The influence of alcohol

Rebecca Szczypka
Nov 21, 2022
4 min read

Updated: Dec 17, 2022

Alcohol: why do we love it

Drinking tendencies appear to be dropping, with 3% more adults reporting to be non-drinkers since 2015, however, alcohol remains one of the most popular psychoactive substances in the world. It is easy access, it’s getting cheaper and cheaper to afford, and it’s highly addictive; even when consumed in small amounts.

Sure, we drink wine because it's delicious, but also due to the perceived value that we attribute to it. It produces effective, reliable results, every time. Kind of nice to know you can always hit your goals, right?

What kind of goals am I referring to?

Elevate positive mood
Alleviate negative mood
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Depression
Increase confidence
Improve sociability
Reduce boredom

Not only are we getting what we want from alcohol on demand, we’re stimulating the feel-good neurotransmitter, dopamine. We’re wiring our brains reward system to respond to our associations with alcohol with positive reinforcement, making us want to repeat the experience. It’s the same as the dopamine released when we do other activities we enjoy such as eating; especially sugar, having sex, laughing, or exercising. Low dopamine drives us to seek out pleasures to stimulate it. For some, alcohol is the easiest way. For others it might be food seeking behaviour, likewise it could be sex. Sometimes all we want is that feel good feeling. Even if it becomes unhealthy.

Over time, you can stop responding to alcohols dopamine release, leaving you needing increased amounts or leaving you with feelings of low mood, or of course, both.

Why we should love it a little less

This isn’t an anti-alcohol post, I for one enjoy a regular tipple and know only too well how easily that reward system is stimulated. But I think it’s important to be more aware of the reasons we should try loving alcohol a little bit less.

What is it doing to your body?

Your liver: Your liver is the largest organ inside your body, and is responsible for a lot of pretty high demand functions. When talking about alcohol, one function that’s important to focus on is its role in neutralising toxins. Which is what it wants to do to alcohol, as soon as possible. Your liver treats alcohol as an anti-nutrient and prioritises its removal over other functions, such as nutrient processing, nutrient storage, and waste removal. So not only is your toxic load increased, but you’re reducing your ability to use the nutrients you get from food and can even end up malnourished. That’s not even considering the affect alcohol has on your food choices.

Importantly, there’s also the effects of long-term alcohol use on the liver. Fatty liver, literally meaning that your liver ends up storing more fat. This is often symptomless and fully reversible, it’s also very common; developing in 90% of people who drink more than 15ml of alcohol per day. Chronic, heavy drinkers can go on to develop cirrhosis, which is irreversible and happens when the liver cells die off after prolonged inflammation.

What else:

Alcohol affects so many body processes that I won’t cover them all here except to give a bird’s eye view on a few of its low sides. I’ve also avoided detailing health reports that claim it can be both good and bad for certain things, which is just confusing and gives rise to ambivalence. In my humble opinion.

The brain	Black out, memory loss, reduced cellular communication, increased risk of dementia, brain shrinkage
Depression	A cause and effect relationship
Body weight	Alcohol is the second most calorie dense ‘nutrient’ after fat, supplying you with 7 calories per gram and not much else
Sleep disturbance	Reduced sleep quality and duration

While there is debate over the different effects of moderate and heavy drinking there is consensus that heavy alcohol use can contribute to liver damage, brain damage, heart failure, diabetes, cancer, and infections.

What counts as heavy drinking??

The NHS states that both men and women should keep drinking below 14 units per week.

Pint of beer = 2 .3 units

Bottle of beer = 1.7 units

175ml wine = 2.3 units

25ml spirits = 1 unit

The CDC states that heavy drinking is a form of excessive drinking which also includes binge drinking.

Binge drinking is the most common and is defined as 4 or more drinks in one session for women and 5 or more for men.

Heavy drinking is defined as consuming 8 or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more for men.

Remember: Most people who drink heavily are not alcoholics or alcohol dependant. Drinking a lot doesn’t automatically make you addicted. It does increase your risk of dependance.

ALSO REMEMBER: Heavy drinking can negate the healthiest of lifestyles. If you are a heavy drinker or a binge drinker, reversing this should be a priority.

What next?

In a similar vein to what I wrote about water, 'if you don’t think you’re drinking enough; you’re probably not.'

If you think you’re drinking too much alcohol, the likelihood is, that you are. And that’s based on your own personal levels, and your own feelings. Drinking twice a week may be too much for one person, whereas others feel happy drinking most days of the week.

Think about your own relationship to alcohol and decide on your own cost versus benefit ratio. If you think alcohol is costing your lifestyle more than you’d like it to, how about trying to find some different ways to stimulate your reward pathway.

What other ways can you stimulate your reward system?

It appears that us humans will do almost anything at the promise of reward, even things detrimental to our health and goals, but pleasure seeking behaviours have the potential to be great and genuinely rewarding at the same time as benefiting our health.

If the main rewards from drinking alcohol include such things as fun, laughter, relaxation, and confidence what other pursuits can you engage in that can help you reach these goals instead?

If you don't have any hobbies maybe improving your health and the quality of your sleep could be motivation enough.

My thoughts

Maybe you're totally happy with your drinking habits, and thats great. A glass of wine with your friends can be very satisfying but you may also be motivated for change. This could simply be for a weight loss goal, to reduce fatigue, or even save some money. It could also be at the prospect of being stronger for your family, friends or career. But only you can really judge what kind of changes you'd like to make for your health and lifestyle.

If you'd like to cut back on alcohol for any reason at all, set a realistic goal for reducing your intake every week. This could be one drink less or you could halve your intake. But celebrate every success and make the changes one day at a time, week by week.

I'd love to hear the healthy, and positive ways you celebrate your successes. Find me on instagram at #rootbliving

#foodforyourhealth #habitbuilder #yourchoice #healthyliving #alcohol