Alcoholism and Health

It is common for people to have alcoholic drinks during social gatherings. However, many of them do not know the health risk of alcohol.

Alcohol harm your health

Evidence shows that alcohol use increases health risks, even drinking low to moderate amount. They are:

  • malnutrition due to its lack of nutritional value (e.g. vitamin B deficiency);
  • overweight because of its high calorie content;
  • digestive system problems, such as oesophagitis, chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers;
  • liver problems, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis and even liver cancer;
  • high blood pressure and heart problems;
  • addiction to alcohol.

Excessive amount of alcohol consumed on a single occasion (binge drinking) can put you at risk of acute intoxication, accidental injury and poisoning, suicide, interpersonal violence and assaults. Each additional drink further increases these risks because increasing alcohol intake progressively impairs your ability to think and make decisions.

Alcohol: Group 1 Carcinogen

Cancer risk increases with alcohol intake. There is strong evidence that many types of cancers are associated with alcohol, which included oral cancer, laryngeal cancer (throat cancer), oesophageal cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer and female breast cancer.

Heart protection is not a reason for alcohol

Some people drink alcohol because they heard some controversial studies saying, mild to moderate drinking may have protect them from heart problem. Indeed, health harm from alcohol is well established, and non-drinker shall not start drinking for so called ‘health reason’. The better (and correct) way to protect your heart includes healthy diet, regular exercise and not smoking.

Try not to drink

We encourage total abstinence of alcohol. However if you have to drink, you should try to drink as little as possible. To minimize health risk:

  1. Do not drink alcohol on an empty stomach.
  2. Understand the strength of various alcoholic drinks
  3. Do not drive after drinking alcohol. It is illegal!
  4. Never insist others to drink.
  5. Do not drink if you have liver disease, peptic ulcer or heart disease..
  6. Do not drink alcohol while taking drugs.

Alcohol content of common alcoholic drinks

Type of alcoholic drinks Concentration of alcohol
Kao liang 60%
Brandy 45%
Shuang jin(rice wine),herbal wine 30%
Wine 10%
Beer 3.5%

Related information

To learn more about minimising alcohol-related harm, please visit our Centre for Health Protection's webpage on "Alcohol and Health" and the "Change for Health" website of the Department of Health.

If you find yourself drinking compulsively or becoming more dependent on alcohol, you need to seek help. You can check out for treatment programmes and support services for people with alcohol addiction from the links below.


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