Ever wondered why the daily recommended intake for alcohol is different for men and women? Sadly the science isn’t being sexist – we do process it differently.
For healthy men and women, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day reduces the lifetime risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury. While you might think if you and your partner are the same size, or perhaps you are a tall lady that you can “keep up with the boys”, it’s not actually size that is the main player in why the recommendations differ.
Men and women process alcohol differently due to differences in their body make-up. Men have a higher content of body water (55-65 percent) and alcohol is water-soluble so will distribute more rapidly from the blood of a person who has higher body water content. Men also have lower body fat (about 12 percent). Women have lower body water (about 45-55 percent) and also have higher body fat (about 33 percent) and alcohol is relatively fat-insoluble so will distribute slower into and out of fat. This slower distribution is exacerbated by a limited blood supply in fat.
Women also have less dehydrogenase, a liver enzyme that breaks down alcohol, which in layman’s terms means they will break down alcohol more slowly than a man.
Our hormones have a role to play in how we break down alcohol – premenstrual hormonal changes can cause intoxication to set in faster during the days right before menstruation begins, and contraceptive pills or other medication with oestrogen can also slow down the rate at which alcohol is eliminated from the body.
Long term, the way we metabolise alcohol has other ramifications – women who are heavy drinkers are at greater risk than male heavy drinkers of liver disease, damage to the pancreas and high blood pressure and proportionately more alcoholic women die from cirrhosis than do alcoholic men.
What does this mean for your young person?
If you have a daughter, it’s important to discuss how alcohol is processed differently for men and women – socially speaking, women have been successfully fighting for equality, but when it comes to alcohol, our biology simply doesn’t care. The effects of matching a male drink for drink can:
- Put women at higher risk of driving under the influence – as well as a fine or losing your license and possibly livelihood, it could lead to a more serious outcome such as death or injury to themselves or others.
- Put women at an increased chance of making bad choices – maybe walking home alone, having unprotected sex or getting in a car with an intoxicated or inexperienced driver.
- Put women at increased risk of assault – it’s a controversial concept, but it’s not a matter of thinking being drunk means a women is ‘asking for it’, rather that being intoxicated makes you inherently more vulnerable in general, including from sexual assault.
- Alcohol consumption is linked to breast cancer, and matching drink for drink over a long period of time increases this risk.
Do you ever worry about how much alcohol you drink?
Want to know more about alcohol?
- Alcohol and your health
- Talking to your teen about alcohol
- Teens and parties: why parents need to say no to booze