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In January, the Government released its new proposed guidelines for

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alcohol, and for the UK's 40 million drinkers it was all pretty sobering.

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There's no such thing as a safe level of alcohol...

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That's according to new guidelines on alcohol

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issued by the Government.

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For men, the recommended weekly limit was slashed by a third,

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to the equivalent of roughly seven pints of beer,

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bringing it in line with the amount recommended for women.

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Critics say the advice smacks of the nanny state.

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But most significant was the publicised link between alcohol

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and cancer.

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..the increasing evidence strongly linking alcohol with cancer.

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It's made a lot of us reassess how much how drink, myself included.

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But if we're honest, did we ever think alcohol was really that

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good for our health?

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And for many of us, the new guidelines have made us realise

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how little we understand alcohol and the way it reacts with our bodies.

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Alcohol is a stimulant, true or false?

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- Yes. 
- For me, yeah.

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Beer gets you less drunk?

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- Yes. 
- Yes.

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Hangovers get worse as you get older?

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- Maybe? 
- Definitely.

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Women get worse hangovers than men?

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I would say so, but they disguise it very well.

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Well, actually none of these myths are true.

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- Oh. 
- Really?

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My name is Javid Abdelmoneim, and I am an A&E doctor.

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In this programme, I want to discover

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the latest science about alcohol

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and with our own special pub lab, we'll be able to show you exactly

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how alcohol affects your body, from the familiar to the unexpected.

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We've teamed up with some of the country's leading scientists

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and I'll be putting myself on the front line to tackle

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questions about alcohol that are asked by everyone,

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in homes and pubs and bars up and down the country.

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Such as...

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why do some people get drunk more quickly than others?

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What is the best remedy for a hangover?

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And why is red wine supposedly better for us than white?

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And most important of all,

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why has the weekly recommended limit changed so much for men

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and just how worried should we be about alcohol and cancer?

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Two questions I'll be putting to England's Chief Medical Officer.

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It's not for me to say, "You must."

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It's for me to share the science with the public.

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I want to find out the truth about alcohol.

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I am an A&E doctor, so I definitely see the worst sides of alcohol.

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People who have drunk too much and people who are chronic alcoholics,

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so you might think that I wouldn't drink, but I love drinking,

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just not too much.

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But the idea of drinking not too much has now fundamentally

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changed with the Government's new recommended limits.

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For both men and women it's now 14 units a week.

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That's roughly equivalent to seven pints of beer, and I have no idea

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whether I stick to the limit or not.

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To discover if I drink within the weekly limits, there's only

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one sure-fire way to find out.

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So Matthew here is fitting me

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with a device that's going to monitor how much I drink across

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the week, by measuring precisely the amount of alcohol in my sweat.

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I want to know if I drink within the recommended limits, so the bracelet

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is going to monitor the alcohol in my system.

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And alongside this I am

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going to keep a video diary of what types of drink I've had and when.

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OK, it's day one, and so today I am at my parents' house. Say hi

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to my mum, who is just reading. No drinking today while I'm at home.

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It's Wednesday, and I am off to Devon to give a rather informal

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lecture, during which I have one can of lager. But it doesn't end there.

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Two pints of cider at the pub, and a quick can to finish the night.

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On my way to visit my friend in Honiton,

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and she is the UK's number one tea drinker.

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What have you got, Jo?

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Big tea.

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No wine at lunch?

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No wine at lunch.

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OK, it's Friday night, I've just got home, I have ended up

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having two ciders and a pint of a lager in the pub with my friends.

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I don't tend to drink at home, so, er, no-alcohol day.

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OK, it's Sunday, I'm on my way to work.

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I won't finish till 10pm tonight.

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Today will be a non-alcohol day.

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The last night.

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It's Rosie's birthday, and she's in Lebanon.

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- Say hi. 
- Hello.

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I've had a bottle-and-a-half of wine to drink

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and you have just witnessed my...

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..week of alcohol.

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'So, did I drink within the 14-unit weekly limit?'

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- Oh, gosh, that does feel good, you know. 
- OK.

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'Well, it's not looking promising.

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'Matthew Mitchell is showing me the results.'

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So, looking at the data here,

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and we look at Wednesday

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and that's probably close to ten, ten-plus units,

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- possibly more. 
- Gosh!

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Probably a lesser amount on Friday, maybe four to six units.

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- I drank three drinks! 
- Three drinks.

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Three pints in an hour!

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And then we think again on Monday, definitely over ten,

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probably closer to 12-15 units.

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So, for the whole week, how much is it we're on now?

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So, when you tally that up we're talking about more

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than 25-28 units, just in three days that you've drank.

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Does that come as a surprise?

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Um!

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It's surprising because if I sat down and had to tell someone

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what I thought I drank this week,

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I'd say, yes, I had a big night on Monday, with the wine.

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The other two nights I would have thrown away mentally.

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I would have just said, whatever, I had a couple of drinks in a pub.

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I recognise I have an unhealthy pattern

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but I never thought I drank more than the limit.

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- Yeah. 
- In fact, I'm well above the limit.

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So that's...shocking to me.

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So, across the week, I actually put away twice the recommended

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limit of 14 units, and I'm not alone.

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It's estimated that 13 million of

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us Brits drink above the new weekly limit.

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According to the NHS, drinking above the recommended weekly limits

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automatically puts you at greater risk of developing

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alcohol-related liver disease, so I am keen to find out what impact,

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if any, my drinking has had on my liver.

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'I've come to the Royal Free Hospital in London to meet

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'liver specialist Dr Gautum Mehta.'

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So, let's see how that liver is.

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Right, this is it.

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'Gautum is going to scan my liver to see

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'if there are any signs of damage.'

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OK, nice and relaxed.

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- OK. 
- Bit of cold jelly.

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'The liver scan uses ultrasound to measure the stiffness of my liver.'

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Here, what we want is not a stiff liver, a low number.

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- What's a normal number? 
- Most people who are normal would have a number under five.

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- OK. 
- OK, mine's about four-and-a-half, just so you know.

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- Crossed fingers. 
- All right, so let's see what we get. 
- Let's have a look. 
- Pop that it in.

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'A reading of higher than 7.5 would be consistent with the early

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'stages of liver disease.'

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OK, well, that's given us just over ten valid measurements,

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- which would be what we'd look for. 
- OK.

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And your score is within the normal range of 5.3, OK, so...

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That's still a little bit high!

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It is a little bit higher than I'd like to see for a young,

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fit, healthy individual.

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What we do know is that alcohol just can cause

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inflammation of the liver as well, and small amounts

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of inflammation can actually cause the Fibroscan to go up a bit.

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- Right. 
- That might well be what we're seeing here.

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I mean, I've got away with it so far but am I...

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am I guaranteed to stay healthy, with this level of drinking?

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Well, gosh, there's a question.

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So, look, with regards to your liver, I think

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it's fair to say that most people who develop significant liver

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disease, cirrhosis, drink at high levels.

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You can be unlucky and we do see some people who

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drink in the 30-40 bracket, who do develop liver disease.

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- OK. 
- Why that is we still don't know,

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but there are genes that are involved.

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The causes of alcohol-related liver disease are complex.

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It's not just down to how much you drink.

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Your genes, diet and weight are all factors as well.

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The main message is that if you drink above

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the recommended limit, the greater the risk to your health.

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Now, of course, the best way of avoiding damage to your liver

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is to not drink at all, but if you are going to drink

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I suppose you should stick to the 14-unit limit.

