If you drink it in moderation (about one glass a day), some studies show that it might be good for your heart. But too much can lead to an abnormal heartbeat and high blood pressure. So if you don’t drink, this isn’t a good reason to start. It’s a natural process called intrinsic aging, and it’s something you can’t control. Extrinsic aging is when your skin ages faster than it should because of your environment and how you live.
Are You Feeling Suicidal?
Moreover, the older you get, the more likely you are to be dehydrated. Even one night of heavy drinking can make your lines and wrinkles look more pronounced. It is never too late to get the help that you need for drinking. This is especially true when it comes to alcohol abuse and addiction. At Grace Land Recovery, we know the challenges that come harbor house sober living with addiction. That’s why we make it our goal to successfully treat every person that walks in our doors with a variety of traditional and alternative treatment methods.
- Changes in your body’s hormones can lead to difficulty sleeping as you age.
- Learn more in our guide to Overcoming Alcohol Addiction.
- Your diet is another factor that can affect your physical health as well as your mood and energy levels.
There are some things though that you can do to improve your overall health and well-being to counterbalance many of the effects of alcohol-related aging. Such actions can even revitalize the skin and body and help prevent physical aging due to alcohol use. Despite the fleeting euphoric sensation that comes with a buzz, drinking alcohol won’t help you cope with the stressful challenges that often come with aging. However, there are healthier ways to manage stress and boost your emotional resilience. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men should aim to limit alcohol consumption to two drinks or less a day, while women should aim for one drink or less.
Or perhaps you feel compelled to drink anytime you’re with certain friends. With age comes wisdom, but even older adults can be caught off guard by a drinking problem. However, you can always take steps to adopt a healthier relationship with alcohol.
The first thing you can do to reverse alcohol-aging is is mary jane a drug stop drinking. You can also begin detoxing to get any alcohol or other harmful substance out of your system. Cultural norms would have you believe that drinking is integral to certain activities, like a wedding reception, football game, brunch or night out on the town. It’s important to be aware that alcohol doesn’t have to be a part of those things, Dr. Oesterle says. In addition to affecting the liver, alcohol affects the brain, the heart, and both the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. One global study found that no amount of alcohol is completely safe and that alcohol was the biggest risk factor for disease worldwide.
It Can Slow Your Brain
The rest of the alcohol will leave your body through your sweat and breath. This can make your body smell like alcohol (11, 12). Dehydration can sap your skin of moisture and elasticity, leading to sagginess, dryness, and wrinkles. In other words, alcohol use can make you look old.
Alcohol can diminish the effectiveness of medications, and medications can amplify the effect of alcohol on the body. This is especially important as many adults are drinking in high amounts. Binge drinking is typically defined as consuming four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. Drinking alcohol may make you more likely to develop certain skin conditions, such as psoriasis, rosacea, and seborrhoeic or nummular dermatitis. Because dehydration from drinking can cause dry mouth, bad breath the day after drinking can also occur (2).
Myth: Being able to “hold your liquor” means alcohol is not damaging your body as much.
Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours. Events like retirement or bereavement can make you question your purpose in life. You might feel that your sense of identity was tied to your job or your sense of meaning stemmed from your group activities for recovery relationship with your late spouse.
The results show that the clock ticks faster among heavy alcohol drinkers but slower among light to moderate drinkers. Of course, rapid aging affects your physical appearance. Women who had 28 drinks or more per week had a 33 percent higher chance of developing the same syndrome. By adding extra stress to your body and depriving it of the nutrients it needs to rebuild, alcohol can place you years ahead in the aging process, and affect how you look. Some types of dementia and alcohol-related brain damage develop as your brain cells shrink.
If you were thinking it’s enough to swap out dessert for a cocktail to account for the added calories, think again. There’s evidence that alcohol affects your stress-response pathways, activating your fight-or-flight response and increasing your cortisol (your primary stress hormone) levels. A RAND corporation study found a 41% increase of heavy drinking (four or more drinks on one occasion) among women during the pandemic. If your loved one is willing to address their drinking problem, you can play a supporting role in their efforts. Again, it’s not your job to control their behavior, but you can assist them in identifying their triggers and finding ways to better handle them. An aging parent might push back on the idea that they have a drinking problem.
