Smoking Drinking Heart Disease Drinking Drinking alcohol in moderation is not likely to lead to harm, and indeed may be beneficial. Alcohol is best avoided in pregnancy, but the occasional glass is unlikely to be harmful to an unborn child or a baby being breast-fed. Using up all your allowance in one wild night out does the most harm to your liver. It's better to spread the units across the week.
Women are more at risk than men because alcohol spreads through the body differently.
As alcohol spreads through body fluids, it is diluted more in a man's body than a woman's. Alcohol doesn't warm you up. Even though it raises your pulse and blood pressure, so making you feel warm, it causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate and the body to lose heat. Your liver will eliminate roughly one unit of alcohol per hour. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites.