Exclusive: Does Alcohol Affect Women Differently Than Men? Expert Shares Health Risks

As per the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, biological variations in body chemistry and structure cause most women to absorb alcohol more and take longer to metabolise it, even though males are more prone to drink and consume bigger amounts. 

Women often have higher blood alcohol levels than men after consuming the same quantity of alcohol, and the initial effects of alcohol typically happen more rapidly and continue longer in women than in men. 

Due to these distinctions, women are more vulnerable than males to the long-term harmful consequences of alcohol on their health.

Dr Sudha Desai, General Physician, Consultant Physician and Internal Medicine, at Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune shares the effects alcohol has on women and how it is different from how it affects men.

"When it comes to many negative effects of alcohol use, women seem to be more susceptible than males. The same quantity of alcohol consumed by men and women by women results in higher blood alcohol levels and greater impairment, " says Dr Sudha. 

According to a recent study, women are more susceptible than males to the trauma caused by traffic accidents and interpersonal aggression, as well as the organ damage caused by drinking.

Effects Of Alcohol On Women's Health

Metabolism

Alcohol is absorbed and metabolised differently in women than in men. Women typically have less body water than men of the same weight, which causes them to have greater blood alcohol concentrations after consuming the same amount of alcohol. Furthermore, women appear to drain alcohol from the blood faster than males.

Given that alcohol is metabolised nearly exclusively in the liver, this discovery may be explained by women's larger liver volume per unit of lean body mass.

Women are more prone than males, according to a study, to have organ damage, trauma, and social and legal problems as a result of drinking.

Liver damage

Women have alcohol-induced liver damage at a slower rate and with less alcohol use than men. Additionally, women have a higher risk than men of contracting alcoholic hepatitis and passing away from cirrhosis. According to animal studies, the female reproductive hormone oestrogen may have physiological actions that raise the risk of liver injury in women. 

Brain Damage

According to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain, women may be more prone than men to developing alcohol-related brain damage. A region of the brain that coordinates numerous distinct brain functions was shown to have considerably lower brain volumes in alcoholic women than in non-alcoholic women and alcoholic men by MRI.

Heart diseases

Men and women who drink one or two alcoholic drinks per day had a lower death rate from coronary heart disease (such as heart attacks) than heavy drinkers and abstainers. Despite women's 60 per cent lower lifetime alcohol usage, research shows equal risks of alcohol-associated cardiac muscle illness (also known as cardiomyopathy) for both sexes among heavier drinkers.