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To keep track of how much you're drinking across a week

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it's best to use units,

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which are a simple measure of how much alcohol is in a drink.

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A single shot of whisky contains one unit.

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A large glass of wine, around three units.

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A standard glass, two units. And a pint of beer about the same.

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And if you do drink your full 14-unit weekly limit,

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then it's recommended that you spread your drinking over three days or more.

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In other words, don't drink it all at once.

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But besides keeping our liver busy, how else does alcohol affect us?

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We've taken over this pub in north-east London to turn

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it into a pub lab...

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..a venue to host some special experiments to demonstrate

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the science of alcohol.

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And tonight we've invited the locals to take part.

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You're actually doing quite well.

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Remarkably, alcohol affects nearly every system of your body,

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from your skin to your blood vessels,

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from your gut to your heart.

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But here in our pub lab we're going to

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look at the effect of alcohol on your brain.

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To drinkers, a lot of this will come as no surprise.

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After a few pints, alcohol affects our sense of balance

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and hand/eye co-ordination, generally making us more clumsy.

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But Dr Tony Moss from London's South Bank University

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is showing me some of alcohol's more subtle effects.

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Firstly, how we begin to lose our self-control after we've had

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a few too many.

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So this is the Batak test.

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The variation that we've put onto this is that we're also

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asking people to listen out for a buzzer

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and if they hear the buzzer to stop themselves pressing the button.

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- BUZZER 
- Nearly.

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It sounds like an easy thing to do

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but it's deceptively difficult once you've got used to

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pressing the button and you're working, as you can see, so quickly.

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- You're not supposed to press it if you hear the buzzer. 
- Sorry.

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So the alcohol actually sort of stops you stopping yourself?

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Yes, alcohol has a particular effect on our ability to stop

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ourselves from doing things that we feel that we need to do.

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When people have had a few drinks they press the button when they shouldn't

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because they can't override that response that they've learned.

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BUZZER

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'Time out.'

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What's the cash prize?!

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This next test shows why after a fair few drinks

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although we may be able to do the job of walking home,

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often we arrive to find that we've failed to remember our keys.

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In other words, we can't multi-task.

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997...

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'To demonstrate this, our volunteer has been asked to

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'do two jobs at the same time.'

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993.

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'Counting backwards in sevens...'

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So she's actually almost totally failing at counting.

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'..whilst at the same time

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'rearranging the series of coloured rings on the wooden pegs.'

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We call this a "divided attention task" because you're basically

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trying to do two things at once, which is hard at the best of times.

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Oh!

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And one of the effects of alcohol is it limits

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the amount of sort of mental energy that you've got to be able...

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or mental resource you've got to do these things

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and you'll notice as she's going through the task that one of

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the strategies that she's using is to sort of stop one of the tasks

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so that she can start doing the other one quite well.

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- Very much in relay, not tandem. 
- Yeah, absolutely.

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- So sorry! 
- Absolutely brilliant!

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'And finally, this test is aimed at measuring the volunteers'

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'tolerance of pain.

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'In this case, having your hand in a bucket of freezing cold ice,

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'shown here as purple and black on our thermal imaging camera.

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'Sober people tend to give up by around the two-minute mark.'

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How much have you had to drink tonight?

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- Er, three pints. 
- Three pints.

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'But Stuart here has had his hand in the bucket for an impressive

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'four minutes.'

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I could stay here for quite some time.

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'He can do this because the alcohol is numbing his pain.'

246
00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:52,000
- Yeah, I think we call it time. 
- Yeah?

247
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:53,520
Yeah. Well done, Stuart.

248
00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:55,120
It's your call, it's not me.

249
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,680
Yeah, well, to be clear, it was me calling it time, not you.

250
00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:59,680
Are your fingers still there?!

251
00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:01,080
'And that's not all,

252
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:05,600
'when we drink, we often get the sensation of feeling warmer.

253
00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:10,080
'That's because alcohol increases the flow of warm blood to the skin,

254
00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:15,200
'but the overall effect is that your body actually loses more heat.'

255
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:20,000
So although alcohol may make you feel as though you're wearing

256
00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,120
a beer coat, helping you keep warm as you walk home at night,

257
00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:25,320
in reality it has the opposite effect.

258
00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:38,000
But perhaps one of the most hotly debated topics in the pub is

259
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,800
why some people get tipsy very quickly, whilst others seem to

260
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:46,440
be able to drink a lot, apparently without feeling much effect.

261
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,120
So why is this?

262
00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:54,360
At St Mary's University in Twickenham, I'm meeting five locals who have

263
00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:56,520
very different experiences with alcohol.

264
00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,640
So, who wants to put their hand up for saying that they can

265
00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:02,280
drink the most in this group?

266
00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:06,160
It looks like you got volunteered!

267
00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:08,080
Yeah, pretty certainly at the heavyweight

268
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,400
- end of the spectrum, I think, yeah, yeah. 
- OK.

269
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:15,840
'Our volunteers span the full range, from alcohol heavyweight Ian

270
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,800
'to Stacey and Andrea, who feel the effects of alcohol quickly.'

271
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,120
- I'd say I'm a lightweight. 
- Yeah? 
- Yeah.

272
00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,200
Couple of glasses and I get a bit giggly...

273
00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,840
'And as for our two students, Ian and Jacob...'

274
00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,920
- Maybe somewhere in the middle. 
- Yeah? 
- Can hold a...hold a couple.

275
00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,560
- And for you? 
- Er, probably just about two pints and start feeling it.

276
00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:35,680
Brilliant, well, thanks for coming.

277
00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:38,520
'So, to put it crudely,

278
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,280
'why do some people get drunk quicker than others?'

279
00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,920
OK, and if you'd just like to come and stand on this

280
00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,480
platform for me with your heels touching the back.

281
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:51,600
With the help of sports scientist Dr Paul Huff

282
00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,320
and alcohol researcher Professor Celia Morgan,

283
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,200
we're going to get to the bottom of this conundrum.

284
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,920
And it won't involve our volunteers touching a single drop.

285
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,040
Well, what we're essentially trying to do here, Javid,

286
00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:10,760
is work out the total amount of water in someone's body.

287
00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:14,160
Mm-hm. Now, why that's important with alcohol is that it's not just

288
00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:16,760
the volume of alcohol that you drink that's important,

289
00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:18,520
it's its concentration in your blood.

290
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,320
So what we call the blood-alcohol concentration.

291
00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:27,400
So how drunk you feel is all down to the concentration of alcohol

292
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:31,320
in your blood, and one of the main factors that determines this

293
00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:33,720
is the amount of water in your body.

294
00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,120
If two people have different amounts of water in their body,

295
00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,080
take the same amount of alcohol, the person with more

296
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:42,200
water in their body gets less drunk.

297
00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:44,800
Exactly, it's almost you can think of the water in your body

298
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:46,720
diluting the effects of the alcohol.

299
00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:49,240
And so that's why some people get more drunk than others?

300
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:50,840
That's exactly right, yes.

301
00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:55,200
So let's see if the diluting effect of body water can

302
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:59,280
explain our volunteers' different experiences with drink.

303
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:01,160
Take a seat in the Bod Pod.

304
00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:05,480
To work out precisely how much water is in our volunteers' bodies

305
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,360
involves measuring two things.

306
00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:12,000
Firstly, Paul is using the Bod Pod machine to

307
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,200
measure our volunteers' body volume.

308
00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,480
Next, Paul is passing a small electrical current

309
00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:22,360
through our volunteers' bodies to analyse how

310
00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:25,360
much of their bodies is fat and how much is muscle.

