Alcohol abuse in older adults is a quiet but serious problem. It may not be as easy to recognize, but alcoholism in older adults is common. If you believe that you or a loved one has problems with alcohol, you can contact your family doctor and they can perform a substance abuse screening. While drinking may help some people fall asleep, it ultimately leads to a less restful night’s sleep, which can be debilitating when combined with other menopause symptoms. When uncertainty about, well, everything, was too much to bear, I found solace in a glass of wine.

These conditions don’t have a cure, but treatment can help make symptoms more manageable and have less of an effect on your appearance. The same study found a correlation between drinking wine and the visibility of blood vessels in the cheeks. One study found that women who consumed eight or more drinks a week perceived themselves as looking older than those who didn’t drink (8).

tell-tale physical traits of a heavy alcohol drinker, according to experts — from brittle hair to skin blotches

Insider talked to Utter and other specialists about some tell-tale signs of alcohol misuse or abuse — and how to change your patterns for better health and looks. Alcohol abuse in older people has become more common in the past few decades. Alcohol is now the most abused substance among people over 65. Alcoholism is often overlooked or misdiagnosed in older people.

1. This includes vitamins A, B, D, and E; minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc; and even basics like proteins and carbohydrates.
2. The rest of the alcohol will leave your body through your sweat and breath.
3. Give your body the best chance at health and reclaim your youthful energy.
4. At Grace Land Recovery, we know the challenges that come with addiction.
5. Mixing alcohol with opioids or benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium) is one potentially deadly combination.

Is alcohol physically addictive?

Alcohol can change the appearance of your mouth and the skin on your face.

Alcohol’s effect on the brain

It’s no secret that unwanted weight gain can be a reality of menopause. Not only does an increase in body fat continue to slow down the metabolization of alcohol, but drinking alcohol, in turn, increases body fat. 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.

Such actions can even revitalize the skin and body and help prevent physical aging due to alcohol use. Heavy drinking can cause irritation to the blood vessels in your eyes. This is why oftentimes when someone is drunk they get bloodshot eyes.

Over time, heavy alcohol use can result in changes to the skin. This is because of the damage that alcohol can do to the body’s organs as well as chemicals in the body. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that alcohol affects the aging process.

“Heavy alcohol drinking might change the aging clock before one develops medical disease. Broken bones from a stumble are a serious health issue for seniors. It’s because alcohol can affect your balance and sense of judgment.

If you’re blessed with genetics that resists wrinkles and other visible signs of aging, you might not notice the way that alcohol affects your appearance. Drinking alcohol may make you feel younger as you lose your inhibitions and gain some energy, but the hangover the next day can make you feel sick, sluggish, and downright old. Even if you don’t experience acute after-effects, alcohol can age you. You may not realize it, but alcohol and aging effects go hand-in-hand. Popular methods such as meditation, yoga, therapy, and exercise may help if you drink to manage mental health conditions. But these alone may not be enough, so ask your doctor alcoholism and narcissism about additional treatment options.

When participants also were given an infusion of alcohol, this decreased by another 19%. “It was just not pretty,” Grace said in one of her videos for The 30-Day Alcohol Experiment, her program that helps people reevaluate their relationship with alcohol. “When skin gets inflamed, it produces a condition called rosacea,” he said. Rosacea is characterized by redness on the face, what does flakka smell like and sometimes the ears, back, and chest. Alcohol disrupts sleep, too, and poor sleep saps your face of precious time to repair.

Supporting a Loved One: Medication & Recovery

Even diet-conscious alcoholic beverages like vodka sodas can lead to disproportionate belly weight if you drink enough of them. Now a clinical psychologist who works with people with addictions, Utter knows alcohol-use disorder falls on a spectrum. While some people with it do look like those bar patrons, many look perfectly healthy.

For example, young people who drink regularly have been shown to perform poorly in tests of executive function. As you age, what is whippits the body’s mechanisms that protect you from free radicals diminish. Therefore, you’re at a greater risk of developing a wide range of health problems, including the neurodegenerative conditions that affect your cognition and memory. Broken capillaries, the tiny blood vessels near the surface of the skin, tend to crop up as you get older.