It’s no secret that alcohol isn’t exactly good for us.
In simple terms, it’s a poison. All the effects you may drink for, from relaxing in social situations to ratcheting up the silliness of a stag do, all come from our bodies being impaired by the booze in various ways.
Our livers also have to work hard to filter the poisons out and keep us feeling relatively healthy. Over time, our livers can get very worn out by the work, especially if you’ve been giving yours plenty to process.
Alcohol can still have long-term health consequences even with moderate consumption. That said, our own perceptions of ‘moderate’ are usually at odds with the medical advice.
The NHS recommends drinking no more than 14 units per week, with that total being spread over at least three occasions.
That amounts to around seven pints of 4% ABV beer a week. In wine terms, a 12.5% ABV bottle will contain somewhere between 10 and 12 units.
While for many people it will be effortless to keep inside that limit, it’s easy to go over it if you’re regularly meeting friends at the pub or like to bookend your days with a glass of wine.
Along with following the medical guidance, listening to your body is a good idea. Long before you get a diagnosis of some alcohol-related nastiness at your GP’s, your body will be sending up some SOS flares in the hope you’ll notice.
Here are a few things to watch out for, and why they matter to your health.
Digestion problems
Alcohol limits your guts’ ability to absorb nutrients properly, diminishing the nutritional value of whatever you’re digesting at the time.
Along with nicking some much-needed vitamins and nutrients off you, alcohol can also inflame your digestive organs and cause some discomfort.
Pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting are all symptoms of alcohol messing with your guts, especially if you’re drinking moderate amounts. Of course, if you’re binge-drinking then nausea and vomiting won’t be surprising symptoms to contend with.
Alcohol can also play with your appetite. If you find you’re eating less and don’t feel much inclination to eat more, alcohol could be the reason for it.
Sleep disruption
Unfortunately for anyone who’s partial to a ‘nightcap’ to help them drift off, alcohol is absolutely awful for sleep quality.
You may fall asleep faster, but the alcohol will ensure your sleep isn’t as restful as it could be.
Any amount of alcohol in your system will disturb your REM cycles. These are sleep phases responsible for processing information from your day, and they’re what make long-term memorisation and learning possible.
Drinking directly inhabits that process.
We also dream during REM, and it’s vital for emotional processing too. In other words, if you’re experiencing stress, your body needs REM to process it properly. Without solid REM phases, you’re missing out on your body’s natural ability to help you deal with stress.
All that damage to your sleep quality also makes you feel less rested when you wake up, and that fatigue compounds quickly if you let it.
Emotional instability and memory problems
‘Beer fear’ is a common phenomenon that follows a drunken night out that’s typically married with memory problems.
As we’ve already covered, your memory and emotional processing are both affected by alcohol when you sleep, and waking up wondering what happened last night and feeling anxious about it are additional consequences.
Over the long-term, even moderate drinking can start having an impact on our overall memory skills, along with playing havoc with our moods and rationality.
If you’re noticing these factors affecting you on a regular basis, it might be alcohol-related.
Accidental weight gain
Alcoholic drinks are calorific. A typical pint of beer will have 208 calories in it, while a glass of red wine contains 133 calories on average.
Nothing dramatic when it’s just one or two, but if you’re out on the lash and drink five pints – a conservative estimate for some boys’ nights out – that’s 1040 calories on top of whatever else you’ve eaten that day.
And that’s before we consider the likelihood of ploughing into a 3am kebab after a night on the town.
Some alcoholic beverages are less calorific than others but, as a rule of thumb, alcohol can be about as bad for weight management as fizzy pop.
Your basal metabolic rate will vary depending on your gender, age, fitness level, size, and some genetic factors that are hard to pin down, but generally you’ll need 1500 to 2000 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight.
Regularly exceeding your basal metabolic calorie needs will lead to weight gain as your body clings onto those excess calories in case it needs them later.
Diet is increasingly viewed as the most important factor in managing weight, with exercise supposedly having less of an impact on your overall calorie burn than you might imagine.
If managing your weight is a concern for you, booze certainly won’t be helping to keep the pounds off.
Skin problems
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it actively dehydrates us as we process it.
Your skin is inevitably impacted by this, especially as it’s the body’s largest organ.
If you’re experiencing dry skin, breakouts, and other skin-related oddities, it could be down to alcohol drying you out.
Drinking water throughout a night on the lash is a great idea for limiting the severity of your hangover – which is also, largely, caused by dehydration – but it could also help to keep your skin clear.
Nevertheless, alcohol also increases puffiness and can accelerate wrinkle development.
If you’re worried about keeping your skin looking youthful, booze won’t be doing you any favours.
Featured Image Credit: Henrik Sorenson via Getty Images
Rachael Davis