Alcohol and ageing: Why hangovers worsen as you become older – and learn how to ease them

How alcohol impacts your physique

Christchurch registered nutritionist Victoria Biddick says alcohol has a “whole-body effect”.

“As soon as it hits our body, it travels to the stomach and then it is absorbed through the stomach lining into the blood. Within a couple of minutes it’s travelled to the brain and that’s when we get that warm, fuzzy feeling.”

The liver metabolises many of the alcohol you eat with an enzyme referred to as alcohol dehydrogenase. Women produce half as a lot of this enzyme as males, and genetics additionally performs a component, which is why folks’s potential to course of alcohol varies broadly.

The liver can course of roughly a typical drink – 10g of ethanol, the alcohol that we drink – in an hour. A typical drink might be a 330ml can of beer, a 100ml glass of wine or a 30ml shot of spirits.

“While the body’s dealing with alcohol, it’s prioritising it,” Biddick says.

“It’s not absorbing food, it’s not absorbing nutrients … it’s actually disrupting your whole metabolism and the way you break down energy.

“When your liver is processing alcohol, it’s not doing its usual job, which is to deal with fatty acids. That’s why at the more chronic end of drinking, you [get] fatty liver disease – it’s the build-up of those acids.”

Alcohol additionally suppresses an anti-diuretic hormone, so after we drink, we urinate extra and really feel thirstier as a result of we’re shedding fluids.

“It’s washing, affecting every cell in our body because it’s travelling through the blood. So it’s quite a big impact,” she says.

Alcohol can be linked to an elevated danger of coronary heart illness and a number of other varieties of most cancers.

“Women especially have a higher risk even [with] a small amount. Throat, mouth, intestine – it’s that kind of total inflammation on the body which we’re trying to avoid as we get older.

“It’s going to impact overall wellbeing, immunity. As we’re getting older we’re slowing down a bit, so everything is not as fresh and good as it was. That liver enzyme is not going to be quite as efficient at breaking things down,” Biddick says.

“[Men and women] lose lean muscle mass as we age and we’ve got more fat tissue, which means that alcohol stays around a bit longer, so it’s impacting cells in our body a bit longer … because we’re less efficient at getting it out of our body, we’re increasing the risk of what it can do to us.”

As we age, we’re extra prone to develop well being situations corresponding to coronary heart illness or kind 2 diabetes, the consequences of which will be exacerbated by consuming alcohol.

How a hangover impacts your physique

Hangovers have an effect on everybody otherwise and might really feel worse the older we get, Biddick says.

“I might have one drink on a Friday night and feel like I’ve got a hangover by 10pm, but others can get away with a bit more.”

The greatest hangover symptom for most individuals is a headache due to dehydration. While it received’t do an excessive amount of injury long run, dehydration is an indication that your physique’s being disrupted, she says.

“It’s triggering an immune response. So we might feel a bit foggy in the brain. We might have less concentration, poor appetite … it can irritate the lining of our stomach, [cause] a sore gut or worse still, vomiting. It can make your blood sugar drop, so you get tired.

“The other big thing is that awful disrupted sleep. It’s disrupting our circadian rhythm, so you wake up more, partly because you’re thirsty and you want to drink water. It’s impacting our body on all levels.”

How alcohol impacts your mind

Alcohol is a toxin, Auckland-based neurologist Dr Neil Anderson says.

“That’s why it has a direct effect on the brain, so that’s why when people get drunk, [it] changes their mood,” he tells the Herald.

“It particularly affects the cerebellum of the brain, which is the part of the brain that co-ordinates movement, so that’s why people stagger and are unsteady on their feet and fall over. And, depending on the dose, people can die from it if they have too much.”

An occasional drink is “not going to cause irreversible brain damage, at least on the clinical level”, he says.

“People who are alcoholics or drinking regularly, that’s a different mechanism, so if you do drink alcohol in excess long term, it does cause irreversible brain damage, particularly affecting the cerebellum.

“But it affects the peripheral nerves as well, so they get numbness and tingling and pins and needles and numbness in their legs.”

Heavy drinkers can even expertise malnutrition.