311
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,640
There's much more water in muscle than fat and so the more

312
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,960
muscle our volunteers have, the more diluting water their bodies contain.

313
00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:43,280
So, what are the results?

314
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,760
In first and second place are the two Ians,

315
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,240
with 66 litres

316
00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,040
and 51 litres of water in their body.

317
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,480
In third place is Jacob, with 46 litres.

318
00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:02,080
And in fourth and fifth place

319
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:04,240
are our alcohol lightweights,

320
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:06,920
Andrea, with 34 litres,

321
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:08,440
and Stacey with 31 litres.

322
00:17:10,120 --> 00:17:13,720
Celia has calculated what this means in terms of how our volunteers

323
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:15,080
handle their drink.

324
00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:20,400
Laid out on each table are pints of beer that our volunteers

325
00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:22,840
might drink on an evening out,

326
00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:25,400
and their position on the track

327
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:30,160
represents how drunk the volunteer would feel after drinking them.

328
00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:32,440
From sober to tipsy,

329
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:34,720
to more and more drunk.

330
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,640
Ian, if you drank one pint, your blood alcohol would rise to that

331
00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:41,920
first table.

332
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,960
Stacey, yours would rise all the way to here.

333
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,040
'And this shows why alcohol lightweight Stacey gets drunk

334
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,800
'so much faster than heavyweight Ian.'

335
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,920
So your size and your body shape really makes a difference.

336
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:01,440
Alcohol dehydrates us,

337
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:05,600
so it's always a good idea to drink plenty of water on your night out

338
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,480
to ensure your body water is kept at its normal, healthy level.

339
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:11,200
But beyond this,

340
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,280
if you're really keen to handle your drink better, then whether

341
00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:18,320
you're a man or a woman, the only option is to become more muscular.

342
00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,480
Leave the pub and go visit the gym.

343
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,720
On drinks labels you'll always find the strength of alcohol,

344
00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,280
or alcohol by volume, and often the number of units too.

345
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,360
But what's rare is to see the number of calories

346
00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:40,280
and it's not surprising because the numbers are pretty horrifying.

347
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,520
A single shot of spirits contains 59 calories,

348
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,400
roughly the same as a bourbon biscuit.

349
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,920
A large glass of wine contains 180 calories,

350
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:53,680
the same as a teacake.

351
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,800
And a typical pint of beer has 215 calories,

352
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:01,680
the same as a jam doughnut.

353
00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,320
And whilst it's true that our bodies process

354
00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,000
the calories from alcohol differently to the calories

355
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,240
from fat or sugar, they're all potentially fattening.

356
00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,720
But if you're worried about your waistline,

357
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,600
it isn't just alcohol's calories that you should be wary of.

358
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,040
Could alcohol actually make us eat more?

359
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,680
We've returned to the pub lab to do a special demonstration with

360
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,640
experimental psychologist Dr Sam Caton

361
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:35,200
from the University of Sheffield.

362
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,520
Her research suggests that alcohol might be able to trick us

363
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:42,120
into eating more, without us even noticing.

364
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:45,440
And taking part,

365
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,120
drinking beer in the name of science, are two sports teams

366
00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,600
from Queen Mary University of London.

367
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,720
We're going to do an experiment today, so it may involve

368
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,120
drinking some beer. I think you might be OK with that.

369
00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:58,640
Yeah!

370
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:02,080
Excellent, OK, let's have the hockey players here

371
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,160
and the footballers through the back in the snug.

372
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,760
'So that the students behave as normal, we've told them that

373
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:12,080
'the purpose of the experiment is to test

374
00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,120
'how alcohol affects their memory.'

375
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:17,320
You've got the next five minutes to remember as many as you can.

376
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,000
'We haven't mentioned anything about food.'

377
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:21,240
Time's up.

378
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,320
Quite a lot there...

379
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:25,520
'And the other thing the students don't know...'

380
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:27,440
Here come the pints, guys.

381
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:29,080
'..is that whilst one table

382
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:31,960
'is being served with normal alcoholic beer...'

383
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:33,480
Cheers all.

384
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,440
'..the other will be given non-alcoholic beer.

385
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,400
'We're hoping they won't notice the difference.'

386
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:41,960
So here are your beers.

387
00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,520
- Thank you very much. 
- Enjoy. 
- Cheers, guys.

388
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,240
You're such a stay of a human!

389
00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:53,480
The calories in alcohol are often referred to as "empty calories"

390
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,280
because unlike most food they don't fill us up.

391
00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,680
'In fact, according to Sam's research,

392
00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:02,120
'alcohol has the opposite effect.

393
00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:04,600
'It actually makes us eat more.'

394
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,000
We're ready, let's see how much they eat.

395
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,640
'So let's see if this is the case with our students.

396
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,280
'Both teams have been served with two pints of beer

397
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,400
'and then offered bowls of snacks.

398
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,760
'The question is, will the students that have drunk the alcoholic beer

399
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,080
'eat more than those that have had the non-alcoholic beer?'

400
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:25,760
..if they're real crisps.

401
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:27,440
These are nice crisps, actually.

402
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,080
'After 15 minutes, we clear away the leftovers.'

403
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:33,840
Hiya, Sam, these are the peanuts from the footballers.

404
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,400
Thank you.

405
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,320
'And Sam tots up what's been eaten.'

406
00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:42,880
'It's time to fess up to our students.'

407
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:48,320
You guys actually had non-alcoholic beer, could you tell?

408
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,120
LAUGHTER

409
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:52,760
- So it tasted different? 
- Not happy about that.

410
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,720
Not happy about that. I'm sorry, you got the dead end of the deal here.

411
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,480
Oh, well, OK, and you guys actually had proper beer,

412
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:02,880
but, actually, the real part of the experiment was about food intake.

413
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:06,400
And consistent with the results that we obtained in the laboratory,

414
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:10,920
the guys that consumed alcohol consumed much more food

415
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:12,680
compared to you guys.

416
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:17,600
So, on average, collectively you consumed 11% more calories

417
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:19,400
compared to the no-alcohol group.

418
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,520
So you guys were given the same amount of crisps

419
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:25,760
and peanuts for the same amount of time and the red bowls are

420
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:27,600
the people who had alcohol,

421
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,160
and the green bowls are the ones that didn't.

422
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,080
Overall, if we add together the energy from the alcoholic

423
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:40,600
beverages, you guys consumed 872 calories, whilst you guys

424
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:46,800
consumed 576, and that represents a 34% increase in total energy intake.

425
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:48,280
Each!

426
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:49,320
LAUGHTER

427
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,760
So it seems that alcohol does actually make us eat more.

428
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,880
The students who drank the two pints of real beer each consumed,

429
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:03,000
on average, a total of 300 extra calories.

430
00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:07,640
The same as four-and-a-half bourbon biscuits.

431
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,720
And all of this without them noticing a thing.

432
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,320
The precise mechanism about how alcohol affects appetite is

433
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:17,640
still being researched by scientists.

434
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,560
At the end of the day, it's important for you to know, not only

435
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:24,280
does alcohol have a lot of calories, it also has the power to make

436
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:25,320
you eat more.

437
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:34,920
But is the relationship between alcohol and food always a bad one?

438
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,080
Could food before booze ever be a good thing?

439
00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:41,280
Lining your stomach is the idea that if you have a big meal

440
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,960
before you drink, you'll be able to handle your booze better.

441
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:49,520
Lots of us do it before a big night out, but how exactly does it work?

442
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:56,240
It's Bonfire Night, and with the help of my friend Natalie,

443
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,360
I am going to put this to the test.

