Does alcohol shorten your life?
On average, yes, if you regularly drink above the low-risk limit, though no level of drinking is completely risk-free.
The more you drink, the more your life expectancy drops, from a few months at the lower end to several years at the top.
Much of that drop comes from damage that builds up over many years. This sometimes goes unnoticed because even serious issues like liver disease can give no warning in their early stages.
Some of the harm starts to ease within a month of stopping, but how much depends on how long the damage has been building.
Understanding the effects of drinking on life expectancy and health overall begins with its impact on the body.
How does alcohol shorten your life?
Alcohol can cause harm straight away, and over years of use.
Damage that comes straight away includes injuries and alcohol poisoning. More slowly, alcohol can damage organs such as the liver and heart, and raise the risk of cancer and mental health conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) says alcohol caused around 2.6 million deaths in 2019, including 700,000 from injuries and 1.6 million from long-term illness.
Alcohol poisoning can also be life-threatening, and when mixed with opioids or benzodiazepines, alcohol can slow your breathing to dangerous levels.
Call 999 or 112 if you think someone’s life is in danger.
How much does alcohol shorten your life?
A combined analysis in the Lancet looked at the results of 83 studies from 19 high-income countries. It compared people drinking up to 100g of alcohol a week with people drinking larger amounts:
- Those drinking 100g to 200g (12.5 to 25 units) a week had a life expectancy about six months shorter.
- At 200g to 350g (25 to 43.75 units), it was one to two years shorter.
- Above 350g, it was four to five years shorter.
The figures are averages across large groups, so can’t account for every individual.
What lower-risk drinking looks like
Does drinking alcohol shorten your life if you stay within the limit?
The risk is lower if you do, but there is no ‘safe’ level of alcohol consumption. The UK advice is no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days. Fourteen units is about six pints of lager or a bottle and a half of wine.
Countries disagree on what should count as a drinking limit. Ireland advises up to 11 standard drinks (10g of alcohol per drink) a week for women and 17 for men. Some European countries advise against drinking at all.
The long-term effects of alcohol on the body
The long-term effects of alcohol can damage most parts of the body. How alcohol affects your health long term varies from person to person. Women, for example, develop liver disease faster, and at lower drinking levels, than men.
Alcohol and the liver
Drinking can still shorten your life even when you feel well. Alcohol-related liver disease doesn’t always cause symptoms in the early stages:
- First, fat builds up in the liver, but it usually clears if you stop drinking.
- Next, the liver becomes inflamed, and some of that damage may still be reversible.
- The last stage is cirrhosis, where the liver is scarred, and that damage can’t usually be undone.
In the UK, 78% of deaths caused directly by alcohol in 2021 came from liver disease.
Alcohol and the heart
Alcohol raises the risk of high blood pressure and stroke. It also raises the risk of something called ‘atrial fibrillation’, which is an irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke.
If you stop drinking, atrial fibrillation can come back less often.
Long-term drinking can also damage heart muscle cells, and scar tissue can replace them, so the heart pumps less well. After you stop, how much your heart improves depends on how severe the damage was.
There is an old belief that a glass of red wine or two is good for the heart. But the European Heart Network says there’s no conclusive evidence that light or moderate drinking protects your heart. What’s more – according to the WHO, there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, let alone beneficial amounts.
Alcohol and cancer
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists alcohol as a known cause of cancer in humans. It can be implicated in at least seven types of cancer, affecting the mouth, upper throat, voice box, oesophagus (food pipe), liver, bowel and breast.
Your body breaks alcohol down into a chemical called acetaldehyde, and both alcohol and acetaldehyde can cause cancer.
No level of drinking is free of cancer risk. Even small amounts raise the risk of most alcohol-related cancers.
Alcohol and the pancreas
Acute pancreatitis is when the pancreas becomes swollen over a short time. In the UK, around one in four cases are caused by alcohol.
Most people recover, but severe cases can be life-threatening.
If you keep having attacks, it can become chronic pancreatitis, a serious long-term condition. Alcohol is the most common cause of chronic pancreatitis, but doctors don’t fully understand how alcohol causes pancreatitis.
Alcohol, mental health and suicide risk
Alcohol is linked to depression and anxiety. Many people drink to cope with low mood, and alcohol and depression can then make each other worse.
