I’ve heard that drinking beer can improve your bone health. Is this true? It is possible. Research from Tufts University in Boston looked at the bone density and diet histories of more than 2,000 men and women over the age of 60 and found that men who drank one to two 365ml bottles of beer a day had higher bone density than non-drinkers.

This was after having taken into account factors such as the amount of calcium they were eating and drinking and their history of smoking, both of which can make a real difference to the strength of our bones. The exact reason why a small daily tipple of beer protects bones is not known, but it may be down to the silicon that it contains, a trace mineral that is particularly easy for our bodies to absorb in the form in which it comes in liquids.

Bone is a living tissue made of a protein-based scaffold on to which hard minerals such as calcium and silicon are deposited, like bricks being cemented on to a framework of steel. Having a regular daily supply of easily absorbed silicon could be crucial in maintaining the strength of this “brickwork”. Silicon is also in good supply in Fiji mineral water, and to a lesser extent San Pellegrino, and is also found in foods such as green beans, oats, muesli and melon.

Why is it that alcohol affects women more than men? Are we just smaller? It is more down to the composition of our bodies. Women have a higher percentage of body fat compared with men and less body water. So alcohol, which is water soluble, is more diluted in the body of a man, which means that they can drink more without feeling the effects.

The enzymes that break down alcohol, known as “alcohol dehydrogenase”, are mostly manufactured in our liver, although small amounts are also present in the stomach. It seems that men have more in their stomachs than women and so, while men begin to metabolise alcohol as soon as the drink hits their tummies, women are lagging behind and begin to break it down more slowly.

Why is it that I feel the effects of alcohol more at lunchtime than in the evening?  We make less of the alcohol-breaking enzymes during the day compared with the evening, which helps to explain why having a drink at lunch time has more effect on us than when we imbibe at 8pm, the time of the day when production of alcohol dehydrogenase is at its peak.

I think that alcohol affects me more when I’m premenstrual. Why is this? Research shows that hormonal changes experienced by women in their premenstrual phase can cause one drink to “act like two” in the body.

This is also true when either women or men are tired. Certain drugs also interfere with alcohol metabolism in our bodies and slow down the rate at which we can break it down. Aspirin appears to have this effect (worth noting if you drink when flying and are taking aspirin to help to prevent deep-vein thrombosis) as do ranitidine and cimetidine, taken for stomach ulcers.

Will drinking spirits give you less of a beer belly than lager? Probably not. The alcohol-breaking enzymes convert alcohol into acetaldehyde, which in turn is converted into non-toxic acetate and eventually fats, carbon dioxide and water. These fats tend to be deposited near to the liver which is possibly why heavy drinking leads to a characteristic “beer belly”.

Research from the Czech Republic, reputed to have the biggest beer consumption in Europe, has revealed that Czech men have stomachs no larger than other European chaps. We gain weight when we consume more calories than we need and where we deposit fat tends to be decided by genetics.

While a pint of lager or beer contains around 200 calories and two units of alcohol, two spirits with a slimline mixer will still provide two units of alcohol but half the calories. Sticking to your daily calorie needs, not exceeding 3-4 units a day for men and 2-3 for women and exercising regularly is the best way of avoiding a belly.

Which drink gives the least hangover?  We tend to think that not mixing drinks and sticking to “white spirits” such as vodka while avoiding those likely to trigger a headache such as port, brandy, whisky and dark rum as being the best way to avoid a hangover.

Medical research still does not understand much about hangovers. A large Danish study of more than 36,000 men and women could not link the severity of hangovers with the type of alcohol consumed, the frequency of binge-drinking sessions or even the amount of the alcohol that was drunk with meals. The bottom line is that if you want to avoid a hangover, stick to the maximum “healthy” drinking guidelines.