Q: I'm worried my husband is drinking too much. When I tackle him about it, he tells me not to be stupid and says he can't sleep without a drink. Should I be concerned?

A: The currently-advised safe values for alcohol intake are 28 units for a man and 21 units for a woman per week. One unit of alcohol is half a pint, one glass of wine or a pub measure of spirits.

My feeling is that these limits are not set with a large safety margin - they're pretty accurate and if you're drinking more than that over a long period it will affect your health. Anyone who drinks and becomes angry, aggressive or antisocial is a problem drinker. Sadly, alcohol is a major cause of relationship breakdown.

If alcohol is used to aid getting off to sleep there could be a problem - alcohol is a stimulant in low doses and while it can help to initiate sleep that sleep tends to be less restful and shorter-lived than normal sleep. The message is that alcohol is a useless sleeping draft in the long run.

If you think someone is in denial about their alcohol intake (as is often the case), ask them about drinking in a different way: how much does it take to get you drunk; how many times a week do you drink alcohol, how many of those times do you end up tipsy? These questions usually yield an accurate picture of alcohol intake.