Hormones control practically every process in the body; the pituitary gland is the control centre and it’s here that several essential hormones are made. Everything from metabolism, growth, sexual maturation, reproduction, blood pressure, digestion and energy are controlled from here.

Hormones are crucial to your health so it is vital that they are working correctly.

When they are off balance it can lead to a variety of health symptoms. Similarly, too much alcohol consumption can impair the endocrine system that releases hormones as well as the areas targeted by the hormones and can disrupt bodily functions.

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Limit intake

Moderation is key and I would support the French studies that suggest limiting the intake to between three and six drinks per week. It’s important to create an awareness of alcohol. Going above the recommended amount is over-indulging and will have consequences on one’s health. Alcohol can cause weight with “empty calories” which means they have no nutritional value. It can interfere with medications by making them less effective or even useless and of course it can cause health problems such as fatty liver so it is advisable to stick within the recommended safe guidelines. Fatty liver can lead to type two diabetes, and inflammation and scarring of the liver. Binge drinking is very dangerous because the average person’s liver can only break down about one drink per hour. If you drink more than your liver can process you could be putting pressure on your heart, kidneys, lungs and pancreas. If you lower your blood sugar through binge drinking your heart will go into arrhythmia and you may not wake up. Also, there is a link between heavy drinking and stroke. A study, co-led by University of Galway, found that high and moderate alcohol consumption was associated with increased chance of stroke. The public needs to be educated about these possibilities. The good news is that many younger people – even college students – are moving away from binge drinking because of lifestyle changes such as hiking and sport.

Photography by Pawel Nowak, Hair by Trish Toomey for Hair Art 086-2045620, Make-up by Aideen Cleary, @AideenClearyMakeup
Photography by Pawel Nowak, Hair by Trish Toomey for Hair Art 086-2045620, Make-up by Aideen Cleary, @AideenClearyMakeup

Low mood

Alcohol also has a significant impact on your mood and emotions, which happens by slowing down your hormones. Dopamine and serotonin are mood boosters, and alcohol is a depressant, which affects these hormones adversely. Initially you experience a buzz from the alcohol, the next day you will experience a low when your metabolism is slowed down and these hormones are depleted. This can lead to feeling anxious or depressed. If your body is used to getting increased dopamine from alcohol, it can end up producing less to counter this. You can see this in heavy drinkers. At the same time excessive alcohol will increase your cortisol or stress hormone level and this will compound your negative feelings. You are going into a low the next day because your serotonin is decreasing and that can bring you to a feeling of that black hole. The people who get that feeling are best advised to abstain. I have many patients who struggled with this and felt so much better when they simply gave up alcohol. That feeling can be very frightening.

Effects of drink

I have patients who can get drunk after just one drink and this happens because the toxicity builds up very fast in the liver. We believe this has to do with the oxidation of the liver and the toxic metabolite, acetaldehyde, just builds up faster. The toxicity from the alcohol happens too fast. We see this in more women than men and it is not a sign of any serious issue with the liver, it’s just that the oxidation of alcohol for them is very slow and therefore the toxicity builds up faster and gives them a very fast drunk feeling. We would advise these patients to give up alcohol completely. It’s also important to realise too that one size does not fit all, the size and mass of the person plays a part. If a person is extraordinarily tired, metabolising alcohol will be even slower and the toxicity will be more severe on the system.

The toxic by-product of breaking down alcohol in the liver, acetaldehyde, builds up if you are binge drinking and this damages the production of hormones. This will interfere with the gut microbiome as well, as heavy drinking reduces the good gut bacteria and can cause bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. Alcohol interferes with the production of glucose causing lower circulating glucose levels by decreasing the liver’s ability to make new glucose. That can have a very toxic effect on the brain because we know the brain requires a supply of glucose and if it goes low enough patients can go into a coma. We now know that there is a link between abdominal fat and systemic inflammation, which may occur as a result of excessive alcohol. This can lead to all sorts of autoimmune diseases. Abdominal obesity can be associated with cancer and heart risks, the fat cells here are very inflammatory and can pose major dangers to a patient’s health. Fatty liver is hard to detect – not everyone who has it has abdominal obesity. It’s not all alcohol or obesity related either, there are other reasons such as high cholesterol, which can be genetic. Fatty liver can lead to diabetes too. Untreated alcohol-related fatty liver can lead to alcohol-related hepatitis and after that you can see alcohol psoriasis. Excess alcohol consumption can lead to lymphatic failure and hepatic encephalopathy. This can happen with anyone who drinks excessively. People may feel tired if they have it, although many patients don’t have any symptoms with fatty liver and know nothing about it until it shows up in a blood test. The main problem is that it can lead to diabetes or if it goes undetected it can cause psoriasis of the liver.

Fertility

If a woman is preparing for pregnancy she should approach it in the healthiest state and that includes taking in a balanced diet, seven hours sleep, regular exercise and keeping alcohol in moderation. This will help her hormones to be in the best state possible. Heavy drinking will knock the hormones off balance and will decrease the chances of success. Excessive alcohol can affect sperm count and DNA fragmentation of the sperm and that has been associated with autism and some psychiatric conditions.

Alcohol and aging

As you get older your body slows down and so do your hormones. Your reserve capacity and metabolism decreases so therefore you have to reduce your intake of alcohol because your liver will not be able to reduce it as fast as you did when you were younger. You want to keep all of your hormones in balance so that you can remain healthier for longer. What you can drink in your 20s you cannot be drinking in your 50s, 60s and 70s.

Menopause

Women sometimes drink to help counteract menopausal symptoms such as low self-esteem but that is the worst thing they could do. This could lead to abdominal weight gain and all of the health issues that come with that. Alcohol can exacerbate menopausal symptoms including hot flushes, mood swings and insomnia.

Skin

The hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone control the look and feel of our skin from maintaining the elasticity, keeping it firm and regulating the oil production. Alcohol causes dehydration, robs your skin of the nutrients to keep it nourished and leads to premature ageing.

Dementia

Dementia is caused by abnormal changes to the brain and can affect cognitive ability. Lifestyle does contribute with activities such as diet, smoking, stress, sleeping and excess alcohol intake playing a part in brain oximetry. The brain needs oxygen so if you are reducing oxygen flow to the brain it will cause brain atrophy. One of the recommendations is to reduce alcohol levels, others include not smoking, reducing stress, getting enough sleep and having a healthy diet and getting regular exercise. We know that alcohol can be neurotoxic to the brain, just like anything else that can cause plaque formation and reduce oxygen flow. There is a condition called alcohol-related dementia where patients who take excess alcohol get a thing called Korsakoff, which can lead to confusion and their walk can be affected and other neurological effects. There are some other conditions that affect neurological function as well so it is good for people to be aware of the effects of excess alcohol, particularly in middle years.

I guess the key message here is: there is nothing wrong with a social drink but don’t use alcohol as a stress buster. While in the immediate moment it may help reduce stress and anxiety by increasing your happy hormone levels, in the long run it could make things worse.

www.drmaryryan.com

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