444
00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:01,560
- Hi. 
- Hey, Nat, come in, how you doing?

445
00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,480
'Although not ideal from a scientific perspective -

446
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,080
'Natalie is a woman and I am man - we're roughly the same size

447
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,360
'and weight, and so reasonably matched.'

448
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:17,480
The plan is that we're both going to drink a single, large glass of wine.

449
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,080
Natalie is going to drink on an empty stomach.

450
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,680
I am going to line my stomach with food.

451
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,960
But first, it's time to eat a rather hi-tech hors d'oeuvre.

452
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,280
So, before I line my stomach with this lovely meal, I am going

453
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:36,160
to swallow this pill cam, so you can see the inside of my stomach.

454
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:37,200
Here goes.

455
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,440
'This has to be the best dinner-party trick ever.'

456
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:46,320
- There it is, you can see it in my stomach. 
- Oh, gosh!

457
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:50,160
Wow. So, now you can see my stomach is empty.

458
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:51,560
It's time to eat.

459
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,680
The idea behind lining your stomach is to do with the fact that

460
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,200
alcohol is mostly absorbed not whilst in the stomach

461
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:04,520
but once it reaches the small intestine.

462
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:10,160
If your stomach is full of food then the alcohol is held up

463
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,080
and takes longer to get into your system.

464
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,280
You can see some green broccoli there.

465
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:18,120
Time for the vino.

466
00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:19,160
Yes.

467
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,440
'Lined stomach versus empty stomach,

468
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,040
'let's see what difference the food makes.'

469
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,400
'Throughout the evening we are going to breathalyse

470
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,680
'ourselves to see how we compare

471
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,240
'and it's time for our first reading.'

472
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,000
Is yours ready? Go.

473
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:40,480
BOTH EXHALE

474
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:46,800
- Ah! 
- 44 for Nat. 
- 44.

475
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,680
23, yeah!

476
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,280
'So already there's a big difference.'

477
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,360
But will my readings catch up with Natalie's over the next few hours?

478
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,960
32.

479
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:07,000
15. The lining is working.

480
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,120
But, of course, there's a second character in the story,

481
00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:13,280
and that's the liver.

482
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,880
For most people, the liver gets rid of about one unit,

483
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,280
or the equivalent of one single shot of spirits, every hour.

484
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,760
- Eight. 'And it's the same rate however much you drink.' 
- 21.

485
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:31,560
The enzyme in the liver that does the job of processing the alcohol

486
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,320
is actually present in small amounts in the lining of the stomach.

487
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:38,640
So when your stomach is full

488
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:42,400
and the alcohol is kept there for longer, this lining can do

489
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,560
some of the work that's normally just left to the liver.

490
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,600
Men tend to have more of this enzyme active in their stomach than women,

491
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,480
meaning that lining your stomach has an even bigger

492
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,240
effect if you're a man.

493
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:56,400
Zero!

494
00:26:58,080 --> 00:26:59,320
12.

495
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,000
Argh!

496
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:08,880
So the results are in, and Natalie's alcohol level did this

497
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,840
and my alcohol level did this.

498
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,360
So lining your stomach works.

499
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,320
Scientific studies have shown that eating food before you drink

500
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,240
crucially means that your blood alcohol level peaks

501
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:27,840
at a lower value, meaning that you feel the effects less.

502
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,760
So lining your stomach is a good idea, however you plan to drink.

503
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,280
We've heard about the risks to our health of alcohol in general

504
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:38,760
but red wine in particular has had more than its fair share

505
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,720
of headlines, claiming that it's good for us.

506
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,680
So what's behind its healthy reputation?

507
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,680
It's good for the blood, is it, possibly? Maybe.

508
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,720
So it's quite good for your sort of thinning your blood out.

509
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,320
Doesn't it prolong your life, is that wrong?!

510
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,960
This popular notion that red wine is good for us

511
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,880
has its origins in what's become known as the "French paradox".

512
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,760
It's the fact that even though the French have a diet rich in

513
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,040
saturated fat, their incidence of

514
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,200
coronary heart disease is relatively low.

515
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:19,320
In the early 1990s, two wine-loving scientists proposed a solution.

516
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,280
Might all the red wine that the French drink somehow cancel out

517
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,400
the unhealthy aspects of their diet?

518
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,280
Or is that just wishful thinking?

519
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,400
'To get to the bottom of this, I've met up with researcher

520
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:36,240
'Dr Wendy Hall, and she is taking me to her labs

521
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,880
'at St Thomas's Hospital in London.'

522
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,360
- Right, if you'd like to come through, Javid. 
- OK.

523
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,080
- This is our vascular lab. 
- Cool.

524
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,840
And I'd like to introduce you to Benu, our vascular specialist.

525
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:47,800
- Benu, hello. Javid. 
- Hi, nice to meet you.

526
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,760
- Nice to meet you, too. I've brought the red wine that you asked for. 
- OK.

527
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,600
'Wendy and Benu are going to look at how my blood vessels dilate

528
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:59,040
'or expand before and after a single large glass of wine,

529
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:03,200
'because, according to research, if red wine is good for our heart,

530
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,200
'then one of the reasons might just be

531
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:09,000
'because it's good for our blood vessels, making them dilate

532
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,880
'better and having positive effects like reducing blood pressure.'

533
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,360
OK. So now you can get up now.

534
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,400
Guess, Wendy, now it's time for the wine?

535
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:20,000
Yes, let's go ahead.

536
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,440
# Red red wine... #

537
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,720
- Cheers. 
- OK, cheers.

538
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,800
'The particular compounds in red wine thought to be

539
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,760
'good for our blood vessels are called polyphenols...

540
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:34,920
'..natural chemicals from grape pips

541
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,840
'and skin that give red wine its colour and taste.'

542
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:39,880
That was fast!

543
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:44,640
'After drinking the wine, I wait an hour to give it time to take

544
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:49,680
'effect, and then Benu repeats the measurement on my blood vessels.

545
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:52,400
'So, has the single,

546
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,680
'large glass of red wine made my blood vessels dilate more?'

547
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,320
Cool, we have results, what do they show?

548
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,400
They show that after you drank the wine there was a large

549
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,880
increase in the diameter of your artery in your arm,

550
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:08,600
so this would suggest that

551
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,480
if you've got a large vasodilation like that,

552
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:13,800
that it might decrease blood pressure

553
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:15,360
and have beneficial effects

554
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,160
on your cardiovascular system.

555
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:18,880
That's a good thing to happen.

556
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:20,600
Yes, you were fully dilated!

557
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:21,680
OK!

558
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,320
So, red wine in particular is potentially good for our heart

559
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:29,920
because of the effects from its polyphenols.

560
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:33,440
But which wines contain the most?

561
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,040
- Let's start with the rioja. 
- Right.

562
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:41,000
'To find out, we're testing six classic wines from around the world,

563
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,880
'five red and, just to be sure, one white.'

564
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,280
- OK, that's ready now. 
- Mm-hm.

565
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:51,080
'The darker the liquid turns when we add Wendy's special reagent,

566
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,160
'the more polyphenols the wine contains.'

567
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,160
That's definitely gone dark.

568
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,400
Yeah, it's a very dark colour.

569
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,360
'And to get a precise measurement,

570
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,360
'Wendy runs the samples through a spectrophotometer machine

571
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:08,320
'and ranks the wines according to how much polyphenols they contain.'

572
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,320
So the wine, as expected, with the lowest polyphenol content was

573
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:14,360
the white wine.

