The many challenges that can arise at this stage of life — reduced income, failing health, loneliness, and the loss of friends and loved ones — may cause some people to drink to escape their feelings. As you age, the body’s mechanisms that protect you from free radicals diminish. Therefore, you’re at a greater risk of developing a wide range of health problems, including the neurodegenerative conditions that affect your cognition and memory. Many people don’t realize that alcohol can alter your sleep patterns.
Alcohol Affects a Person’s Weight
Now that I understand that alcohol is a depressant, I realise that although it might temporarily lift my mood, it would soon drop me down again. Many of the effects of alcohol on your appearance are reversible if you reduce the amount that you drink. Alcohol can have a variety of effects on our appearance, from the way your skin and eyes look, to your weight and body odour. When a person drinks large amounts of alcohol, it is easy to make poor decisions. He or she may stuff themselves with food or simply pass out in bed at the end of the night.
How alcohol affects your appearance
Make a list of your whys and look at them every single day. Many people quit smoking once the fact that smoking caused lung cancer was in the public domain. I believe the same thing will happen with alcohol and we are seeing more articles (like this one!) about the damage that alcohol can do. It was the combination of my breast cancer and increasing blackouts that finally convinced me that I had to stop damaging my brain and body. On top of this, the body and brain’s capacity to recover generally declines with age.
Your Alcohol Consumption
For example, you may notice unexplained weight gain or changes in your skin. In some cases, you may even notice that minor ailments due to alcohol consumption are now becoming more serious. Regular drinkers can trigger biological functions that make them age from https://ecosoberhouse.com/ the inside out. If you drink heavily or consistently, you could activate the aging process, putting you at risk of health conditions that typically affect older people. Some types of dementia and alcohol-related brain damage develop as your brain cells shrink.
- This doesn’t mean you have to train for a marathon or sign up for an expensive personal training program.
- That’s why you begin to lose elasticity and develop wrinkly skin, especially on your face.
- This is especially important as many adults are drinking in high amounts.
- Drinking alcohol is like pouring gasoline on our anxiety which is the very last thing we need.
Therefore, drinking alcohol can compound the natural effects of aging. First, alcohol deprives you of vital nutrients your skin needs to thrive. So, overdoing the drinks can make you look older than you are. Because drinking alcohol dehydrates you, it can leave you with a dull look and bags under your eyes from poor quality sleep. To help battle the effects of drinking alcohol, drink plenty of water when you drink alcohol to stay hydrated. Stick to the guideline units of alcohol and have consecutive non-drinking days.
Oral Health
We’ve been brainwashed for decades into believing that alcohol is fun, essential for socializing and will help us to relax. The combination of marketing and social pressure has left us with “false beliefs” about the necessity of drinking alcohol. We need to work on overturning those beliefs, and if you are ready to do that then read this article. It takes time and energy to build a new, alcohol-free identity if drinking has been a part of your life for many years. Drinking habits become ingrained and alcohol is addictive. However, breaking free is definitely worth the trouble, in my experience.
Alcohol Makes You Feel Older Than You Are
- Chronic stress can take a toll on the body and cause inflammation, which may speed up biological aging.
- The combination of marketing and social pressure has left us with “false beliefs” about the necessity of drinking alcohol.
- Heavy drinking can have a direct effect on certain parts of your body and on your mental health as you get older.
- Let’s also take a look at why, as you get older, drinking alcohol may affect you differently.
Zinnia Health understands how challenging it can be to stop drinking. We also know that it’s vital to seek specialized help for alcohol addiction, which can make you look older and cause a myriad of physical and mental health problems. Dehydration also affects your skin and nails, leaving them brittle and cracked, Volpicelli said. Long-term, heavy drinking can even lead to hair thinning and loss, especially in people who are malnourished from consuming almost all of their calories from booze. You might not be able to fully reverse some of the effects of alcohol-related aging naturally. 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.
Table of Contents
You could also stretch or do yoga to improve your posture. When you are sleeping, your body goes into a state of self-renewal and repair. Not getting enough sleep affects your skin, ability to concentrate and leaves you more susceptible to illness. There are does alcohol make you look older screening tools available to help decipher whether your drinking is a problem, like the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test–Geriatric Version (SMAST-G), he added. But clinicians should also be asking their patients about drinking behavior regularly.
- Because dehydration from drinking can cause dry mouth, bad breath the day after drinking can also occur (2).
- The first thing you can do to reverse alcohol-aging is stop drinking.
- Janet Gourand is a writer, a podcaster and a recovery coach.
- Combining alcohol and medication is also risky, and almost 90% of older adults are taking at least one medication regularly, Collier said.
It Can Affect Your Heart
“Heavy alcohol drinking might change the aging clock before one develops medical disease. Alcohol can affect the way your body fights off life-threatening illnesses like tuberculosis or pneumonia. Researchers are also studying the possibility that alcoholic liver disease might be caused, at least in part, by your immune system attacking healthy body tissues. When a person suspects a problem with alcohol, it is essential to seek help. With assistance and support, it is possible to return to a sober life and to enjoy a more youthful appearance.
Alcohol Can Make You Feel Older, Too
The downsides are that social events are often based around a drink and with people in a slightly altered conscious level. And I feel a bit left out with my clear head and feeling just totally normal. So far I don’t miss it and I’m not even tempted but I think you’re right – have a reason for not drinking ready.