Alcohol and Aging: Does Drinking Make You Look Older?

The truth is, yes, alcohol is the second biggest cause of skin aging—surpassed only by sun damage. Even in moderation, drinking shows negative effects on our face the next day. While aging and skin problems are concerning on an aesthetic level, they are the least of the worries a heavy alcohol user faces. Alcohol abuse can increase the risk of physical dependence, liver disease, heart disease, relationship problems, career blunders, financial challenges, and so much more.

“Alcohol is a toxin with very little nutrient value,” says Dr Liakas. Brain – Alcohol-related brain damage can involve the premature onset of dementia and dementia-like symptoms. On brain imaging scans of chronic alcoholics, this damage is evidenced by a visible shrinkage in brain volume and deteriorating fibers. If you or someone you know is suffering from an addiction to alcohol or any other substance,contact ustoday. We want to help you get on the road to recovery so that you can live a happy, healthy, and sober life. Drinking heavily and often can have a significant impact on your overall health. It can also age you prematurely, making you look, feel, and act older than you actually are. More importantly, alcohol can age your body quicker than it should.

Does Alcohol Cause You to Age Faster?

Skin is already delicate and vulnerable to the elements — wind, smog, smoke and the sun. When you drink, you are hastening the aged, weathered look of your skin. In addition, alcohol misuse or alcohol use disorder can strain relationships with family members, friends, and others. At the extreme, heavy drinking can contribute to domestic violence and child abuse or neglect. Alcohol use is often involved when people become violent, as well as when they are violently attacked.

• Amanda completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice and Post Masters Certification in Psychiatry at Florida Atlantic University.
• Excessive alcohol use increases free radicals in the body and causes sleep disruptions, which can lead to poor cognitive function.
• In addition, when alcohol is metabolized, it widens the blood vessels that bring blood to the face, causing the redness, puffiness, swelling and blotchiness that chronic alcoholics often experience.
• Here, we’ve gone into detail about just how dehydration and inflammation effects the skin and why you might want to stick to sparkling water on your evenings out.
• The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com.

It can impact your physical, emotional, and spiritual health, too—making you not only look but also feel older than you are. At Ria Health we want to ensure that the information we provide our readers is credible and evidence-based. Certain topics on our site require clinical accuracy and are therefore reviewed by medical experts. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us. Ria Health offers several FDA-approved medications for alcohol use disorder.

Does Drinking Speed up Aging?

When combined with counseling, this approach is proven highly effective. Alcohol negatively impacts your sleep cycles and prevents you from getting that deep REM sleep. Those pearly whites start to lose some of their coverings due to the acid in white wine, making them more susceptible to stains. There is nothing like having a glorious glass of white wine after a long, stressful day. However, you may be alarmed to find out that that Sober House little glass of white wine could make you look 10 years older than you actually are if you regularly imbibe. Contact us to find out how we can help you navigate the path to recovery and optimize your physical and mental health. Drugabuse.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding. Cori’s key responsibilities include supervising financial operations, and daily financial reporting and account management.

Tolstrup specifically looked at four hallmarks of aging, including the formation of a grey opaque ring around the cornea in the eye, earlobe creases, plaques on the eyelids and male pattern baldness. Of course, rapid aging affects your physical appearance. Women who had 28 drinks or more per week had a 33 percent higher chance of developing the same syndrome. By adding extra stress to your body and depriving it of the nutrients it needs to rebuild, alcohol can place you years ahead in the aging process, and affect how you look. Image by Dietmar Becker from UnsplashThere are many ways alcohol can put an extra strain on your body. Alcohol causes your body to release more stress hormones, which speeds up the aging process. It also affects the healthy functioning of your digestive system, making it harder for you to absorb essential nutrients. This includes vitamins A, B, D, and E; minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc; and even basics like proteins and carbohydrates. Alcohol’s all-around negative effect on nutrition means that heavy drinkers often become malnourished. This limits the body’s ability to maintain itself, resulting in faster aging.

In addition to weight loss and reduced inflammation, sobriety reduces the water retention caused by dehydration — contributing to an overall lighter physical appearance. It’s clear that too much alcohol can have negative impacts on the body. Alcohol can damage the brain and shrink parts of the brain that help it function. There’s no guarantee that drinking in moderation causes alcohol makes you look older Alzheimer’s disease or protects against it. Red wine has antioxidants called polyphenols that may help your cholesterol level and protect your blood vessels. If you drink it in moderation , some studies show that it might be good for your heart. But too much can lead to an abnormal heartbeat and high blood pressure. So if you don’t drink, this isn’t a good reason to start.

At North Jersey Recovery Center, we strive to make your addiction treatment experience as comfortable as possible. Because alcohol makes you more likely to do things that you might not otherwise do, consuming it can interfere with an otherwise healthy diet. Would you eat that entire box of donuts if you were sober? One study demonstrated that people who were sedentary for more than 10 hours per day and exercised for less than 40 minutes had cells that were biologically eight years older than people who moved around more. I recommend using two pillows in bed to prop yourself up and help prevent water from accumulating around the eyes.

Alcohol can have different effects on your health as you age.

Avoid drinking when you’re angry or upset or if you’ve had a bad day. Ask your doctor about advances in medication that might help you stick with alcohol abstinence longer or reduce cravings. Your health care professional may also be able to give you advice about treatment. People who drink may notice that they’re “feeling no pain” sooner as they get older. That’s mainly because our bodies gain fat and lose muscle in our senior years and it takes longer for us to break down alcohol and get it out of our system.