The dangers of Alcohol consumption - and how to mitigate it!

Today I thought  I would talk about some of the dangers of alcohol and most importantly, how to lessen the damage if you do decide to drink.

We all know that drinking alcohol has a dark side, but do you really know what it is doing to you? Many of your symptoms could simply be caused by that daily tipple. We go over, what it is doing and how you can protect yourself.

 I have known about this for a very long time, and there was a time when I didn’t drink anything for many years. Then it sneaked into my life, by stealth !! And for the last couple of years, I was drinking daily, thinking I was doing ok. Now I have had over 3 months off, with the Ultimate Detox and oh my, I feel so much better without it!! I have had the occasional glass of wine since being on the strict part of the program and I really don’t like the way it makes me feel!! 

Here are a few reasons to either knock alcohol on the head or at least limit its consumption. 

Alcohol poisons your brain, and that is why you feel drunk. It shrinks neurons, destroys your gut lining and leads to inflammation within your whole body, not just your gut. It depletes NAD levels,  which are critical for longevity and ruins your sleep.

Here's what it does to you:

Gut Damage 

The first place it harms is your gut.

Alcohol disrupts the microbiome leading to dysbiosis—this in turn compromises the gut lining, which leads to a leaky gut allowing endotoxins to pass into your bloodstream causing loads of inflammation and constipation plus other gut issues 

Liver Damage

Alcohol causes many to have liver damage. The reason is that with the gut lining being compromised, the gut lining allows endotoxins to pass through to the liver causing inflammation and oxidative stress as well as fat deposits in and around the liver.

Alcohol depletes the liver's detoxification pathways and in turn, disrupts the ability to detoxify other harmful substances. Which can cause so many other health problems as we go along.

Brain damage

Ethanol is very toxic to the brain as it bypasses the blood-brain barrier. It is what causes us to feel the effects of alcohol when we are drunk.

One of the ways it causes damage is via gut and liver damage - these are the long-term effects of that night on the town.  It does this via an immune activation and inflammation is caused in your brain. Hence the hangover effect.

Alcoholics have reduced Grey matter - areas of neuron density - in the brain which is one of the reasons why they have trouble learning and memory loss.

However, it is not just alcoholics that have issues, studies have shown that just 1-2 drinks per day are associated with brain damage that is the equivalent of ageing 10 years over a 1-year period. I must admit this sounds a bit quick, however, I felt as though I had aged considerably over the last couple of years and now, since doing the detox ( The Ultimate Detox that is ) am feeling as though I have turned the clock back again, which feels good! 

Low Testosterone + Increase in Oestrogen

Alcohol usage will increase oestrogen and decrease testosterone. This happens via multiple mechanisms

Alcohol increases aromatase expression in the liver which converts testosterone into Oestrogen. Excess S+Oestrogen will also lower testosterone and reduce Testosterone synthesis.

Many alcohols also contain potent Pythoestrogens. It is the Hoppy beers that contain these and they basically increase your levels of Oestrogens. What this means is, if you drink enough of these beers, you are getting very close to a dose of the birth control pill!!

Deplete B Vitamins, NAD and vitamin A

 I am sure you know what B vitamins and vitamin A are. NAD is a newish kid on the block and here is a short explanation

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is found in every living cell, serving as an essential cofactor — the compounds necessary for the activity of molecular machines (enzymes) — involved in fundamental biological processes. Initially discovered in 1906, NAD+ has seen a resurgence in research continually showing that NAD+ is critical for maintaining the health of our cells, tissues, and bodies.

So in a nutshell -  Alcohol depletes many critical vitamins and nutrients. NAD is depleted during the detoxification process.
NAD is critical for almost every metabolic process, including:-

• Circadian Rythym 

• Glucose metabolism 

• Cognitive function 

• Cell renewal 

• Cell repair 

Alcohol isn’t just processed by the liver, it actually makes it’s way to every organ, which requires NAD to dispose of it.

When NAD is depleted, metabolic rate and tissue repair begin to slow allowing more damage to accumulate in every tissue that the alcohol gets to! 

Alcohol depletes B1 one of the most important vitamins for cognitive function as well as glucose metabolism. 

Plus depleting our vitamin A stores also affects our liver function, which affects our immune system our skin elasticity, hormones synthesis (see above). Plus many other functions.

Alcohol disturbs sleep

While alcohol may help you fall asleep faster, it disrupts sleep patterns, leading to less deep sleep, less REM sleep and a disordered sleep cycle

This will make you more tired in the morning, lead to cognitive impairment & less tissue restoration 

Alcohol can cause anxiety 

Alcohol initially increases GABA, an inhibitory, anti-anxiety neurotransmitter,
However, over time it reduces the number of GABA receptors, causing overexcitation and anxiety.

Do not drink to destress, it'll backfire 

So what to do?? 

Well, the ideal way of living, is, of course, to not drink on a regular basis. If you are on one of our programmes - Fast Track to Health or our newest programme Ultimate Detox, then you will be off the booze for a while anyway. However, there are times when you are out socially and feel like you would like to join in we have a few suggestions to help with damage limitation.
I would like to say not to make alcohol a mainstay of your life otherwise you will be affected by the above!! 

Here are a few suggestions to help limit the damage to your system. 

I have a protocol that I have been using with clients on the program, when they have an event where they feel they want to let their hair down and enjoy it, without guilt it is this. 

Two products  - Milk thistle and charcoal - as a herbalist I tend to recommend liquid Milk thistle but some prefer the caps - the dosage here is for the tincture form. 

Before going out take 15 drops of Milk thistle in some water - 30 mins or so before imbibing. Then as close to starting drinking, in fact with your first sip, take 2 charcoal capsules. 

Then as close to finishing drinking take 2 charcoal caps. Then approximately 30 mins later take another 15 drops of milk thistle in water. 

Milk Thistle helps protect your liver and charcoal helps to limit the amount that is absorbed into your system. 

Plus what you eat can really help with mitigating the effects of alcohol too and believe it or not, saturated fat comes to the rescue (I have a blog about this that will be released next week- which can be mind-blowing

So, saturated fats are one of the most effective ways to help the gut and the liver

Studies show that sat fat supplementation completely blocked the negative effects of ethanol to liver & gut, specifically Tallow - Which is basically beef fat, Tallow was the fat that used to be used by fish and chips shops back in the day because it could be used at high heat without it affecting the food cooked in it. Plus it is a delicious way to fry!!  

PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) on the other hand, exacerbate issues and according to this study, linoleic acid is REQUIRED for ethanol to damage your liver, yep that’s right REQUIRED!! Here is a study about this

In this study, it showed that "the tallow ethanol group didn't show any liver damage"

I am not recommending that you have chips cooked in tallow, as this might not help. But you can access tallow capsules which could!! Here is the link for the online shop - Here another plus with this is that it can help reduce abdominal fat - more info for this coming soon!! 

On the other hand, the last thing you want is a PUFA-heavy meal with alcohol. 

Another option: EAT CHEESE which massively helps you cope with the detoxification effect - The French have definitely got things right with this - think cheese and wine!! 

Hope you find this of interest
Let me know if you need more info about this or any other subject