However, some maintain heavy drinking patterns throughout life, and some develop problems with alcohol for the first time during their later years. The many challenges that can arise at this stage of life — reduced income, failing health, loneliness, and the loss of friends and loved ones — may cause some people to drink to escape their feelings. Research examining the impact of alcohol consumption over a long period of time, as drug addiction treatment well as binge drinking, on biological aging has been limited. If you’re clocking more than seven drinks a week or more than three on any given day, doctors and health experts recommend changing your habits. Even if you haven’t hit that upper limit, you could benefit from drinking less as you get older.
Potential health benefits
Each DNAm age has its corresponding epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) to indicate the discrepancy between chronological age and DNAm age. A positive value of EAA indicates a more advanced biological age relative to the chronological age and vice versa. The reasons for underdetection and misdiagnosis of alcohol use disorders in elderly people are many and varied. This essentially puts us at greater https://ecosoberhouse.com/ risk for developing diseases such as cancer. Some studies have also found associations between shorter telomeres and pulmonary disease and liver disease. Recent research indicates that excessive alcohol consumption can indeed speed up the aging process at a biological level.
Drinking can increase your risk of disease and death
- Medicines and alcohol can interact even if they’re not taken at the same time.
- They can also recommend alcohol abuse programs specifically for older adults.
- Your support can’t fully solve an older adult’s drinking problem, but it can be key to helping them confront their own issues.
- Regular alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for liver disease and head and neck cancer, and chronic alcohol use has been linked with an acceleration of age-related cognitive decline and brain atrophy.
It is even possible to identify alcoholics and controls looking at MRI scans of their executive control networks and reward networks (Zhu et al., 2018). We defined women consuming over 4 drinks per day and men consuming over 5 drinks per day as having binge drinking. The number of drinking days was also considered for binge drinking with the question “On average how many days per week did you drink over the past year” for the total alcohol consumption.
Changes in Cognition and Brain Plasticity in the Aging Brain
- These include many prescribed and over-the-counter medicines and herbal products.
- Plus, accumulating research finds that drinking alcohol comes with some serious health risks, particularly for older adults.
- Beyond the examples noted above, alcohol has the potential to interact negatively with many other commonly prescribed medications.
- Changes in your body’s hormones can lead to difficulty sleeping as you age.
- Eventually, they are so degraded that the cell dies as it can no longer divide.
Take the time to learn about alcoholism and alcohol abuse, including common signs, effects, and myths. Watching an aging parent or other loved one struggle with a drinking habit can be does alcohol make you look older a painful experience. You might feel frustrated by their alcohol abuse or distressed about the potential long-term consequences. Although you can’t control their behavior or make decisions for them, you can broach the subject and advocate for change. Loneliness is a common hurdle many of us face as we age, and it can go hand-in-hand with depression and excessive drinking.
