How Alcohol Can Speed Up Aging

Drinking alcohol dehydrates your skin as your kidneys go into overdrive trying to flush out the excess liquids. “Drinking a lot of water alongside alcohol intake is advised to ensure you counteract the dehydration that alcohol may inflict,” says Dr Liakas. One of the least offensive alcohols for your skin is beer. “Alcohol is a toxin with very little nutrient value,” says Dr Liakas.

Women get a higher concentration of alcohol in their bloodstream and brain chemistry. Women are typically smaller in stature and size which explains why women often feel the effects of alcohol so much faster than men. According to the US Government Dietary Guidelines, a moderate level of drinking is up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men.

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Looking to combat your grey complexion after a few too many? We spoke to the experts about the effects of alcohol on skin, why drink causes these issues and how you can lessen the damage.

• Alcohol negatively impacts your sleep cycles and prevents you from getting that deep REM sleep.
• Our reviewers consistently monitor the latest research from SAMHSA, NIDA, and other reputable sources to provide our readers the most accurate content on the web.
• What people recovering from alcoholism need to know about osteoporosis.
• In other words, the same amount of alcohol can have a greater effect on an older person than on someone who is younger.
• The damaging effects of alcohol on skin and aging wreak havoc on your health and could make you look and feel older than you are.

Alcohol widens blood vessels, causing redness in the face. Usually, this redness and puffiness goes away a few hours or a day after drinking. However, consistent overconsumption of alcohol can create permanent red, spidery veins on the face. Combined with the wrinkles the alcohol is also causing, this leads to premature aging.

It Can Slow Your Brain

Alcohol used with large doses of acetaminophen, a common painkiller, may cause liver damage. If you take aspirin and drink, your risk of stomach or intestinal bleeding is increased. There are both inpatient and outpatient rehab facilities that can tailor to your lifestyle, like if you’re working or have children or other people you remain a guardian to. The caloric intake from drinking can contribute to Sobriety obesity, which is another leading cause of type 2 diabetes. In fact, there is a direct correlation in higher waist sizes and the chance of having diabetes. To make matters more difficult, studies have found that older people are less likely to receive alcoholism as an out-of-the-gate diagnosis than younger people. This problem can boil down to how difficult it is to identify alcoholism in a senior.

Less water is retained as kidney function decreases, too. This is why dehydration is such a big issue among seniors. Alcohol contributes to dehydration, so when paired with less water in the body in the first place, it can create a damaging combo for seniors. CDC works with other federal agencies to prevent excessive alcohol use. The NIAAA define binge drinking as consuming approximately five or more alcoholic drinks for men, and four or more drinks for women, in one sitting.

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As discussed earlier, one of the large reason why seniors are more sensitive to alcohol is because elderly people have less water in their bodies. Drinking alcohol—especially in excess over a long period of time—only makes matters worse. Alcohol also stops the liver from breaking down and releasing sugar as it is busy breaking down the alcohol you consumed. A long history of this can have long-lasting damage on your liver. This also results in higher blood glucose levels throughout your body, which is a leading cause of type 2 diabetes.

This applies to everyone, whether you’re drunk or sober. We’ve all been there but this really is important when it comes to looking after your skin. The alcohol content or ABV is generally higher in dark liquor too and according to Dr Ana, dark liquors have, ‘the highest alcohol content,’ meaning their effect on skin can be much worse than others.

These symptoms could be mistaken for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. For people with diabetes, drinking affects blood sugar levels. Most people know and understand that alcoholism is a disease and the long-term effects can be detrimental to your health. Long-term heavy drinking can lead to liver disease, brain damage, heart disease and even contribute to breast cancer.

Skin Changes And Alcohol

Have medical, social, or financial worries caused by drinking. Cold and allergy medicines often make people sleepy; when combined with alcohol this drowsiness can be worse. Of the study participants, 134 had alcoholism and 121 did not. The participants’ age ranged between 41 and 85 years old. Drinking alcohol is widely accepted in the Western world, but few people are probably aware of the damage that alcohol can do on a biological level. Additionally, male pattern baldness did not seem to be influenced by drinking and smoking.

“Also, caffeine slows down the healing process that affects your health significantly,” she says. “Many caffeinated beverages also include high amounts of sugar and daily products that again result in premature aging.” “Apart from it, sugars also cause low-grade chronic inflammation that increases your risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and hence making you develop serious illnesses at an early age,” she says. Scientists continue to study alcohol’s effects on people and to look for new ways to treat alcoholism. This research will increase the chance for recovery and improve the lives of problem drinkers.

Translational Medicine Of Aging

This is a similar rate to elderly people being admitted to the hospital because of heart attacks, which can also be caused by prolonged alcoholism. CDC also works with many national organizations, including the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America external icon, to prevent excessive drinking. CADCA, in turn, works with its member coalitions to translate effective strategies for preventing excessive alcohol use into practice at state alcohol and ageing and local levels. “Too much caffeine dehydrates the body, causes inflammation, and result in loss of collagen,” says Lawson. “All of these factors collectively form wrinkles and acne. The heavy consumption of caffeine decreases the amount of newly formed collagen in the skin cells and thus makes you age faster.” First, the body metabolizes the alcohol from an enzyme in the liver, which releases a byproduct called acetaldehyde.

Even drinking a small amount of alcohol can impair judgment, coordination, and reaction time. It can increase the risk of work and household accidents, including falls and hip fractures. Great Uncle George may have always liked his liquor, so his family may not see that his drinking behavior is getting worse as he gets older. Grandma Betty was a teetotaler all her life-she started having a drink each night to help her get to sleep after her husband died. Now no one realizes that she needs a couple of drinks to get through each day.

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Like cocktails, white wines high sugar content can also lead to dull, sallow skin and puffiness – the last thing you want for your face. Excessive alcohol consumption, especially of distilled alcohol, is responsible for higher mortality rates and lower life expectancy for men in Eastern Europe, especially the former Soviet Union. The editorial staff of DrugAbuse.com is comprised of addiction content experts from American Addiction Centers . Our editors and medical reviewers have over a decade of cumulative experience in medical content editing and have reviewed thousands of pages for accuracy and relevance. Our reviewers consistently monitor the latest research from SAMHSA, NIDA, and other reputable sources to provide our readers the most accurate content on the web. The content on DrugAbuse.com is brought to you by American Addiction Centers , a nationwide network of leading substance abuse and behavioral treatment facilities. Miami real estate agent Alina Freyre said she and her husband, Andy Freyre, stopped drinking two years ago.

In 2014, alcohol sales—which include beer, wine, liquor, and other alcoholic beverages—totaled nearly $225 billion. The following year, more than 15 million Americans over the age of 18 reported having Alcohol Use Disorder , known more commonly as alcoholism. That number reaches even higher among people who haven’t reported the disease or have yet to see a doctor for a diagnosis.

Think of alcohol’s free radicals as little “darts”—they ingest collagen, poking little holes in those fibers. And when you lose collagen the consequences are fine lines, wrinkles and laxity.