Facts About Aging and Alcohol National Institute on Aging

The impact of addiction can hurt your appearance, which can make other parts of your life even more difficult. Use the information in this post to help you get or stay clean. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ You can also use the information to help spot someone who might be fighting their own battle with addiction. However, looking older and feeling worse rank near the top.

• Alcohol-related brain damage can be prevented by lowering your alcohol intake to no more than 14 units per week, spread across at least three days.
• We started skipping the cheese, and one glass would morph into two, and sometimes into a bottle.
• Heavy drinking over time can cause weight gain, which might result in the appearance of a double chin.
• This is why you may notice that the older you get, the more prone you may become to hangovers the next day.
• If you were thinking it’s enough to swap out dessert for a cocktail to account for the added calories, think again.

Alcohol Causes Oxidative Stress

Other health conditions and medications can also cause muscles to weaken or lose strength, which is why it’s important to get symptoms checked by a doctor, the experts note. “I think if you’re in your 40s or younger, and you’re starting to experience things like inappropriate pain or discomfort, those may be red flags,” says LeBrasseur. Early-onset arthritic issues can also accelerate aging of other organ systems, he adds. Exposure to UV rays causes inflammation and damage, which breaks down the connective tissue and collagen and elastin that help keep the skin nimble and thick, Friedman explains. “Your biological age is driven by the accumulation of different forms of damage to your cells and molecules, (or) the wear and tear the body goes through,” says LeBrasseur.

• As you get older, you have less water in your body and — for reasons that aren’t quite clear –you also feel thirsty less often.
• This can be the direct result of changes to the composition of the body and hormonal changes.
• You should ask yourself, “is this worth sacrificing my looks?
• Removing alcohol from your lifestyle can reduce the risk for obesity in some individuals and improve healthy weight management for people with Type 2 diabetes.
• This occurs when your body breaks down alcohol and creates acetaldehyde.
• Would you eat that entire box of donuts if you were sober?
• The MR analysis also found a significant association between genetically-predicted alcohol-use disorder and telomere length, equivalent to around 3 years of aging.

How does drinking damage the body?

If you’re someone that is a heavy drinker, chances are you have begun noticing changes to your body over time. 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 alcohol makes you look older becoming more serious. The results show that the clock ticks faster among heavy alcohol drinkers but slower among light to moderate drinkers. Alcohol misuse or alcohol use disorder is a pattern of drinking that can cause harm to a person’s health and social relationships.

• While drinking may help some people fall asleep, it ultimately leads to a less restful night’s sleep, which can be debilitating when combined with other menopause symptoms.
• In recent months, her one glass has turned into two or more, sometimes even a whole bottle.
• It also acts as a diuretic and encourages dehydration, which can make the skin dry and wrinkly.
• Alcohol is now the most abused substance among people over 65.

Alcohol Affects a Person’s Weight

One of the biggest ways that alcohol makes you look older is weight gain. This makes your joints stiffer and harder to move, making exercise even harder. Another way that alcohol abuse makes addicts age more is through accident and injury. We understand when an older person trips or falls and breaks a bone. However, younger people who injure themselves while drunk seem much older in their casts and braces. These injuries also make it harder to exercise, further aging addicts and creating an incentive to drink even more.

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. Some types of dementia and alcohol-related brain damage develop as your brain cells shrink. Over time, heavy drinking can lead to loss of judgment, focus, and memory. You may have more trouble regulating your emotions or managing your coordination.

How Else Can Alcohol Age the Body?

• Heavy drinking over a long time can shrink brain cells and lead to alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) and certain types of dementia.
• Tanning makes you look good, but it does more damage to your skin.
• Many people don’t realize that alcohol can alter your sleep patterns.
• Vitamin deficiency is most common in adults 65 and older.