How many times have most of you succumbed to peer pressure, and ended up accompanying friends/family/colleagues to “celebration-worthy” evenings where you’d promised yourselves you’d call it a night at one drink, or you know maybe two? And, then those two drinks turn into a couple, and before you know it you are drunk (maybe not extremely drunk, but drunk nonetheless), and you end up going from the recommended 14 units a week to 29, or even more. You are probably nodding your head no, but even if you consider yourself just a social drinker and end up going out even 2 nights a week, it’s almost a given that you will most likely than not end up surpassing the 14 unit limit. Still don’t believe it? Do the math yourself – you go to a friend/relatives place and end up having a couple of drinks. You really think those 5 drinks were just that? Newsflash: No, signor. For unless you’re at a bar, who even thinks of measuring how many mls go into a drink, no? So are those 5 drinks really limited to just 30 ml (small) drinks, or do you in fact end up consuming somewhere close to 60-70 ml per peg? Yes, the realisation has finally dawned on you as you put two and two together and realised that you’ve actually clocked in somewhere close to the 14 unit limit in just one night.

And, while there is nothing wrong with drinking to your heart’s content, the only reason you should exercise a little caution is so that you don’t inch your way closer to liver cirrhosis in the long-run, or worse, alcohol poisoning in just a matter of hours. Your precious body can only handle about a unit an hour, and if you subject it to any more (especially a higher limit), you can end up losing control of your heartbeat, breathing and your body. If you end up throwing up, you run the risk of choking on it. Yes, and it gets worse. It can dehydrate you, cause brain damage, lead to seizures, and so much more. You’re probably scared a little (or a lot), and you should be, so the one upside to this is that that not everyone’s body reacts the same way. Regardless, it’s always best to minimise your risk by keeping under the recommended limit.

Drink 8 units a day if you’re a guy, and 5 units a day if you’re a girl for even 2-3 weeks at a stretch and you run the risk of something called fatty liver. Yes, if you’re a girl/woman, anything with the word ‘fat’ attached to it seems like your worst nightmare, and it probably is. It’s when the liver turns glucose into fat and sends it ‘round your body to store as fat, and guess where it all goes? To your liver, which would most likely cause a small, but significant amount of discomfort to your stomach, and you’ll also end up feeling sick quite a bit, and no longer enjoy that Avocado Roll you used to swear by until recently.

Yes, early symptoms of liver damage include symptoms such as abdominal pains, diarrhoea, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Well, if you’re bleeding in the gut, notice easy bruising, are more fatigued than usual, have yellow (jaundiced) skin, and experience increased sensitivity to alcohol and drugs (both the medical and recreational kind), swollen ankles or stomach, vomit blood, or notice a sudden loss in appetite, well, it’s time to go see a liver specialist. If you don’t have one, ask family and friends for recommendations, or just come see Dr. AS Soin, the leading liver transplant surgeon in India to get your symptoms checked out.