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Bogged by booze blues
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Women are more prone to the negative effects of alcohol than men, writes RAJIV. M
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WINE WHILE It is all in the physiology as women absorb and metabolise alcohol differently than men
One more drink and I'll be under the host.
Dorothy Parker, US humorist, poet, & wit (1893 - 1967)
You are a woman having a drink at a party, minding your own business. Several things happen soon afterwards. Guys hit on you, some try to ply you with drinks. Creeps hang around, waiting for you to drop like an over-ripe fruit from a tree. Getting a girl drunk to shed her inhibitions is not a western idea: it is something straight from our venerable Kamasutra. Guys still try it today because it works: once the drinking starts, men lose self-control and inhibitions slower than women. Why? Curse biology.
Women absorb and metabolise alcohol differently than men. Their bodies have less water than men of similar body weight, so they attain higher blood alcohol levels after drinking equivalent amounts. This is why current dietary guidelines recommend no more than one standard drink per day for women, while the maximum allowance for men is two drinks per day. A "standard drink" is one 360 ml beer, one 150 ml glass of wine, or one 45 ml shot of distilled spirits. Implication: there is no such thing as a safe drink. It all depends on the quantity one consumes.
Drinking more than one drink per day increases the risk of unwanted sexual advances, sexual abuse and rape. But that is not all. Women who drink excessively suffer more organ damage, trauma, and legal and interpersonal difficulties than men.
Here is how the cookie crumbles: Women develop alcohol-induced liver disease faster and with smaller amounts of alcohol. They are more prone than men for alcoholic hepatitis and death from cirrhosis. Having more than one drink per day increases the risk for breast cancer.
Women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced brain damage.
Alcohol abuse during teenage years affects learning and memory and increases the risk for depression, emotional difficulties and problems with self - image that can lead to eating disorders.
It also fuels an increase in risk-taking behaviours like experimenting with drugs.
Research suggests that alcohol use affects the growth spurt and normal timing or progression of puberty in teenagers drinking even one drink or less regularly.
Alcohol abuse in women of child-bearing age disrupts normal menstrual cycling and reproductive function. It can cause infertility and increases the risk for miscarriage, impairing foetal growth and development - the "foetal alcohol syndrome". Excessive alcohol use damages the heart and bones while moderate use promotes cardiovascular and skeletal health.
Older women are at risk at even one drink per day because they have less body water than younger women of similar bodyweight, and they lack the protective cover of oestrogen after menopause.
They are also more likely to be on long-term medications that can interact with alcohol. In addition, long-term alcohol abuse causes pancreatitis, cancers of the liver, mouth, throat, larynx and gullet, hypertension and mental problems.
There is no such thing as safe drinking for some groups: kids and teens, alcoholics with no control over drinking, pregnant women or those who may become pregnant, women who plan to drive, operate machinery or do stuff that requires attention, skill, or coordination, and those on medications that can interact with alcohol.
For women, safe drinking is a mixture of common sense and self-control. Restrict yourself to one drink per day.
Drink on a full stomach, or eat something fatty while drinking. This will slow down alcohol's absorption from the gut. Drink plenty of fluids afterwards.
Do not accept drinks from strangers: spiking drinks with "date-rape" drugs is a feature of the pub scene these days.
It's different
Drinking, even in small amounts, affects women differently than men. Though men are supposed to be more "solid", the fact is that women have a lesser percentage of water vis-à-vis their body mass when compared to men. This means that the same amount of alcohol will be less diluted in a woman's body than in that of a man's. The rate of alcohol breakdown is also slower in women when compared to men. This means that the organs in a woman's body are exposed to alcohol for a longer time. Alcohol can also damage the baby of a mother who drinks during pregnancy, resulting in a set of birth defects called foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The syndrome is the most common known preventable cause of mental impairment. Babies with FAS have distinctive changes in their facial features and they may be born small.
The brain damage that occurs with FAS can result in life-long problems with learning, memory, attention, and problem solving.
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