Identify your triggers — what’s giving you the urge to drink — and find ways to avoid them. Below is a breakdown of just how alcohol takes a toll on your body and mind, making you look and feel older than you should ― plus some advice on how to cut back but still cut loose. The hangover may be a distant memory, but undoing its effects is a long process– made easier by retinol. A topical form of vitamin A, it binds to receptors in the skin cells that trigger regeneration, so the dull top layers fall away.

Drinking a large amount of alcohol causes damage to your eyes over time. Damage occurs particularly in the retina and optic nerves in the eye, where it’s usually age-related rather than alcohol-related. When you lack vitamin D, it affects the body’s ability to absorb calcium. In turn, you’ll have bone loss, lower bone mass, and reduced bone density.

Health Benefits of Pumpkin Spice

A few of the other drinks and foods that can age you include alcohol, red meat, and fried foods. Here’s more about what you should eat or https://ecosoberhouse.com/ drink in moderation to reduce the risk of skin aging. Collagen and elastin are compounds responsible for tight, plump, and youthful skin.

• To learn more about addiction diagnosis and treatment methods, read Overcoming Addiction, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.
• No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
• This damage may affect your skin’s ability to protect itself and generate collagen.
• The biggest visible change that alcohol makes to the body is one that is actually indirectly made.
• Discover what happens to your body when you drink a beer, glass of wine or cocktail, and why these effects intensify after age 65.

Alcohol can affect the way your body fights off life-threatening illnesses like tuberculosis or pneumonia. Researchers are also studying the possibility that alcoholic liver disease might be caused, at least in part, by your immune system attacking healthy body tissues. Every alcoholic drink goes “straight to your head,” or at least to your brain. Heavy drinking over a long time can shrink brain cells and lead to alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) and certain types of dementia. Symptoms of that include lack of judgment, organization, or emotional control, trouble staying focused, and anger issues.

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Along with these, ask about various nonalcoholic brands of spirits, beers, and wines. Most medications and alcohol don’t interact well with each other. Not only does drinking make you look older will alcohol make conditions like hypertension and diabetes worse, but it also mixes poorly with the medications typically used to treat those conditions.

Doctors recommend that most adults over 60 not drink alcohol. Consider your current health conditions and medications before you drink. As you get older, alcohol starts to affect you more than usual. This can lead to immediate risks, worsening health conditions, adverse reactions with medications, and much more.

Alcohol Affects a Person’s Weight

This allows a toxic chemical into which alcohol is processed, called acetate, to build up in your liver. Over time, acetate damages your liver tissues, causing cirrhosis. If you do decide to drink, professionals recommend that people over 65 shouldn’t take more than one standard drink each day and no more than 7 each week.