Effects Of Alcohol - Seven Things You Need To Bear In Mind

The effects of alcohol can creep up on you slowly. Like most people you may switch off in the evening with a glass of wine or enjoy a drink when you're out with friends. You may not stop to consider what effect that has on your body.

The only problem is - as we grow older ' alcohol affects us more. So, if you're serious about slowing down the aging process, it's important to understand just what effect alcohol is having on your body. Here's a quick list of seven things you might want to bear in mind next time you pop that cork:

1. Alcohol causes liver damage

Most of us already know that this is one of the worst aspects of excessive drinking and can ultimately in extreme cases cause liver failure and death. Bear in mind that to your liver alcohol is a poison - the more you take in the harder it works to eliminate it.

2. Drinking alcohol makes you more likely to develop osteoporosis

This is one effect of alcohol not many people are aware of and it matters quite a lot - especially to women. Osteoporosis affects many women later in life and is an aging and debilitating condition causing weakness and brittleness in the structure of the skeleton. Alcohol inhibits your body's ability to absorb calcium so the more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk of brittle bones.

3. Alcohol ages your skin

Not to be taken lightly this one. You may be prepared to cope with the health risks of alcohol but what about the aging effects of alcohol on your skin. Alcohol causes the small blood vessels to widen, producing flushed skin and often broken veins. And what's more, because alcohol is dehydrating, your skin will also be more prone to premature wrinkling.

4. Alcohol will pile on the pounds.

Your favorite tipple is really just empty calories adding no food value to your daily diet. To get rid of the extra calories from one drink you need to walk a mile ' consider that over your next glass of wine. In fact if you drink alcohol you're likely to eat much more than you really need since alcohol stimulates your appetite.

5. Alcohol affects your brain

In the short term that means all the symptoms of intoxication ' how bad it gets depends on how much you drink and other factors like your size, how tired you are, when you drink and whether you eat as well. Getting mildly drunk may be a subject of fun and even enjoyable but long term we're talking about the destruction of brain cells, memory loss and dementia - not so amusing.

6. Alcohol affects women more than men

The less you weigh the more likely you are to become drunk because heavier people have more blood and water in the body to dilute the alcohol. Also as alcohol is stored in fat and women tend to have more fat than men - it takes us much longer to eliminate the alcohol from our bodies.

7. The effects of alcohol worsen with age

From the age of 40 onwards we tend to store more fat so the time the body takes to process and eliminate alcohol increases. So if you feel that you can't drink as much as you used to without feeling the effects ' you're right.

If that all sounds like bad news on the alcohol front - consider the experience of the French. Americans have over 40% more heart disease than the French and yet the French diet contains one of the greatest levels of fat in the world.

They owe their increased resistance to heart disease largely due to wine consumption - although it is probably true that the healthier French diet has something to do with it.

Scientists have linked the protective effects of wine to an organic compound known as 'resveratrol' that's found in red wine. Californian red is among the wines with the highest concentration of resveratrol in the world.

So consumption of a very moderate amount of the right kind of alcohol - plus a healthy diet - is the way to go. Drink wisely and the effects of alcohol on the body can be positive. Drink unwisely and not only will your health suffer but you'll see the results in the mirror and on the scales!


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Aging well is all about living well. If you want to look younger you have to control your alcohol intake, stay fit, eat an antioxidant rich diet, manage your weight and look after your skin. Most women who make changes to how they live see immediate and permanent improvements in how young they look and how good they feel.