574
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:16,240
In this case it was a Sauvignon Blanc.

575
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:22,120
- Mmm, OK. 
- So, a standard glass, 175mls, contains about 60 milligrams

576
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:23,560
of total polyphenols.

577
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,560
OK. And how much did our number one have?

578
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:31,240
The wine from Umbria in Italy, from the Sagrantino grape,

579
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,840
the final results show that it had a total polyphenol

580
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,440
content of 737 milligrams.

581
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:37,760
Wow, that's huge!

582
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:40,960
So it's about ten times the amount of polyphenols in this wine...

583
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,360
- Wow! 
- ..than this one. 
- That one.

584
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,840
So there's some adage in the old saying that a glass of red wine

585
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,400
is good for your heart, at least when compared to a white?

586
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:52,160
Well, certainly, if you're going to choose to have a glass of wine

587
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,920
with your meal, there may be some added benefits to choosing

588
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,280
a red wine compared to the white wine.

589
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:02,400
As a rule of thumb, the darker the wine the more polyphenols it

590
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,240
contains, and this is what our tests showed.

591
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,680
A little known Italian grape scored the highest.

592
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:14,400
In second place, a popular Cabernet Sauvignon.

593
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,760
And in last place, the Sauvignon Blanc.

594
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:20,120
But the bad news is that

595
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,240
although it may be a good idea to choose wines that are high in

596
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:27,560
polyphenols, on its own this isn't justification for drinking more...

597
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,560
..because polyphenols are also found in lots of other drinks and foods.

598
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,880
So what we can see here, we've got a few examples of foods that

599
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:42,400
contain the same amount of total polyphenols as a standard

600
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:44,800
glass of wine, 175mls.

601
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,280
OK.

602
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:48,520
So, for example, we only need to eat

603
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,920
24g of walnuts to consume

604
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,480
the same amount of polyphenols that's in that glass of wine.

605
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,440
- That's not very much at all, actually. 
- Yeah.

606
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:56,960
Not much dark chocolate, either.

607
00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,440
- No, it's 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate. 
- Ah.

608
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,120
And an apple and a half contains as many polyphenols as is in a glass of red wine.

609
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,160
You're giving me too many excuses not to have red wine here.

610
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:08,520
And what about this tea?

611
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,000
So, 360mls of tea will contain

612
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,200
the same amount of total polyphenols as wine

613
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,200
and we all drink, probably...

614
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,440
- most of us drink more than that every day. 
- In a day.

615
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,280
So, in principle, you can get all the potential health benefits

616
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,080
of polyphenols without consuming alcohol.

617
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,160
So would you recommend that we all start drinking red wine?

618
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,080
No, what it tells us is that red wine is a good

619
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,040
example of a polyphenol-rich food, but if you eat a diet that's

620
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,720
varied in fruit and vegetables, and nuts and wholegrain cereals,

621
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,480
you'll be consuming a large variety of polyphenols

622
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,040
and this will be protective against heart disease and stroke.

623
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,920
But polyphenols aside, there is evidence that alcohol itself

624
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,760
may have a protective effect against heart disease.

625
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,520
However, that's only if you're drinking small amounts

626
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,040
and that protective effect is only marginal for most of us.

627
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,960
But the exception is for women aged over 55,

628
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,880
for whom drinking two glasses of wine a week, or roughly five units,

629
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,920
has actually proven an overall significant effect.

630
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:20,880
Still to come -

631
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,160
we're on the quest to find the ultimate hangover remedy...

632
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:25,720
I just need my bed.

633
00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:29,320
..and why have the weekly recommended limits changed so much?

634
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,320
But first, is a nightcap good for your sleep?

635
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,000
Alcohol has a long history of being used as a sleep aid.

636
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,960
I always smile when I remember back to

637
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,720
when I was a medical student and nightcaps were prescribed

638
00:34:49,720 --> 00:34:53,240
on the drug charts at night, so if you looked at the pharmacy

639
00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:56,520
cupboard you could see a bottle of Bailey's, a bottle of whisky and

640
00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:01,000
a bottle of gin, and if Ethel needed a gin at 10pm you'd prescribe it.

641
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,480
According to one survey, over five million Brits use alcohol to

642
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:08,800
help them get to sleep.

643
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,680
With men tending to opt for whisky, and women a glass of wine.

644
00:35:16,720 --> 00:35:20,000
But is an alcoholic nightcap really such a good idea?

645
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:22,880
'To find out, I've come to

646
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,400
'the University of Surrey's Sleep Research Centre.'

647
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:26,840
Thank you.

648
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,520
'Here they research the science of the perfect night's sleep.

649
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:32,880
'And what I want to know is

650
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:36,760
'whether the alcoholic nightcap is friend or foe.'

651
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:39,160
- Derk-Jan. 
- Javid, I assume.

652
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:40,800
Hello, how you doing?

653
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,200
'Sleep expert Professor Derk-Jan Dijk has agreed to host me

654
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:45,880
'at the Sleep Centre this evening.'

655
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,320
Well, this is our, er, sleep, it's not a comfortable,

656
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:49,880
cosy bedroom you will see.

657
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:51,720
It looks like a safe!

658
00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:54,760
'He is going to measure my sleep patterns to see what effect

659
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:55,960
'alcohol has.'

660
00:35:55,960 --> 00:36:00,160
OK, I have brought something to help me. Look at that.

661
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:04,080
Oh, wow, not...not bad for a... for a whisky.

662
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,000
OK, we'll put it there, then.

663
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,560
Great.

664
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:09,760
'Derk-Jan's colleague Giuseppe

665
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,280
'has the job of getting me ready for bed.'

666
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,360
Head down for me, thank you.

667
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,640
'He's fitting me with this colourful set of electrodes that will

668
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:19,680
'measure my brainwaves as I sleep.'

669
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,440
I feel like I'm having my head plaited or something.

670
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,680
'Research has shown that alcohol has a big effect on sleep,

671
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:31,000
'particularly as we get older, as our sleep generally becomes lighter

672
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,400
'and more fragile.'

673
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,840
You may have been able to drink and sleep well when you were young

674
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:42,640
but by the time you hit 40 or 50,

675
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:47,000
the disruptive effect of alcohol increases quite a bit.

676
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:48,280
Right.

677
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:51,560
And that disruptive effect of alcohol is much

678
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,920
stronger in older people than in young people.

679
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,600
- Ah. 
- We are done. 
- Oh, lovely.

680
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,520
I think you are good for the night.

681
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,680
- Great. 
- So I am going to go home now.

682
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,280
- Thank you very much. 
- And you're going to do some work for us.

683
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:08,120
- Yes, it's going to be hard work. 
- And, er, and sleep, so, OK, guys.

684
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,200
- Bye-bye, see you tomorrow. 
- Have a good night.

685
00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:17,160
Thank you very much, Giuseppe, goodnight.

686
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:19,440
'But despite what Derk-Jan says,

687
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,000
'I am still holding out hope that five million of us aren't wrong.

688
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,360
'It's time for my double whisky.'

689
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:29,680
Let's see if this works.

690
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:41,920
# Sleeping

691
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,960
# I am the sleeper

692
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,120
# Sleeping

693
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,200
# I am the sleeper

694
00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,680
# Sleeping... #

695
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:04,080
OK, Javid, time to get up now.

696
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:05,280
Oh.

697
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:09,080
Good morning.

698
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:10,600
Morning.

699
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:12,240
- How are you, then? 
- I'm good, thank you.

700
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:17,000
Well, let's have a look at what the data show and then we can tell.

