As Christian Bale’s murderous businessman in the film adaptation of American Psycho says, it is best not to use alcohol-based facial masks, since these make skin drier, and therefore older-looking. Therefore, savvy beauty product devotees would do well to scan the ingredients list of any supposedly great product before buying into the hype uncritically. This is good advice after all, if you cannot trust a psychopath, who can you trust?
Sarcasm aside, however, there is a real connection between the use of alcohol and aging. Actually, the link goes far beyond the ingredients in facial cleansers or toners. Drinking alcohol (not just putting it on your face) can also have an aging effect.
Drinking a lot might make people feel young reckless, carefree, confident, cheerful, etc., but only for a while. However, the cumulative effect of high alcohol consumption over several years can make a person feel and look much older than they actually are chronologically.
We can begin to examine this effect by going back to what we said at the beginning: alcohol dehydrates. This is true whether you drink it or apply it topically. In beverages, alcohol can act as a diuretic. It makes you urinate more than you otherwise would, which makes your body lose essential water resources. Excessive drinking is also linked to problems in the cardiovascular system, liver, and kidneys.
Furthermore, research suggests that alcohol speeds up aging on the sub-cellular level. Here, we emphasize the caps on the end of DNA strands called telomeres. These bits of DNA material help keep your genes in order. Shortened or degraded telomeres are associated with aging. In the study, heavy drinkers had much smaller telomeres than those of other people who drank less but had similar lifestyles and habits in most other respects.
Recently, a twenty-year study done on 314 individuals in Britain was concluded. The study covered the impacts of four behaviors “one of them being alcohol intake” on health and length of life. Deaths during the study were disproportionately higher in those who engaged in the “unhealthy” behaviors as compared to those who did not.
How much is too much? Well, it really depends. In general, women are a bit more susceptible to alcohol-induced health problems than men are, so more than two drinks a day is excessive for most women, while the threshold for most men is at three drinks daily. These are the amounts used as cutoffs by the researchers who conducted the study.
It is difficult to measure the impact of alcohol intake on a person’s health without taking into account their other lifestyle habits. If you drink a great deal, but otherwise maintain a healthy diet and make sure to have regular exercise, you will probably be in better shape than a person who drinks the same amount but has a high-fat diet and is mainly sedentary.
Drinking causes risks for a number of reasons. Sometimes, the danger comes suddenly, as in a car accident brought on by drunk driving. However, there are other types of damage that creep up on you slowly. If you would like to make the most of your health and usefulness, consider whether your alcohol intake might be making you older than you should be.
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Bibliography:
Alleyne, Richard. “Drinking accelerates ageing of cells.” Telegraph.co.uk. 21Apr 2010. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 01 May 2010. < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7614691/Drinking-accelerates-ageing-of-cells.html>.
Tanner, Lindsey. “Bad habits can age you by 12 years, study suggests.” Yahoo!Health. 26 Apr 2010. Yahoo! Inc. 01 May 2010. <http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/us_med_bad_habits_survival.html>.