People with alcohol use disorder are also at a higher risk of suicide.
If you’re having thoughts of suicide, you can call Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or 112.
Alcohol and premature ageing
The question of whether drinking alcohol shortens your lifespan by making you age faster is still debated. Researchers are still working out whether alcohol speeds up ageing, and the evidence so far is limited.
What is the average lifespan of someone with alcohol dependence?
Alcohol can shorten your lifespan more if you have dependence. but , it’s not easy to give an exact figure of how much lifespan is shortened.
One large study in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden followed people admitted to hospital with alcohol use disorder between 1987 and 2006. Their average life expectancy was 47 to 53 years for men and 50 to 58 for women; 24 to 28 years shorter than the general population’s.
The difference may be smaller for other populations.
Can your body recover if you stop drinking?
Some improvements can begin within a month, other changes take longer, and some damage is permanent. Everyone recovers at a different pace, depending on how much and how long they drank and on their general health.
In one study, 94 people stopped drinking for a month. None had known liver disease or alcohol dependence. Their top blood pressure number fell by 6.6% and their bottom number by 6.3%. Their insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, fell by 25.9%.
If you cut down or stop, you can also lower your risk of cancer. Memory and thinking often improve too, though severe brain damage can leave lasting problems.
If you regularly drink a lot, stopping suddenly can be very dangerous. Never stop without getting medical help first.
"Addictive behaviours are not the problem itself, but a meaningful response to deeper pain, and that with the right support, those patterns can be understood, softened, and ultimately changed.”
When to seek help with your drinking
Talk to a GP or a specialist service if you:
- need a drink to feel normal
- drink to manage anxiety or to help you sleep
- drink in the morning
- hide how much you drink
- get withdrawal symptoms when you stop
- have tried to cut down and couldn’t
- keep drinking despite the problems it causes
How to get help with alcohol use
Alcohol addiction can be treated, and the right treatment depends on your needs. If you need to stop drinking safely, a medically supervised detox can help, followed by outpatient or inpatient treatment.
We offer both outpatient alcohol treatment and inpatient treatment at Castle Craig in Scotland and Smarmore Castle in Ireland. At both, detox is medically managed and on site if you need it, and continuing care follows once you leave.
Relapse is a common part of recovery from addiction, and treatment includes support to prevent it and to help you recover quickly if you drink again. If you’d rather start with your own doctor, a GP can refer you to an NHS specialist alcohol service.
If someone in your life is drinking too much
If you’re worried about someone’s drinking, you may wonder whether you could have done something differently. It’s important to remember that Addiction is an illness, and the people around someone don’t cause it.
Choose a time when neither of you has been drinking, then tell them what you’ve noticed and keep to the facts. Offer to go with them to the GP. If they aren’t ready to talk, leave the conversation open so they can come back to it.
Only they can decide to change. A conversation without blame makes it easier for them to ask for help.
Our team can talk through the situation with you and advise on what support might suit them. If they start treatment at Castle Craig or Smarmore Castle, our family support programme is open to you too. It includes online workshops for close family members. These are part of the cost of treatment, and you’re welcome to join even if you don’t take part in the family therapy sessions.
We’ve helped many people turn their lives around
Frequently asked questions about whether alcohol shortens your life
Do different alcoholic drinks, like wine, beer and spirits, differ in how much harm they cause?
Not by much, because any type of alcohol can cause cancer. The WHO says most harm comes from drinking a lot, either regularly or in single sessions.
Are there medications that help people reduce or stop drinking?
Yes, doctors can prescribe medicines such as acamprosate, naltrexone and disulfiram to help people cut down or stop. They help most as part of a wider treatment programme.
What are the most common causes of death in people with long-term alcohol dependence?
Liver disease, heart disease, cancer, accidents, and suicide are all among the leading causes.
How long does the brain take to recover from years of heavy drinking?
In mild cases, memory and other thinking skills often get better after you stop, though it can take time. In severe cases, the improvement can go on for two or three years. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says that, for people with more severe alcohol-related brain damage who stop drinking, one in four recover fully, half recover partly, and one in four keep severe problems.
What does 20 years of heavy drinking do to the body?
It puts the liver, heart, brain and immune system under strain, and raises the risk of several cancers and other dangerous conditions.
