Alcohol killing Indian men in Britain: study

Indian men in Britain are more susceptible to alcohol-related problems than white British males, according to scientific study published Wednesday.

The research found that deaths linked to alcohol were disproportionately high among Indian men here, and exploded the "myth" that Indian men did not drink much alcohol.

"The evidence is showing that for every 100 white British males that are dying from alcohol-related disease in the UK there are 160 Indian men in the UK dying," said the report's author, Dr. Gurprit Pannu.

"That's a massive increase. And on top of that what we see now is an increased admission rate to hospital."

Scientists believe the reasons behind Indian men's susceptibility to the effects of alcohol are biological and cultural.

Dr. Pannu said: "They have a different pattern of drinking. Sikhs, for example, drink spirits more than lager.

"With spirits, the alcohol consumption is higher and you are not going to get a full stomach like you do with lager."

The report urges the British government to provide more "culturally specific" advice to help combat the problem.

Dr. Pannu said it was a "myth" that Indian men were light drinkers.

"Historically people think that people from the Indian sub-continent drink less than people here in the UK but the evidence put together showed that this just wasn't true," he said.

The report, titled Alcohol Use In South Asians In The UK, was written for the British Medical Journal.

It was conducted by Dr. Pannu, a consultant psychiatrist who works in Sussex, southeast England.

His research was gathered at an international conference organised by the South Asian Health Foundation.

Dr. Pannu said: "The conference brought together a number of international experts in this area and we collected their findings for the editorial."