Women and Alcohol
She has a glass or two of wine and feels it go straight to her head. He has the same amount to drink and feels fine.
Researches confirm something many women have always suspected – It takes less alcohol for a woman to feel tipsy than it does for a man, and it’s not all to do with body size. Even if a woman is the same weight as a man and drinks the same amount of alcohol, she will end up with a blood alcohol level a third higher than his. It will also take a third longer for her body to eliminate the alcohol from her blood.
Why alcohol affects women more than men and is potentially more harmful is one of a number of topics covered in a booklet produced by the Alcohol Advisory Council.
Alcohol affects women more than men because women have higher proportion of body fat and less water in their bodies than men. This means that once it is in the bloodstream of a woman, the alcohol is not as diluted and has a stronger effect. So even if a woman is the same size as a man, she will generally be affected more quickly and feel the effects for much longer than the man will.
Both males and females have an enzyme in their stomach designed to process alcohol into a safer substance, yet for reasons that are not yet clear to scientists, this enzyme is 70-80 percent more effective in men than in women. If the liver of a healthy young woman is compared with that of a healthy young man, it will generally take her liver longer to process one drink than his, and a person starts to feel drunk when they drink alcohol faster than their liver can process it.
New Zealand research has found more women are drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed by women is increasing. Young women are also drinking more, and what is particularly concerning is that a significant proportion of young women are adopting a pattern of drinking similar to their male counterparts – this is, consuming large amounts of alcohol in one go.
Other topics included in the booklet are alcohol and women’s health, alcohol and sex, alcohol and pregnancy and alcohol and breastfeeding. There is also a guide to how much is too much and sections on getting help and advice.
Source: www.alcohol.org.nz 24 July 2000
She has a glass or two of wine and feels it go straight to her head. He has the same amount to drink and feels fine.
Researches confirm something many women have always suspected – It takes less alcohol for a woman to feel tipsy than it does for a man, and it’s not all to do with body size. Even if a woman is the same weight as a man and drinks the same amount of alcohol, she will end up with a blood alcohol level a third higher than his. It will also take a third longer for her body to eliminate the alcohol from her blood.
Why alcohol affects women more than men and is potentially more harmful is one of a number of topics covered in a booklet produced by the Alcohol Advisory Council.
Alcohol affects women more than men because women have higher proportion of body fat and less water in their bodies than men. This means that once it is in the bloodstream of a woman, the alcohol is not as diluted and has a stronger effect. So even if a woman is the same size as a man, she will generally be affected more quickly and feel the effects for much longer than the man will.
Both males and females have an enzyme in their stomach designed to process alcohol into a safer substance, yet for reasons that are not yet clear to scientists, this enzyme is 70-80 percent more effective in men than in women. If the liver of a healthy young woman is compared with that of a healthy young man, it will generally take her liver longer to process one drink than his, and a person starts to feel drunk when they drink alcohol faster than their liver can process it.
New Zealand research has found more women are drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed by women is increasing. Young women are also drinking more, and what is particularly concerning is that a significant proportion of young women are adopting a pattern of drinking similar to their male counterparts – this is, consuming large amounts of alcohol in one go.
Other topics included in the booklet are alcohol and women’s health, alcohol and sex, alcohol and pregnancy and alcohol and breastfeeding. There is also a guide to how much is too much and sections on getting help and advice.
Source: www.alcohol.org.nz 24 July 2000
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