As part of a research study, Sugarman and her colleagues gave women struggling with alcohol use information on how alcohol affects women differently from men. Some participants had been in detox 20 times yet had never heard this information, Sugarman says. Women generally have less body water, which dissolves alcohol, than men of the same weight. That means the same number of drinks leads them to have higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood, and their body tissues are exposed to more alcohol per drink. Now, as women approach parity in drinking habits, scientists are uncovering more about the unequal damage that alcohol causes to their bodies.
When Do Signs of Alcohol Abuse in Women Emerge?
Though these societal changes are mostly positive, such as higher numbers of women in the workforce, women have been disproportionately impacted by increased alcohol use. Three decades of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies describe patterns of brain structural abnormalities characteristic of chronic, heavy drinking.81,82 Despite the rich literature on neuroimaging in AUD, the mainstay of studies does not address women and alcoholism sex differences. Research from Sugarman’s colleagues found that women with alcohol use disorder had better outcomes when they were in women-only treatment groups, which included a focus on mental health and trauma, as well as education about gender-specific elements of addiction. For nearly a century, women have been closing the gender gap in alcohol consumption, binge-drinking and alcohol use disorder.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
The characteristics of this syndrome include abnormal facial features and learning problems. It can also lead to permanent and severe developmental and learning disabilities. Many babies born with FASD will need some type of assistance for the rest of their lives. When a mother drinks, the alcohol gets passed on to the baby through the umbilical cord. The effects of alcohol will then interfere with the baby’s development. Those who are pregnant should abstain from all alcoholic beverages.
Binge Drinking
The uncomfortable truth is that many women today are drinking too much. Though men are still more likely to die of alcohol-related causes than women are, alcohol-related hospitalizations and deaths are rising faster among women than men. During the first year of the pandemic, women increased their “heavy drinking” days—days on which they had four or more drinks—by 41 percent, compared with 7 percent among men. One might dismiss the spike as attributable to the stresses of the pandemic, except that women’s high-risk drinking was increasing rapidly before then, too. Men born in the early 1900s were three times as likely as women to drink in problematic ways; today, women are almost as likely as men to do so. Female college students now binge drink more than male college students do.
For one, studies show that there may be sex differences in alcohol pharmacokinetics. Men may have more efficient metabolisms in breaking down alcohol. Other studies suggest that alcohol’s effect on a woman’s hormonal fluctuations may cause greater harm and damage to their cardiovascular system.
Other medical consequences of heavy alcohol use include heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. Psychiatric consequences of unhealthy alcohol use are also pervasive, including depression, anxiety, accelerated memory problems, and risk of dementia. The study looked at serious health issues related to drinking, including alcohol-related liver and heart disease, inflammation of the stomach lining that led to bleeding, pancreatitis, alcohol-related mood disorders and withdrawal. Researchers compared insurance claims data for these complications with the rates they expected to see based on past prevalence of these conditions.
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There is no Tolerable Upper Intake Level for water because the body can usually excrete extra water through urine or sweat. However, a condition called water toxicity is possible in rare cases, in which a large amount of fluids is taken in a short amount of time, which is faster than the kidney’s ability to excrete it. This leads to a dangerous condition called hyponatremia in which blood levels of sodium fall too low as too much water is taken.
As a woman ages, her body will often have a harder time managing alcohol. Alcohol consumption can cause early-onset dementia because it causes cognitive abnormalities. This is why many people “black out.” Alcohol can also reduce short-term memory and target higher-executive cognitive functions. These effects are even more pronounced among those who participate in heavy drinking. Women who drink during pregnancy put their babies at risk of being born with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
- When a woman has AUD, she won’t be able to control herself once she starts drinking.
- In some people, the initial reaction may feel like an increase in energy.
- Limit milk/dairy (1-2 servings/day) and juice (1 small glass/day).
- For one, studies show that there may be sex differences in alcohol pharmacokinetics.
- Also, certain age periods are likely to pose more or less risk for different kinds of alcohol-related problems.