Does Drinking Give You Anxiety?

ALCOHOL AND YOUR NUTRITIONAL STATUS

Alcohol is a diuretic. This means it promotes water loss through urine. It does this by inhibiting the production of a hormone called vasopressin, which plays a large role in the regulation of water excretion. This means you’re losing essential hydration when you drink, but it also means you’re losing increased amounts of our water soluble vitamins. Thats vitamin C and most of our B’s (folate, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12).

This reduction in nutritional status effects energy levels, cell health, collagen production, nervous system and of course, our immune systems.

Alcohol already poses a reduction in both innate and adaptive immunity, significantly weakening our defenses, predisposing chronic drinkers to a wide range of health problems, including infections and systemic inflammation.

Hmmm, perhaps making a global pandemic a particularly auspicious of a time to revaluate your relationship with alcohol!

ALCOHOL AND YOUR LIVER

I know you know alcohol is detoxified by the liver. But did you know the liver filters 2 litres of blood every minute! We ask a-lot out of this powerful organ, and asking it to increase its load by breaking down the alcohol we consume into harmless byproducts and clearing it from the body, puts a lot of unnecessary strain on an organ that already has its metaphorical hands full.

Excessive alcohol intake can lead to bacterial overgrowth in the intestines, which causes an increased toxic load, further increasing the burden on the liver.

Giving our liver a break by reducing the amount of ethanol we’re asking it to filter, is one of the kindest things we can do for our body.

ALCOHOL AND YOUR EMOTIONS

I get it, you have a drink to unwind after work, you use it as a social lubricant in social situations and you use it to mark life’s milestones. But do you also get those nasty anxiety hangovers the next morning?

“What did I say, what did I do? Why is the world creeping in on me and collapsing!”

Been there!

Some people may drink alcohol to relax or help cope with daily stresses; however, alcohol is a depressant drug that can cause anxiety and increase stress. By shifting the neurotransmitters found in our brain, we can start to act and feel different, in the very short term and at a low level of change, this can mean less anxious, more confident and give feelings of wellbeing. You know- The Buzz.

But once this starts to fade, or we consume more alcohol, these can turn to anger, aggression and anxiety. Longterm alcohol use reduces our amount of neurotransmitters, meaning we have impaired brain function as there aren’t enough chemical messengers to instruct our bodies to create hormones, relax muscles, generate feelings of wellbeing, induce sleep, control mood… or the myriad of roles our neurotransmitters have in our bodies.

Neurotransmitter work is a huge part of my clinical practice, and I implore all my clients (and you!) to not use alcohol to modify your emotions. It’s a slippery slope.

ALCOHOL AND YOUR FUTURE HEALTH

The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies alcohol as a Group 1 human carcinogen. It is linked to increasing the risk of developing oral cavity (mouth), pharynx (throat), oesophagus (gullet), liver, larynx (voice box) and colorectum (large intestine and rectum) cancers, and most significantly has a strong link to increasing your risk of breast cancer. In fact for every 100 new diagnosis of breast cancer, 7 cases are caused by alcohol intake.

This statistic blew my mind. I’ve not got a strong breast cancer history in my family, but there are many many woman (and men!) out there that do.

Remember, genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger.