If you are passed the age of 40 – certainly 50 – then you have probably noticed that alcohol affects you differently than when you were younger. For one thing, if you get drunk takes longer to recover the next day and hangovers are much worse.
But that is just one example. The older you are the more likely it becomes that you will go on an eating binge – get the munchies and so on – when you drink.
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Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk, a geriatrician and dementia expert, told the Huffing Post that drinking a lot of alcohol when you are young is easier to do because “The liver and brain have the most resilience during that time. The frontal lobes (reasoning, and judgment) are not quite developed. One is more likely to be open to drinking more or taking more risks, and this can set habits that will cause problems down the line.”
And it gets harder to tolerate alcohol as you get older because people, over time, are likely to lose the enzyme to metabolize alcohol (alcohol dehydrogenase), she explained.
And there is more. According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, as a person gets older they become more sensitive to alcohol’s effects. This is more pronounced after the age of 65 because a person’s body mass and water content drop and their metabolism slows down. Alcohol stays in your system longer. So the amount of alcohol in your blood is higher than it would have been when you were younger.
Some health problems in people older than age 65, and the medicines used to treat them, can get worse with alcohol’s effects. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, and ulcers.
The Center for Addiction and Mental Health adds that as you age, your body processes alcohol more slowly. This means that drinking the same amount as when you were younger has a greater effect. It also means that you are more vulnerable to the negative effects of alcohol.
These negative effects include loss of strength in your muscles and loss of balance and co-ordination, increasing the risk of injuries due to falls worsening of some health issues, such as liver damage, diabetes, heart or blood pressure and stomach problems and causing or worsening of some mental health problems such as confusion, memory loss and depression.
Also, some medications don’t work as well when taken with alcohol; others intensify alcohol’s effects, making you more prone to falls. Many medications should not be taken with alcohol.
Now you know why drinking isn’t as much fun when you get older and has more adverse effects on you to. It can also cause more harm to your body. So, you might want to cut back as you age.
