Professionally successful men are coping with their stressful lifestyle by consuming above average amounts of alcohol, a study has shown.

Top executives are drinking the equivalent of almost three bottles of wine a week, which is above the recommended weekly limit of 21 units for a male and 14 for a female.

Lawyers, doctors, accountants and other professional men are also consuming above average amounts of alcohol 20 units a week according to figures from the Office of National Statistics in UK.

According to the two ONS reports, 'Smoking and Drinking Among Adults 2006' and 'Drinking: Adults Behaviour and Knowledge 2007', almost a quarter of Britain's 42 million adults exceed the weekly alcohol limits.

The ONS report, quoted by The Independent daily on Thursday, said that about 10 million people in UK across all social classes are drinking beyond the recommended weekly limit.

"Over the last 20 years middle-class families particularly have moved alcohol from the fringe of their lives to the centre of it. Because it so available they are drinking almost on a daily basis," Frank Soodeen, of Alcohol Concern, was quoted as saying by the British daily.

The ONS said it had earlier underestimated the amount of alcohol people were consuming, with the real amount up by 32 per cent. It also showed that four in 10 men and a third of women exceeded the daily limits at least once a week.