BILLIONS of people the world over drink alcohol to overcome shyness and animate their social lives – as people have done for millennia. For most drinkers, alcohol is associated above all with relaxation and conviviality, and people forget about its darker side. Yet doctors, governments and healthcare agencies are becoming so concerned about the effects of alcohol abuse that in January the executive board of the World Health Organization agreed a plan to develop a global strategy to combat the damage alcohol can do.
The harm drinkers are doing to themselves, such as liver and brain damage, is only part of…
