Did the alcohol work yet? Or did you wake up with the same worries, pain or questions around the same issues?
Is it time to rethink when and why you drink?
Maybe it’s time to seek a consciousness around alcohol consumption and why it originally was meant for celebration only! Alcohol is toxic to the human body yet it is considered a daily ritual almost like a cup of tea. Many of us have grown up in a household accepting the existence of alcohol as a sense of freedom or pathway to adulthood yet it is the opposite.
Alcohol is numbing our mind and body to the existent where we are not presence in one self.
It’s a mask, it’s a hiding and it is a distraction to our limited or sometimes wavering confidence.
Like any drug it subdues the brain faking a ‘true or hopeful’ version of who we want to be.
Over the past four years I took my own body through a rigorous unintended trial of alcohol consumption. This wasn’t intended it was my new environment. I’d built an alcohol business / wine cellar door / with my ‘then’ partner. This ‘season’ in my life caused absolute havoc on my body not to mention my overall health. Not only was I working 7 days a week but I had to live a life of acceptable alcohol consumption or alcohol intake expectation. But id personally chosen not to live this life. I’d removed myself from it as a child. This season caused damage. I had to take ownership of my new environment, remove, make a choice and reclaimed my health for my own future.
The number one unexpected health problem I encountered was excess inflammation in joints, hips and thighs. The second being the thinning of my bladder lining at which many women do not realise occurs due to the toxins (ethanol) in alcohol. We are often told or taught to blame perimenopause or menopause for our pelvic pain, bladder leakage, tummy growth or menstruation issues yet the truth is it’s our lifestyle changes. I’m sorry to break it to you but it’s the alcohol!
You may have noticed it in yourself. At approximately 40 + women’s lives change and we suddenly have more time or freedom from our care giving role. The children are teens, our commitments changes and we become more community conscious. We tend to have more time for our friends to celebrate and long lunch.
The main reason we tend to drink more revolves around this new environment, sometimes our resentment of missing out for all these years, our routines and a release of responsibility.
We women become early empty nesters and after 18 years + of being the responsible driver, care giver of our children and of our husband’s – we almost unleash. We have a man-o -pause or I look at it as living more like a man get too. We’ve sacrificed it all and now it’s our time. We sacrificed our bodies to grow a baby, or a few. We sacrificed our time to nurture all. It’s like a break before we must nurture or care for our ageing parents. It’s a gap few years.
We women suffer the effects of alcohol consumption adversely as it changes our body and mind. We blame age but is it? We can mask the impact by naming it or labelling it or succumbing to the victim of ‘I’m getting old’ or we can actively look at the reality. We changed lifestyles and environments. When we drink more and move less compared to when we mothered. We also consume more party foods (hello cheese boards) at which we hadn’t done before because we chased after our kids.
Alcohol consumption affects women dramatically. It is a similar effect on men (tummy growth, bladder lining, inflammation) however I’m focussing on us women.
We women encounter menopause onset rapidly, it also makes menopause symptoms worse and the real noticeable difference is the alcohol sugars sticks to us like glue. Making us feel sluggish. Alcohol also inhibits folate (required by women) for competitive inhibition, leading to higher rates of inflammation and hormone production like our estrogen and the deprivation of testosterone.
Overall, we have to train harder for longer with less energy and less time. Making our confidence decline and self talk worse.
Alcohol can have several short-term effects on the bladder, (this was my biggest body alert ) including:
- Increased urination
Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it increases urine production and the frequency with which you need to urinate. - Bladder irritation
Alcohol is acidic and can irritate the bladder lining, causing pain similar to a urinary tract infection (UTI). - Bladder spasms
Alcohol can cause the bladder muscles to contract, which can lead to sudden, sharp pain. - Dehydration
Alcohol can cause dehydration, which can lead to darker, cloudier, and more unpleasant-smelling urine. - Increased risk of UTI
Urine that sits in the bladder becomes more concentrated and can irritate the bladder lining, increasing the risk of a UTI. - Worsening of overactive bladder
Alcohol can make bladder leaks worse for people with an overactive bladder.
Bladder symptoms can improve within two weeks of stopping drinking alcohol, but it can take up to three months to see lasting changes.
What is alcohol? Let’s deep dive because it’s not just a glass of grape juice.
Alcohol contains ethanol, which is metabolized to acetaldehyde and reactive to oxygen species. Both produce inflammation by binding to DNA and thus promoting the formation of DNA adducts. These are genotoxic.
Acetaldehyde is not only formed from alcohol but is found in wine and other alcoholic by products.
Alcohol also irritates the mucosa of the mouth, making it more permeable enhances the chances of inflammation of the tongue, mouth, throat and liver. Inflammation causes disease. After big night in or out do you notice a sore throat?
The metabolism of ethanol depends on the activity of two enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase, and aldehyde dehydrogenase.The first converts ethanol to acetaldehyde while the second converts acetaldehyde to acetate, which is less toxic. All alcohol drinks contain ethanol (that goes in cars) A standard unit of any beverage – beer, wine or spirits – will always contain eight grams of ethanol.
Alcohol grabs the attention in the liver from every other macronutrient in the queue. Since the body cannot store alcohol, it must metabolize it at once. When large amounts of ethanol hit the liver, it damages the liver cells. but it also stops the body from burning fat. It literally halts it. Drinking Friday and Saturday nights will stop fat loss for 3 days even if you are training. Therefore Wednesday you will start to make an impact again. Then if Thursday night you have a glass of wine to chill – it means only one session has been productive that week. For many this is exactly why many say to they’re PT but this training is ‘not working.’
As a health and fitness educator, author and PT, I discuss these factors on repeat with clients. The true fact is alcohol and cheese consumption was the biggest inhibition issue for all women over the age of 40.
Please look at our behaviours before simply labeling our body health as ageing. We are the only ones responsible and using labels to dismiss is not going to fix the problem. We need to consider our new consumption style and its true impact upon our body and mind. The goal is optimal living for a longer more joyous.
So did the alcohol fix all your problems? I know it made mine worse. But not anymore.
Health and Happiness,
b.x
* Next article – what happened when I stopped drinking every weekend?