How Does Alcohol Cause Premature Aging?

Visible Signs of Drinking

One of the most noticeable signs of aging is seeing a person’s face and how their skin looks. Unfortunately, alcohol affects a person’s appearance through inflammation, blotchy skin, increased redness, and age spots. Here are the following ways alcohol impacts appearance through the skin, weight distribution, and the invisible signs of aging.

Skin Changes & Alcohol

Alcohol hasn’t been linked with wrinkles like sun exposure and cigarettes. However, there are a significant amount of skin issues associated with alcohol use. Research shows that changes in the skin are often the first clinical manifestation of a drug or alcohol use disorder. People with an alcohol use disorder may exhibit symptoms of jaundice, facial redness, and increased infection, such as cellulitis. Here are the common skin changes associated with alcohol use.

Common Skin Changes From Alcohol: 

• Dark circles under eyes.
• Puffiness and bloating.
• Rosacea.
• Hives.
• Cellulitis.
• Psoriasis.
• Sun sensitivity.
• Dandruff.
• Skin cancer.
• Red palms.

Weight Changes & Alcohol

There are a few different ways why people may experience weight gain while engaging in alcohol use. First of all, alcohol keeps the body from burning fat. You may have heard the term that alcohol contains “empty calories.” This means that alcohol adds calories to the body but does not provide any nutritional benefit to the body. Additionally, the body is working hard to remove alcohol from the system. So, if you were to eat a meal while drinking alcohol, the nutritional intake would be decreased due to the amount of work the body has to spend to rid the body of the alcohol content.

Secondly, alcoholic drinks are typically high in calories. If it is mixed with other substances, you add more calories and sugar to your daily intake. Juice, whipped cream, soda, syrups, and cream are all added calories one may consume throughout the night while also slowing the metabolism down from the alcohol.

Additionally, alcohol can mess with your hormones. Alcohol increases the hormone called cortisol, which is linked to weight gain. It remains unclear how much cortisol people may produce from alcohol; each person may respond differently to alcohol use and hormone production. However, research indicates long-term alcohol use can disrupt hormone production, resulting in thyroid dysfunction, immunity, and bone health.

Finally, alcohol impacts sleep and eating habits which can result in increased consumption of high-calorie foods. When we are sleep deprived, we typically tend to eat more to cope with the stress. Additionally, drinking alcohol increases the desire to eat certain foods. People with diabetes are especially at high risk as the types of food and alcohol alone may have with raising or lowering blood sugars.

Invisible Signs of Aging

Skin and weight may be obvious signs of aging. However, there are more indirect signs that alcohol is creating premature aging in people. For example, neurological functioning is often a significant indicator of early aging for people with alcohol use disorder. A research study was conducted looking at young adults’ drinking habits and their cognitive functioning to see if significant alcohol or binge drinking on weekends may be impairing executive functioning tasks and neurological health. It was found that young adults who consumed excessive amounts of alcohol consistently over time showed neurological impairments primarily in executive functioning. Here are the following tasks that were negatively impacted by alcohol use.

Executive Functioning Skills Impacted by Alcohol

• Organizational skills.
• Planning.
• Setting goals.
• Paying attention.
• Memory.
• Task completion.
• Learning.