Alcohol Explained
Alcohol Explained & How It Affects Your Body & Fitness
What’s the deal with alcohol? If you’re like most people, you probably enjoy a glass of alcohol every now and then. As long as you consume it in moderation, there’s no harm, right?
Some people seem to think alcohol is all bad, while others think there could be some benefit to drinking the stuff. The real answer is surprisingly complex. This article will break down how alcohol works in your body, and what it can do for you.
Is Drinking Alcohol Holding You Back?
What Is Alcohol?
Alcohol is a drink that’s made by fermenting grains, fruits, or any other kind of sugar. The main chemical in alcohol that makes the magic happen is ethanol.
Alcohol is the most popular drink in the world.
Humans have been drinking the stuff since 10,000 BC, and don’t show signs of stopping any time soon.
How Does Alcohol Work?
When you drink alcohol, it quickly moves around your bloodstream to reach your entire body.
It keeps circling around until your liver is able to completely break it down.
It works its way into the stomach and small intestines with time. If you’ve got some food in you, then it sits longer in your stomach and your stomach absorbs most of it. If there’s no food in you, it’s absorbed by the intestines instead.
Alcohol hits everyone differently. But in general, it slows down your thinking, your breathing, and your heart rate. In small doses, it can have some positive effects. In big doses, not so much.
What’s The Right Amount Of Alcohol?
One drink is considered to be 12 ounces (0.35 l) of beer, 5 ounces (0.15 l) of wine, and 1½ ounces of hard liquor. Each drink gives you 12-14 grams of alcohol on average.
A healthy, moderate dose is 1-2 drinks a day for men, and 1 drink a day for a woman.
What Alcohol Does For You
Moderate alcohol consumption improves cardiovascular health.
The right amount of alcohol raises HDL cholesterol, and it’s well-known that high levels of HDL cholesterol are linked with greater protection against heart disease. It also increases your insulin sensitivity, and prevents the formation of blood clots that can pop up in the brain, neck, and heart.
Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of gallstones.
How alcohol does this is unknown. But it’s theorized that alcohol leads to lower cholesterol levels in your bile which leads to a reduced risk of gallstones. Another theory states that alcohol changes the rate at which the gallbladder empties out. This should reduce the amount of bile that stays in the gallbladder and causes stone formation.
Moderate alcohol consumption increases testosterone.
Your body normally eliminates testosterone through urine. But there’s a specific enzyme in the quercetin of red wine, UGT2B17, that blocks your body from doing that. This means that red wine can increase your testosterone by stopping the processes that normally eliminate it.
How Does ALCOHOL Impact Fat Loss, Muscle & Testosterone? with Jeff Nippard
