Are you an alcohol loving Brit? Have you heard this? A YouGov survey found 'Empty Nester’ mothers were at the forefront of the middle-aged drinking epidemic in Britain, with 28 per cent of women over 45 admitting they drank as much or more than their grown-up children. It’s also the older generation - those 65 and over - that are most likely to drink on five consecutive nights each week.
As the Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies considers the current NHS drinking guidelines, experts are urging us to spare a thought not only to the short-term effects of alcohol on our brains, but also to the damage our drinking habits are doing to our bodies as we approach middle age.
‘Alcohol affects just about every system because it’s a small molecule that goes everywhere in the body,’ says Paul Wallace, emeritus professor of public health at University College London and medical director of the charity Drinkaware. ‘From the gut to the heart, the blood vessels to the skin, its effects are all pervasive.’ But why does it feel like the effects of drinking are so much worse post-40?
‘The organs that metabolise alcohol such as the liver and the stomach shrink as you get older, so alcohol stays in your system longer,’ says Dr Tony Rao, consultant old age psychiatrist at the South london and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. This could explain that wretched two-day hangover post-40. ‘Plus, the total fluid in the body is a lot less - we get more dehydrated as we get older - so because alcohol is distributed in blood which will be more concentrated, it won’t be broken down as quickly as it would in the bloodstream of a 20 year old.’ Read More @ The Telegraph
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