A man who wanted to find out what one week of heavy drinking would actually do to his body had himself tested before and after a seven day stretch of pretty significant alcohol consumption.
The NHS reckons you shouldn't have more than 14 units of alcohol a week, which is basically the equivalent of a pint a day, and even then that's more like a guideline on the upper limit than a licence to quaff at that rate without consequences.
Journalist Harry Wallop decided that with Christmas coming up he'd see what several days of excessive alcohol consumption would do to him so he decided not to drink for 10 days, get a bunch of tests done and then go back after a week of drinking to see what the impact had been.
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Harry decided he would accept invitations to places during his week and accept any drink offered to him, and explained to the Daily Mail that he was trying to see what might happen to his mind and body after seven days.
On the first day, he had been invited to a festive drinks event and it was his eldest son's 23rd birthday, and totting up the totals he'd consumed 11.2 units of alcohol which meant he was almost breaking the NHS guidelines on the first go.
Day two had him offered free beer, going for a drink with his boss and taking advantage of the wine laid on for parents at a school concert where one of his sons was performing to the tune of 7.9 units.
The next day, there was another birthday with a couple of glasses of wine and Harry made a bad Christmas movie go easier with a double whisky, adding 7.1 further units to his tally.
Day four was a biggun as the bloke consumed 12 units of alcohol, so on the fifth day he decided he was going to ease off the booze a bit, but when his wife opened some wine he stuck another 2.1 units onto his total by partaking in a glass.
On the sixth day, he did actually rest as his fitness ring told him to take it easy and he followed the guidance, but on the final day he got through 10.7 further units on a trip to Berlin and a Radiohead concert.
51 units in seven days is not the sort of thing any doctor would recommend and when Harry went in for his second round of tests, he got the results of what had been done to him.
Getting his blood tested showed that his liver enzymes were 'all comfortably within the healthy range' so he reckoned he hadn't done much damage to that organ in one week.
However, some of the other results were a lot more dramatic as his grip strength had dropped from 39.7kg to 34.3kg in a week and the tests suggested he'd been suffering from 'reduced muscle activation and overall fatigue'.
Having managed to balance on one leg for 10 seconds before his week of drinking, the 51-year-old could only last three seconds by the time of his second test, while brain tests showed his reaction times and memory were noticeably worse as well.
Harry's resting heart rate dropped from 70bpm to 61bpm as well, with doctors telling him he hadn't suddenly got a lot fitter and the real answer was likely 'alcohol’s short-term dampening effect on the nervous system'.
Meanwhile, recording his recovery from a night's sleep his previous score of 90.5 out of 100 dropped to 73, so pretty much across the board his physical and mental health took a hit.
Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.
Topics: Alcohol, Health, Food And Drink
Joe Harker