|  | Family Health | Substance Abuse

The Physiological Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Men Vs. Women

The effects of drinking alcohol differ greatly between men and women. Aside from social factors, such as increased vulnerability to domestic or sexual violence, there are many physiological effects that will present themselves differently in women than in men. Even when a man and a woman weigh the same amount and drink the same amount of alcohol, they will physically differ in the way their bodies metabolize the alcohol consumed.

  1. Body-Water Percentages

    • Generally speaking (but not always), women have a higher percentage of body fat than men. As such, they have a lower percentage of water in their bodies than men do. This means that when a man and woman of equal weight drink the same amount, the alcohol in a woman's bloodstream will be less diluted and higher than in a man's. This leads to a general enhancement of the effects of alcohol in the woman.

    Enzymes

    • Alcohol is first broken down by gastric alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme found in the stomach. According to research conducted by Italy's Institute of Medical Pathology, men produce about 50% more of this enzyme than women. This means that a woman's stomach allows far more alcohol to pass into the small intestine for absorption than the stomach of a man of equal size. Increased absorption results in a blood alcohol concentration as much as 7% higher in the woman, even when they imbibe exactly the same amount of alcohol.

    Liver Damage

    • Studies conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer suggest that women are more likely than men to develop liver disease due to alcohol over a shorter time and after consuming less. They are also more likely to die from cirrhosis, a consequence of severe liver disease, and to develop alcoholic hepatitis. The reasons why are not entirely known, but thought to be linked to the effects of estrogen, the female reproductive hormone.

    Elimination

    • Women do show signs of eliminating alcohol from their bodies at rates of up to 10% faster than a similarly sized man who drank the same amount. Reasons for this are unknown. However, this one advantage in the elimination of alcohol is relatively minor compared to all the ways in which women's blood alcohol content is comparatively increased due to size and body-fat percentage.

Substance Abuse - Related Articles