701
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,760
The squiggly lines show my brainwaves and from these

702
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,520
Derk-Jan has been able to work out my sleep patterns for the night.

703
00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:28,560
Red blocks for when we do most of our dreaming,

704
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:34,040
yellow and green for light sleep, and blue for deep sleep,

705
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,040
and where it's blank, that's where I was awake.

706
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:38,760
So how well did I actually sleep?

707
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,600
So, if we start from the beginning when you are awake

708
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,160
and the lights go off, you know,

709
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,920
- it takes you approximately 10-15 minutes to fall asleep. 
- Right.

710
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,720
So that's not bad, considering this is the first time, new environment.

711
00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:57,000
Obviously here we see now a lot of deep sleep

712
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:02,240
but as the night progresses you can see that this deep sleep disappears

713
00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:06,400
and what we are left with in the second part of the night,

714
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,320
you know, quite a period of wakefulness,

715
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:11,360
you again see this wake EEG.

716
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,560
And I don't remember them, but I must have, I must have been, yes.

717
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:18,800
So, when we look at it overall, not a brilliant night of sleep.

718
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,360
And my poor night's sleep is consistent with what's been

719
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:27,080
shown before in scientific studies that have compared sleep with

720
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,040
alcohol versus sleep without.

721
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,120
And scientists think that there is a connection between the extra

722
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:37,480
deep sleep that alcohol seems to cause when we first nod off,

723
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,240
and our lighter sleep later on.

724
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:42,880
Although alcohol gets you off to sleep faster,

725
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,240
and have a deeper sleep in the first half of the night,

726
00:39:45,240 --> 00:39:48,040
in the second half of the night there's a rebound effect.

727
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,160
You have fragmented, lighter sleep.

728
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:54,600
So it seems that booze doesn't really help you snooze.

729
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,960
But if you've had a lot to drink, then bad night's sleep is

730
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,960
likely to be the least of your problems.

731
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,200
Search the internet for hangover cures

732
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,400
and there are literally hundreds of suggestions,

733
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:16,120
from the familiar, such as vitamin C, coffee, water, to other

734
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:19,800
things such as Marmite, sauerkraut and even charcoal tablets.

735
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,040
But despite the huge public interest there's actually been very

736
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,440
little research into hangover remedies,

737
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:29,080
which is why perhaps everyone has their own favourite.

738
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:32,360
When you get home at the end of the night, drink loads of water.

739
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:34,000
Cooked breakfast and fat Coke.

740
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,080
So what is the best remedy for a hangover?

741
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,920
Well, we're going to try and answer this question once and for all.

742
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,520
'I'm meeting hangover expert Dr Richard Stephens.'

743
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:47,200
Oh, right, what have we got here, then?

744
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:49,320
'He's selected two hangover remedies for us

745
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:53,160
'to test that apparently have more science to back them up than most.

746
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,360
'One over-the-counter supplement that can be taken before drinking,

747
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:00,280
'the other for the morning after.'

748
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,720
Richard, this I recognise, good old fry-up.

749
00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:08,440
- That's right. 
- What is this? Looks like it's got a hangover today?

750
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,040
So this is borage, so borage is a herb

751
00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,440
and from these flowers come seeds.

752
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:18,200
Here's...we've got some seeds here, and we extract oil from the seeds,

753
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,160
- sometimes known as starflower oil. 
- Right.

754
00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:22,640
And that's what we've got in these capsules here.

755
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,480
You know there are a lot of people out there selling

756
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,720
- hangover remedies. 
- Yeah. 
- OK, mostly junk in my opinion.

757
00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:33,760
However, there is some research behind taking one of these

758
00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:35,760
capsules as a hangover remedy.

759
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,360
- Just the one? 
- Just one capsule, that's the standard dose.

760
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:42,040
- Oh, right. Why does this work? 
- OK, for the nation's favourite hangover remedy, probably,

761
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:43,240
a good old fry-up.

762
00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:46,800
So there is some evidence that one of the biological

763
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,440
- underlyings of a hangover is a drop in glucose. 
- Right.

764
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,400
So if you have one of these the next morning

765
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,240
when you've got a hangover, that's got a lot of sugars in it.

766
00:41:54,240 --> 00:41:56,360
- Yes, it does. 
- That will restore those sugars.

767
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,720
So, tonight, we're going to get some volunteers,

768
00:41:59,720 --> 00:42:03,360
we're going to be dosing them up with alcohol to a set

769
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,640
blood-alcohol level, and then we're going to see what their hangover

770
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:10,320
is like in the morning and whether these have made any difference.

771
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,480
I know which group I'd like to be in.

772
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:13,640
I'd be with you!

773
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:18,640
To test these two hangover remedies is going to require

774
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:20,360
some serious drinking.

775
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:26,120
And I thought where better to organise a piss-up

776
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:27,600
than in a brewery.

777
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,880
This is Arkell's Brewery in Swindon.

778
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,480
And we've invited the workforce to take part in Richard's experiment.

779
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,000
Team Green, if you could put one of these armbands on, please,

780
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:45,080
thank you very much.

781
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,880
We're first splitting up the volunteers from the workforce

782
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,400
into three separate groups.

783
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,640
It's terribly big.

784
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:53,640
Blue Team, you are our breakfast group,

785
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,040
you will be having the fry-up in the morning, good?

786
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:57,080
Yes.

787
00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:00,520
Yellows, you are our control group.

788
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:02,600
- I'm afraid you're not getting anything. 
- Yay!

789
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,800
Yeah? And Greens, you've guessed it, you are going to be the borage

790
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,920
group, so you're going to get some borage before you start drinking.

791
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:10,160
Hurrah!

792
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:12,800
Great, let's go.

793
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:17,720
Whereas the fry-up is designed to replenish low glucose levels

794
00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,720
and is eaten after we have felt the effects of alcohol,

795
00:43:20,720 --> 00:43:24,480
borage is taken before drinking as a preventative measure.

796
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:25,920
Down the hatch.

797
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,240
And relies on the fact that its rich in a particular fatty acid

798
00:43:30,240 --> 00:43:32,560
that's an anti-inflammatory.

799
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,600
- OK, drink away, enjoy. 
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

800
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:47,040
According to research, around one in five of us have hangover immunity.

801
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:51,120
We don't get hangovers at all, and scientists aren't sure why.

802
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:52,760
OK, time for your breathalysers.

803
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:58,600
'But the average man drinking nine-and-a-half units or shots of spirits...'

804
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,840
- 96. 
- 96.

805
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,840
'..or the average woman drinking six units or six shots

806
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:08,920
'will probably achieve a blood alcohol level high enough

807
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,720
'to give them a hangover the next morning.'

808
00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:13,880
- 74. 
- So it's hardly gone up?

809
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:16,320
- Hardly gone up. 
- So I can have another double?!

810
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:19,920
104, 104.

811
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,200
Perfect. Right where we want you.

812
00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:26,800
It's time for some taxis home.

813
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,680
Richard, it's the end of the night and I think we've achieved

814
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:32,840
some good high alcohol levels there, have we?

815
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:36,880
We have, so we were aiming to dose our volunteers to

816
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:41,560
0.10% blood alcohol, so we gave them specific amounts of alcohol

817
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,800
based on their body weight and if they're a man or a woman,

818
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:47,280
to achieve that and we adjust a little bit as we go along.

819
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:49,240
We give them a drink, we breathalyse,

820
00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:51,800
I think we pretty much got there for everybody and got them

821
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:55,840
- pretty much where we wanted them to be. 
- So we're set to have some hangovers in the morning?