“They drink a lot of alcohol, but their diet is deficient because they’re getting their calories from their alcohol … you can develop thiamine deficiency quite rapidly if your diet is deficient.

“That’s the nutritional complication that goes with excessive alcohol intake.”

Severe thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency can result in Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, by which mind and nerve cell injury can result in confusion, amnesia or long-term reminiscence loss.

How alcohol impacts your pores and skin

Dermatologist Dr A.J. Seine says alcohol has “multiple effects” on our pores and skin.

“The blood vessels dilate, which means you get more blood flow to the skin, so that’s why people flush and get red. That can also have effects on conditions where they might be prone to flushing, like rosacea,” he says.

“Alcohol is known to cause inflammation and oxidative stress … that inflammation is accelerating ageing and collagen breakdown in the long term.

“[The] flushed face, very obvious capillaries and thickened skin across the nose can be more common in those who drink heavily.

“If you drink heavily, you’re going to look older, and that’s from that oxidative stress breaking down that collagen and the elastin, which then leads to the fine lines and the skin getting droopy and saggy … the skin does get more fragile and with that, you then get delayed wound healing.”

Alcohol additionally impacts our sleep, which is when the physique works to restore pores and skin and produce collagen.

“It really interferes with your sleep-wake cycle and what that’s meant to look like,” Seine says.

“It drops you to sleep pretty quickly, but you don’t get deep sleep, so you’re not getting that regeneration.”

The dehydration that comes with consuming alcohol leaves your pores and skin “duller, drier, less plump”.

“Because of all that, your pores become more prominent and that leads to a coarsening of skin texture which is associated with ageing.”

Skin situations corresponding to zits, eczema and psoriasis can all worsen from heavy consuming – although, in fact, these aren’t going to go away in the event you give up alcohol.

“We know that alcohol is a very strong trigger for rosacea. But in terms of other skin diseases, they still need to be managed in the more traditional ways,” he says.

The results can rely on the kind of alcohol you’re consuming. For instance, pink wine can set off rosacea as a result of it’s excessive in histamine and chemical compounds referred to as congeners.

An espresso martini could make the dehydration you get from alcohol worse, because of the caffeine. If you’re acne-prone, then sugary alcoholic drinks is usually a set off.

“We know that acne is made worse if you have high levels of sugar. So if you’re drinking a lot of cocktails, which generally have high sugar content, that can increase your oiliness and breakouts.

“Interestingly, clear spirits [like] vodka and gin are probably less likely to cause severe inflammation and severe hangovers because they’ve got fewer of those congeners … but because of the alcohol content, you can still get that flushing.”

However, the most secure possibility for pores and skin well being in relation to alcohol is much less quantity, Seine says.

“Everyone’s looking for the skincare hack over summer, and probably the best hack [for the] silly season and the party season is to really moderate your drinks and stay hydrated – and that can make far more difference than any expensive serum you might be buying off the shelves.”

Can you treat – or prevent – a hangover?

You can treat a hangover with time, plenty of water and bland food – but be careful with painkillers like paracetamol and aspirin.

“If you’ve got nausea and stomach pain, they can really aggravate it and potentially be quite toxic,” Biddick says.

Eating plenty before drinking alcohol can help prevent the impact of a hangover.

“When your stomach’s full, the alcohol can’t get through the wall of the stomach lining as easily, so it just slows the whole thing down … fatty snacks can actually keep alcohol in your stomach longer.”

If you are going to drink, Biddick suggests sticking with one standard drink an hour, drinking water in between.

“The problem is that our judgment weakens after one drink. So it’s all very well to say ‘I’m going to have five drinks tonight’, but the effects of alcohol are going to change how you feel about it.”

If you’re reassessing your drinking habits before the Christmas holiday period, she suggests aiming for “small, gradual changes”.

“The other thing to think about is what role is alcohol playing in your life. If you’re coming home and having a drink of wine every night, could you do something else? Go for a walk, sit and do some gardening, do something active with friends.”

Bethany Reitsma is a way of life author who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all issues well being and wellbeing and is keen about telling Kiwis’ real-life tales.