The Truth About Alcohol

Alcohol in History

Alcohol has been a part of human culture for at least 7000 years, with the ability to metabolize alcohol going back even further to our shared ancestor, the bonobo at least 7 million years ago. Though our metabolic ability is more likely to do with processing fermented produce, once alcohol was introduced to our diets, humans were hooked.

Today, we celebrate turning the legal drinking age with elaborate parties dedicated to overconsumption. Happy hour was invented thanks to our proclivity for an after-work drink. “Wine mom,” and “mommy’s happy juice” is printed on mugs and tea towels you can pick up at your local TJ Maxx or Target stores across the world.

There is no doubt that alcohol consumption is a normalized and accepted activity in most cultures, but it is rare that we investigate the true affects of alcohol on our bodies and minds.

What is alcohol?

Alcohol encompasses a huge variety of consumable liquids that have an inebriating effect on your brain. Though it can come in many different forms, the main psychoactive ingredient common in all forms of alcohol is called ethanol. Ethanol is the ingredient that makes you drunk.

Ethanol is the byproduct of yeasts that digest sugar in carbohydrates. For example, grapes are fermented by these yeasts to produce wine while barley or grains are fermented to produce beer.

It’s a simple process, similar to how we produce fermented foods like sourdough, kimchi, kombucha, cheese, and more. Many of these foods can and should be part of a balanced, healthy diet, so what makes alcohol any different? While these foods contain probiotics, beneficial bacteria that aid your digestion, alcohol has been fermented to the point of being devoid of probiotics.

Because of its potency, alcohol is a toxic environment to any bacteria, and can have similarly damaging effects on your body.

How Alcohol Affects Your Health

the Liver:

Your liver has a vital job in your body- to process and neutralize any toxic substance you consume day-to-day as well as produce bile which digests fat and carries waste out of your body through your digestive system. Your liver prevents these toxic substances from reaching your blood stream.

Because alcohol is a toxic substance processed by your liver, the liver is uniquely vulnerable to damage incurred from frequent or binge drinking.

Fatty liver disease is a common illness which is characterized by increased fat cells within the liver. Fatty liver develops gradually and affects 90% of people who drink more than 1/2 ounce of alcohol per day which is even lower than what is considered “moderate” drinking.

Cirrhosis is another common disease linked to heavy drinking, especially binge drinking. Binge drinking can cause a lot of inflammation in your liver as it struggles to process excess amounts of alcohol.

This inflammation can actually kill off liver cells, which scar over, leading to cirrhosis. This disease in irreversible and can often necessitate an organ transplant in advanced or severe cases.

In many cases, excessive alcohol use can have similar effects on the body as being obese or overweight. Read more about those here.

the Brain:

The most obvious way that alcohol affects the brain is by making you drunk. Although the inebriating effects of alcohol are only temporary, chronic abuse can eventually lead to permanent, irreversible damage to the brain.

Moderate to severe consumption can result in an overall reduction in brain volume. Alcohol use can also disrupt your brains neurotransmitters, which are essential to our ability to communicate both within the body and externally with other humans.

Both the shrinkage and neurotransmitter damage can eventually lead to an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in middle aged and older adults.

Finally, alcohol is a depressant. Research indicates that people with depression often turn to alcohol as a way to self medicate, but that the effects of alcohol can actually make symptoms worse. Further, alcohol impairs the efficacy of medications used to treat depression and can actually have dangerous interactions with them, leading to suicidal ideation.

How Alcohol Affects Your Weight

Not only does alcohol impact your organs, alcohol can also impact your weight, potentially leading to other related health issues associated with weight gain.

Alcohol as a nutrient packs a whopping seven calories per gram, second in calories per gram only to pure fat. Not only is alcohol calorie rich, it is actually prioritized by the metabolism when you consume it. Your body burns it before anything else, including the glucose and lipids you get by consuming carbs and fats.

What this means is that while your body is burning alcohol, it is storing the glucose and lipids as fat in your body, leading to weight gain.

Not only is alcohol causing weight gain on a cellular level, it is also lowers your inhibitions and causes poor decision making. If you’ve ever hit the McDonald’s drive through after a night out, you know this to be true. Further, a hangover continues these effects the next day, causing you to skip the gym or indulge in greasy foods to “soak up” the remaining alcohol.

How Alcohol Affects Your Sleep

Many people use alcohol as a sedative, as it can cause you to fall asleep faster. What these people don’t realize is that alcohol actually negatively impacts your quality of sleep. Initially, alcohol acts as a depressant on your central nervous system. However, this only lasts for the first few hours of the night.

Alcohol use can actually cause you to wake up more frequently during the night. Additionally, alcohol can reduce the time you spend in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when dreaming occurs. This is the time of night when you are in deepest sleep, and when your body is spending time doing important things like cellular repair and creating memories. REM sleep is also linked to concentration.

Chronic sleep issues eventually lead to a higher risk of death and diseases like dementia. Sleep architecture is extremely important to your overall health and wellness. Further, sleep can be an important component of weight loss or weight management.

Rethinking our relationship with alcohol.

Sober-curious is a newer term that has been increasingly present in our cultural zeitgeist. Many people are beginning to question and analyze their relationships with alcohol, and for very good reason.

Whether you’re on a weight loss journey or just trying to improve your overall health, examining your relationship with alcohol and cutting down or cutting it out completely may be the key to better health and more life satisfaction.

It can be hard in a culture that is so centered on alcohol to think about giving up drinking, but there are many resources out there to help you.