822
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:57,880
We should see some hangovers in the morning.

823
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:05,680
It's 7.30am, our fry-up group have managed to make it to

824
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,840
the breakfast table, but, as Richard predicted, they're feeling

825
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:10,600
a bit worse for wear.

826
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:12,720
- I've got a bit of a headache. 
- Same.

827
00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:14,240
I just need my bed.

828
00:45:14,240 --> 00:45:18,120
According to scientists, unless you're one of the lucky few,

829
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:22,400
the dreaded hangover affects men and women, old and young, the same.

830
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:26,800
So, has borage, with its alleged preventative qualities,

831
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:28,000
worked any magic?

832
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,680
- Good morning, how are you? 
- A little bit of a headache.

833
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,920
- Yeah? 
- Um, little bit, you know, just not quite right.

834
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:36,920
- Knock-knock, Alex. 
- Morning.

835
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,120
- How are you? 
- Not bad, thanks.

836
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:40,640
What group were you in last night?

837
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,240
I was on borage.

838
00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:45,600
'There's no magic way of measuring someone's hangover.

839
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,080
'This questionnaire is the best that scientists have come up with.'

840
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:52,040
Headache, yes.

841
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:53,440
Thank you.

842
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:55,920
And after the fry-up group have had their breakfast

843
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:58,160
they fill in the hangover questionnaire as well.

844
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,240
'I'm catching up with our expert Richard Stephens to find out

845
00:46:02,240 --> 00:46:03,600
'the results.'

846
00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:07,120
So what did our demonstration show?

847
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:10,000
OK, so if we look at the control group,

848
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,680
all six of them had a hangover.

849
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:14,400
- Right. 
- OK.

850
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:18,360
We look at the fry-up group, five of the six had a hangover,

851
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:19,720
one said they didn't.

852
00:46:19,720 --> 00:46:23,160
In the borage group, three had a hangover and three didn't.

853
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:24,480
OK.

854
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:25,760
- Cheers. 
- Cheers.

855
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,000
So, in the experiment, none of the volunteers in the control

856
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,320
group escaped the hangover.

857
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,080
In the fry-up group, after eating their breakfast,

858
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,400
just one reported not having a hangover.

859
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:41,360
And in the borage group,

860
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,680
three volunteers felt they had no hangover.

861
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,880
- A clear winner, then, surely? 
- A clear winner.

862
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:51,400
Well, I'm a scientist so I am sceptical, but we were replicating a

863
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:55,760
previous study which showed similar, so that's positive, and we know

864
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,840
that borage is an anti-inflammatory and we know that one

865
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:03,680
of the ways that hangover affects us is by an inflammation response.

866
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:07,000
So, OK, borage may have an effect on that mechanism

867
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,280
but, you know, probably no different to if you felt bad in the morning

868
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,600
and popped an ibuprofen, it could have same effect.

869
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,160
- I see. 
- So I don't think there's any earth-shattering effects here

870
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,760
but it's been an interesting demonstration.

871
00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:24,280
So, if borage works in the way that Richard thinks it does,

872
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,480
then it's probably still no better than the ibuprofen you might

873
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:29,200
be taking anyway the next day.

874
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:34,840
And it's certainly not 100% effective.

875
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:37,840
So what is it, then, come on, what shall we do for our hangovers?

876
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,720
If you don't want a hangover, don't drink too much!

877
00:47:47,240 --> 00:47:50,080
But apart from the obvious, not drinking,

878
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,560
is there anything else we can do to avoid a hangover?

879
00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:55,160
Don't go out with a biker!

880
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,240
Some hot stuff called Lavronitza.

881
00:47:59,240 --> 00:48:01,000
Oh, yeah.

882
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:03,680
From Czech Republic. You should never drink that.

883
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:05,720
Mixing drinks, definitely.

884
00:48:06,720 --> 00:48:09,920
Contrary to popular belief, there's no evidence that

885
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:14,280
mixing your drinks leads to a worse hangover, but there is

886
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,680
scientific backing for the idea that some drinks might give worse

887
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:22,680
hangovers than others, and it all boils down to how drinks are made.

888
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:28,600
Back at the brewery, head brewer Alex Arkell is showing me

889
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:31,080
one of the key parts of the production process

890
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:33,080
for the nation's favourite drink - beer.

891
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:34,800
So we've got one of our beer tanks here.

892
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:35,920
Wow, look at that!

893
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,640
And in here we've got fermenting beer, and you can see the yeast,

894
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,280
so that white foam is pure yeast.

895
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:43,440
Wow, and to be clear, you cannot make alcohol without yeast?

896
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,200
- Yes, exactly, you need yeast. 
- Wines, spirits.

897
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:49,560
You need to have a fermentation at some point to produce this

898
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,280
alcohol and then a couple of products down the line

899
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:55,200
- you might have your whisky or your vodka. 
- Incredible.

900
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,720
But we're making a base drink here, which is beer,

901
00:48:58,720 --> 00:49:00,200
and it's the best of the lot.

902
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:04,720
Into the lab.

903
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,240
But it turns out that the yeast cells produce other

904
00:49:09,240 --> 00:49:11,320
things besides just alcohol.

905
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:14,480
- So, when they're splitting, when the mother and daughter here... 
- Yeah.

906
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:18,160
..part of that process that's going on there is excreting congeners.

907
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:22,360
'Congeners are by-products of the fermentation process in which

908
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:25,120
'yeast converts the sugar into alcohol.'

909
00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:27,320
We ferment it at a slightly warmer temperature.

910
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:29,800
That means the yeast not only ferments and obviously

911
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:32,720
creates alcohol, but it also gives it a fruity flavour as well.

912
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:33,880
'So, on the plus side,

913
00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:37,520
'congeners are one of the things that give our booze its taste.'

914
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:39,200
It's not a flat flavour, that.

915
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,360
No, it's got a lovely... a lovely aroma on that one.

916
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:44,600
But the downside is that according to some research,

917
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:49,440
drinks with more congeners in them may make your hangovers worse,

918
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:51,760
and beer is by no means the worst culprit.

919
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,480
I've come to the labs of Kent Scientific Services

920
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:07,040
and, with the help of chemist John Griffin,

921
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:10,880
we're going to put ten of the UK's most popular drinks to the test.

922
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:16,240
We're going to analyse each drink for six typical congeners.

923
00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:18,560
- This is acid aldehyde. 
- Oh, crikey!

924
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,520
- I can imagine that would give you an hangover. 
- You can smell it in the air,

925
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:23,480
- it lingers as well, doesn't it? 
- Yeah!

926
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,880
And then at the end here we've got our amyl alcohols.

927
00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:28,880
Oh, that smells like a really off cheese.

928
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,480
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's very distinctive. 
- OK.

929
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:34,520
Research suggests that

930
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:38,120
although the main cause of a hangover is the alcohol, drinks that

931
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:42,840
contain higher amounts of congeners may produce more severe hangovers.

932
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:45,760
So which drinks have the most congeners?

933
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:51,680
Some results, John. OK, show me what we have.

934
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:54,640
Yes, at the top end we have the red orange ones, where we

935
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:58,840
had the highest level of total congeners per unit of alcohol,

936
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:01,520
so per 10ml of pure alcohol.

937
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:03,840
Yeah, quite a lot, this is the winner or the loser.

938
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:07,000
Red wine actually came out top, yes, er, 53, yes.

939
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:10,400
I mean, we've almost got twice as much congeners in the red wine

940
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:12,080
than we have in the ambers.

