Alcohol--it's more than the liver.
In the last year, excessive alcohol consumption and its associated medical and social consequences have emerged as one of the major health concerns in the UK. In 2007, the Alcohol Health Alliances UK, a coalition of 24 organizations consisting of medical bodies, patient representatives and alcohol health campaigners, was formed with the objectives of highlighting the magnitude of this problem and to propose evidence-based solutions to overcome it through engagement with key decision-makers. The statistics for alcohol-related harm are worrying. Over the last decade, the number of hospital admissions attributed to alcohol has doubled with alcoholic liver disease admissions increasing at the fastest rate.1 The financial cost is staggering. The Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy Unit estimated the cost to the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales of treating alcohol-related conditions to be up to £1.7 billion per annum.2 This statistical data focused on alcohol-specific disease conditions, namely, mental and behavioural disorders, liver disease and toxic effects of alcohol.

Publication by Kerr et al. 3 in this issue adds another dimension to this growing problem by highlighting the potential detrimental health effects of …