Drinking too much alcohol on occasion or over time can hurt your health now and later. By drinking less alcohol, you can improve your health and wellbeing. Even small changes can make a big difference.
Get Started with Drinking Less
More and more people are recognizing that drinking less is better for them. If you drink alcohol and want to drink less, these four tips can help:
Set Limits.
Know how much alcohol you drink now.
Decide how many days a week you plan to drink and how many drinks you plan to have. For instance, you might decide to only drink on one evening a week and have one drink.
Schedule alcohol-free days each week.
Count your drinks.
Knowing how much alcohol counts as a "standard drink" can help.
Manage your "triggers".
If certain people, places, or activities tempt you to drink more than you plan, you can limit your time with those people, in those places, or doing those activities. For example, instead of a happy hour event with coworkers, suggest catching up at lunch instead.
You may also want to remove alcohol from your home or places where you spend a lot of time.
Find support.
Ask for support from a friend, family member, health care provider, or someone else who will support your choice to drink less.
Your body can only process small amounts of alcohol. Excessive drinking can have short and long term health effects. Excessive drinking includes binge drinking, heavy drinking, underage drinking, and drinking during pregnancy.
Even moderate drinking may increase your risk of death and other alcohol-related issues compared to not drinking. Moderate drinking means having 2 drinks or less in a day for men and 1 drink or less in a day for women.
Not drinking at all may be the best option for some people. This includes people who are: pregnant, taking certain drugs or medications, wanting to reduce their risk of cancer, recovering from alcohol use disorder or cannot control their drinking without medical assistance.