941
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:13,280
Well, we've got white wine

942
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,680
and, er, whisky, as well as the lager, the stout and the cider.

943
00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:20,440
This surprises me, certainly, because I always think about

944
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:23,440
white wine being sort of less toxic than whisky.

945
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:26,360
So in our tests, brandy

946
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:30,640
and red wine came out worst, with the highest amount of congeners per

947
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:31,800
unit of alcohol,

948
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:35,520
and in the mid-range were white wine, whisky and lager.

949
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:40,320
And the low-end ones, obviously, are the rums, gins and vodkas.

950
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:44,280
- Yeah. 
- Vodkas and gins have got no congeners in there at all.

951
00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:46,320
I knew there was a reason I drank vodka.

952
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:49,080
Well, if you're drinking white spirits there are no congeners.

953
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:52,880
It probably doesn't mean to say you won't get a hangover because you've still got alcohol

954
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:55,560
but there are no congeners in this to contribute to it.

955
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:59,080
It's incredible. Would it to be fair to say, then, as a rule of thumb,

956
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:02,160
- the darker the drink the more congeners? 
- Yeah, I think the whisky

957
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:05,280
and the white wine were the slight anomalies in that, but on the whole

958
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:06,600
I think the darker the drink,

959
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:08,560
the higher level of the congeners present.

960
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:12,360
- So drink a lighter-coloured spirit like vodka. 
- That seems to be what it suggests, yes.

961
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:14,080
- Cheers. 
- Cheers.

962
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:18,240
The potential effect from congeners in making your hangover worse

963
00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:21,840
is small compared to the alcohol itself.

964
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,040
That said, if you're going to drink, and you're particularly

965
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,840
susceptible to getting hangovers, then it may be a good idea to

966
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:31,800
opt for lighter-coloured, lower-congener drinks.

967
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:42,800
So far, we've found out lots about the science of drinking

968
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:47,960
but I want to investigate the new evidence for alcohol's health risks.

969
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:51,000
I think it's fair to say that the new alcohol guidelines mark

970
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:53,560
a big change in the traditional thinking, which is

971
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,320
drinking in moderation is completely safe.

972
00:52:56,320 --> 00:52:58,320
Now the message is that even drinking

973
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:01,320
small amounts of alcohol isn't without risk.

974
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,120
So I'm on my way to meet the Chief Medical Officer of England,

975
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:06,480
who, along with her counterparts in Scotland, Wales

976
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:09,720
and Northern Ireland, has proposed the new guidelines.

977
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:17,880
The last time the alcohol guidelines were revised was in 1995.

978
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:22,160
'So I'm keen to find out from Professor Dame Sally Davies

979
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:25,440
'why have the recommended limits changed so much?'

980
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:27,720
Professor Dame Sally, the recommendations have

981
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:31,920
come down quite a lot for men, from 21 units to 14 in the week.

982
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:33,600
What's the reasoning behind that?

983
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:35,920
Well, this is the first review

984
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:39,080
that's really in-depth for over 20 years

985
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:46,480
in this country and what it shows is how cancer is related to alcohol.

986
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:51,120
Everyone knows about cirrhosis, stroke, high blood pressure,

987
00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:54,960
but actually now we have to add to it the cancer risk, and by the time

988
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:59,080
you balance all of those out, if you want a low-risk guideline,

989
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:04,360
then for men it is 14 units in the week spread out over a few days.

990
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,840
It is quite a broad range of cancers that can be attributable to alcohol.

991
00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:11,720
- Yes. 
- So therefore you could say alcohol is a carcinogen?

992
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:13,040
It is.

993
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:16,640
Alcohol can damage cells and its breakdown products damage cells.

994
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:20,440
That can lead to cancer. Alcohol modulates hormone levels,

995
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:23,240
so, for instance, it changes oestrogen levels

996
00:54:23,240 --> 00:54:26,360
and that's probably why it raises the risk of breast cancer.

997
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:27,920
- So, take women... 
- Yes.

998
00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:33,120
..for every 1,000 women, 110 of us will get breast cancer.

999
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:37,800
If you drink up to this guideline, which is a low-risk guideline,

1000
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:43,120
then an extra 20 women will get breast cancer out of 1,000.

1001
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:48,760
Double that, and an extra 50 women out of 1,000 will get breast cancer.

1002
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:53,080
So it's very important that people know about the harms of alcohol

1003
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:56,800
and take their decision how they want to handle it.

1004
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:59,480
OK, and there is one small sub-group of the population

1005
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:02,160
that could have some benefit from drinking, is that right?

1006
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,160
Yes, it's women of 55 and older, my age group.

1007
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:09,360
If you drink, as a woman, up to five units in the week,

1008
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:12,040
as you go up to that five you protect your heart.

1009
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,760
If you drink above that you begin to lose that protective

1010
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:16,200
effect on your heart.

1011
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:18,760
By the time you get to 14 units in the week,

1012
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:23,280
you've lost the cardio protection. And the old wives' tale

1013
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:27,120
was that that was the case for all of us, men as well, and, first

1014
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:31,360
of all, the data isn't as robust as we all believed, now we've looked

1015
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:35,760
at it, and the second thing is, that it is a marginal impact on men.

1016
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:39,880
They'd have to drink less than half a glass on only a few days,

1017
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:43,600
- of wine, and I don't think people usually do that. 
- No!

1018
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:46,240
Um, and the other harms come in,

1019
00:55:46,240 --> 00:55:51,400
that if you balance out a low-risk guideline, sorry, it's 14 units

1020
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,600
spread over a few days in the week for both men and women.

1021
00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:57,640
Will you still be enjoying your glass of wine in the next five years?

1022
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:01,440
I will, I am quite open about the fact I like a glass of wine.

1023
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:02,600
I think for a lot of us

1024
00:56:02,600 --> 00:56:05,400
that explicit link between how much you drink and the risk

1025
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:08,440
of developing certain kinds of cancer is actually quite shocking.

1026
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,280
But if you stick to the new recommended guidelines

1027
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,280
your actual risk of dying from any disease attributable

1028
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:16,400
to alcohol is really quite low.

1029
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:17,960
Just 1%.

1030
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:21,560
But if you drink greater than the guidelines, your risk is greater.

1031
00:56:21,560 --> 00:56:22,960
It's as simple as that.

1032
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,760
And the good news is that there is some evidence that the extra

1033
00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:31,880
risks of alcohol-related cancers can gradually go down again

1034
00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:34,360
if you decide to stop drinking altogether.

1035
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:41,640
I've reached the end of a fascinating journey to uncover

1036
00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:44,600
the many truths about alcohol.

1037
00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:46,040
That's shocking to me.

1038
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:49,400
Along the way, we've learnt that alcohol isn't actually

1039
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:50,760
good for your sleep.

1040
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:52,920
Deep sleep disappears.

1041
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:56,400
And we've revealed its hidden appetising effects.

1042
00:56:56,400 --> 00:57:01,280
You consumed 11% more calories compared to the no-alcohol group.

1043
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:05,440
And that lining your stomach is always a good idea,

1044
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:07,040
however much you plan to drink.

1045
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:10,200
- Eight. 
- 21.

1046
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,200
In light of the health risks, some of us might decide to give up

1047
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:20,600
booze altogether and, certainly, all 40 million of Britain's drinkers

1048
00:57:20,600 --> 00:57:24,160
should probably pause for thought before reaching for another glass.

1049
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:27,320
But, personally, I don't think the British love affair with

1050
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:29,400
alcohol is going to end any day soon.