New worldwide study shows that Irish women are pretty heavy drinkers

How often a week do you drink?

Once, twice... three times if there's something special on? Or more? We're often fond of the odd glass of wine or a G&T when out with the girls, but it turns out that Irish women are the seventh heaviest drinkers in the world. A global study, which was published in the Lancet Medical Journal saw that we like our booze more than women in other countries - and we even rank higher than men in Ireland when it comes to drinking, too. According to the study, which was carried out at the University of Washington, Irish women drink an average of three drinks a day. However, that could be because our one glass of wine is actually three alcohol measures. Lead researcher Dr Max Griswold said of the study:

"Previous studies have found a protective effect of alcohol on some conditions, but we found that the combined health risks associated with alcohol increase with any amount of alcohol. "In particular, the strong association between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer, injuries, and infectious diseases offset the protective effects for ischaemic heart disease in women in our study. "Although the health risks associated with alcohol start off being small with one drink a day, they then rise rapidly as people drink more."