DID you know that alcohol is not like food, so it doesn’t need to be digested? It actually gets absorbed via tissue linings of the mouth, throat, stomach and the small intestines.
Alcohol gets absorbed much faster when you consume it on an empty stomach. When you have your alcoholic drink with a meal, the food that you eat will delay the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream.
Your body detoxifies alcohol by having the enzyme gastric alcohol dehydrogenase react on it. However, only 20% of the alcohol is neutralized this way. The remaining alcohol will then go through the small intestine lining and end up at the liver.
Your liver is the main organ that metabolises alcohol by detoxifying it. The liver on average detoxifies one alcoholic drink per hour. If you drink a lot of alcohol in a short span of time, your liver will not be able to detoxify the alcohol quickly and efficiently enough. Hence, you’ll end up intoxicated.
Men and women have different ways of responding to drinking alcohol. Generally men have the ability to produce much more of the enzyme gastric alcohol dehydrogenase to breakdown alcohol. Because more of the enzyme is produced to neutralise the alcohol in the stomach, less of it is available for absorption into the blood stream by the small intestines. So a woman will get intoxicated faster than a man if they were to match and drink the same amount of alcohol.
However, there's something known as tolerance level. Anyone who drinks regularly, will inevitably develop a tolerance as the body naturally compensates by producing more of the liver enzymes to deal with the constant rate of alcohol in the blood stream.
Subsequently, the regular drinker will have to drink more alcohol as time goes by to have the similar mood and mind altering effects they once could drink to have a good time. It’s not just the mood that changes, but prolonged, heavy consumption can increase other health risk as well:
Cancers
Heavy drinkers have a higher risk of getting certain cancers. Studies show that alcohol drinkers have a higher incidence of mouth, stomach, liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancers. Breast cancer in women who drink heavily is also much higher compared to a woman who drinks less than 2 drinks a day. On top of that, researchers also notice that alcohol drinkers also tend to smoke, which compounds the risk of getting mouth and esophagus cancer, in comparison to people who abstain from alcohol and tobacco.
Heart Disease
Current research shows that infrequently having no more than 1 alcoholic drink for a woman and 2 alcohol drinks for a man in a day may not be damaging to our overall heart health. In some studies, it shows that very light use of alcohol can actually improve the cardiovascular health of a person, especially if they also embrace a healthy lifestyle.
Excessive drinking, on the other hand, can weaken and damage the heart muscle over time. Moreover, alcohol raises blood pressure rapidly. It's not uncommon for heavy drinkers to have a much higher risk for having a heart attack and a stroke.
Liver
As the liver is the primary organ for processing alcohol, it is no wonder that heavy drinking can cause this organ to falter very easily. Through the complex processes of metabolizing alcohol, the liver that is overloaded is unable to fully do its functions properly.
One function of the liver is in synthesizing triglycerides, which is fatty substances in the blood. Improper functioning causes fat to accumulate around the liver. Eventually the build up of fat around the liver results in scarring tissue that cannot be healed. That is when the liver develops cirrhosis, a type of hardening of the liver. Habitually, heavy drinkers have a higher risk of developing hepatitis, liver cancer and liver inflammation.
Brain & Mental Function
Alcohol depresses the central nervous system by slowing down the transmission between nerve cells. This can cause a loss of control of the person's voluntary muscles. For example, an intoxicated person may loose control of his lips, causing him to have slurred speech. His eyes will find it hard to focus and this can impair his vision.
Reaction of limbs also slows tremendously. That's why using machinery or driving a car after having alcoholic drinks is a no-no. Once the blood alcohol level reaches an alarmingly high rate, the brain can loose its ability to control the normal function of the heart and lungs.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Drinking alcohol while pregnant poisons the growing embryo as everything the expectant mother consumes passes through to the baby’s bloodstream. This can cause the expectant baby to get Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which causes mental retardation, damage to the central nervous system and heart defects to a newborn. This causes delayed physical and mental developmental.
You are advised to avoid alcohol throughout the 9 months of pregnancy and also while you are breastfeeding, as alcohol does enter breast milk.
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So what can you do if you still enjoy your drinks but are aware of the health risks? My clients found these strategies most helpful for them in finding that balance of moderation:
- Many of my clients have made it a point to not drink at home. This way, they enjoy an occassional drink with their meal when they dine out. It helps them tremendously, because the drinking no longer became a mood altering crutch as a means to unwind after a long day.
- Learn to sip slower on the occassions they do drink at social gatherings. Previously, a client of mine would instantly order another drink as soon as his glass was empty. It was just out of habit. Now, he pauses to consider ordering another one. Instead, he orders a large glass of water to have after his alcoholic drink. Eventually, his initial urge to have continuous drinks is gone. Over time of consistently doing this, he made the self-realization that he need not drink too much to enjoy the occasion. – The Vibes, April 5, 2021
