is the worst ?
you don't see the government telling everyone to stop drinking.
ciggies may destroy your body over time but alcohol can destroy countless lives in just one second.

• Posted by: jessica • Report Comment

BRITAIN'S DRINKING PROBLEMS?

19.06.07, 10:30am

Drinking is for the over 21's only, could be the answer. The youth of today have no control of their drinking. They are not capable at stopping after a few pints they have to drink till they lose control. Even the girls! Then they go looking for trouble and find it. All the Police time taken up stopping fights and violence when they could be catching criminals. It will also help them to save for a house instead of waisting £60 a night on drink.

• Posted by: Save_Britain • Report Comment

ARE BRITAIN'S DRINKING PROBLEMS EXAGGERATED?

19.06.07, 10:11am

C'mon Gordon ! now lets see you do something positive for this Country by slapping super megga taxes on ALL Alcohol at least equal to the Tax that you have slapped on Petrol and Diesel.

Oh No ! of course that would upset some of your Financial backers wouldnt it - The Brewing Industry would be up in arms, The Super Casino Industry would also complain bitterly. There would be fewer "non executive" Board places for your Cronies to have.

Ooooh ! and of course there is the Whisky Industry up in Scotland where your "Seat of power " would be quickly booted into touch come 2009.

Ah well ! it was worth the comment .

• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment

DRINKING TO MUCH

19.06.07, 12:24am

This culture of drinking to much has been part of BRITISH culture for decades, but now it is just an excuse for the morons and idiots you see on TV to get themselves s drunk as possible as quick as possible.
Well as with smokers the drinkers should have medical operatiions withheld until they stop, also anyone having need for an ambulance because they are drunk and need to go to hospital shuld be made to pay for it as it is self inflicted.

• Posted by: KEEF • Report Comment

DRINKING

18.06.07, 10:04pm

stopping drinking is a matter of how serious when you take such a decision. however it remains something controllable when you know what, where and how to drink............

• Posted by: concord • Report Comment

ARE BRITAIN'S DRINKING PROBLEMS EXAGGERATED?

18.06.07, 5:35pm

What this country and these young people are short of is a cause, this is no longer a battle for Britain this is a battle for England having a sense of decency and purpose for the English, the Scots have done nothing in parliament to rectify the difference between England and Scotland with regard to the Barnet formula etc and now they are dragging us into Europe as well under Brown So I say this to all Genuine English patriots, Drink as much as you like, smoke as much as you like, have sex as much as you like just as long as its with someone who is English and wears an English badge and fly’s an English flag, preferably a English White dragon flag. But what ever you do don’t vote for any of the present parties ever again unless it’s an English one with an E in it like the EDP, remember its E for ENGLAND and FREEDOM not E for European and Dictatorship. Save some of your Money for a GREAT cause and get round to your local garden shop or garden centre or farm and a get your self tooled up with any kind of English garden implement, it will come in handy when the fight begins to reclaim our country ENGLAND against our oppressors. We don’t need modern guns and technology to win a battle against our capitalistic loving oppressors who don’t care what happens to us, just plain old everyday agricultural devices will do on which England was built on in the fields of this country. I always new my old ENGLISH scythe would come in handy some day I used to use it for cutting long grass as a job but its just as good for looping legs or the heads off traitors and enemies. Let me know when your ready just check out my webpage. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/genesis.revealed/index.htm.

• Posted by: Derk • Report Comment