Hangxiety- 9 things you need to know about your daily wine habit
That day after feeling is never pretty. If we’ve hit it hard the effects are super obvious. Headache, nausea, fatigue, the inevitable anxiety of wondering what we did, said, who we offended, what pictures we took or sent….but what about our daily habit? That glass of wine or 2 we have at night to relax us or the beer or three we have after a hard day?
Apart from the physical concerns of liver damage and gut health (to name just 2) I really want to look at how it effects our mental health. If you are a perimenopausal woman pay close attention because it’s in our 40’s that we often notice anxiety and depression creeping in or becoming worse but we are increasing reaching for a regular glass of wine.
Here’s 9 ways alcohol is affecting your mood that you may not even know about!
1. There is a rebound effect to the relaxation feeling. Initially alcohol increases GABA. GABA is a lovely calming neurotransmitter (this one is also lower in perimenopausal women hence we seem to reach for the bottle a little more). BUT the rebound effect of excitatory neurotransimitters wakes us up early or prevents us from getting a restful sleep. Cue HANGXIETY.
2. Short term alcohol use = increase in GABA. BUT long term leads to a decrease. GABA is a relaxing hormone that helps us wind down and sleep well but long term alcohol use depletes it leading to more anxiety and higher stress levels. Also, less sleep. GABA tends to be lower in perimenopausal women too.
3. Alcohol causes a rush of dopamine. Sounds nice as dopamine is our pleasure hormone ensuring we come back for more of the good stuff! But, it ensures we comes back for more of the good stuff that is also damaging physically and mentally.
4. Alcohol disrupts our sleep cycles by reducing the amount of REM sleep we get. This leads to fatigue the next day, cravings for carby food, hard slog days that lead us to reach for more alcohol to smooth out the days difficulties and so the cycle goes.
5. Seratonin is increased with short term drinking BUT decreased with long term exposure. This leaves you in a perpetual cycle of drinking to feel better then experiencing a drop of the happy hormone, serotonin, bringing you in for another drink. And then there’s the tolerance aspect of alcohol- you need more overtime for the same effect.
6. Neuroinflammation is a side effect of alcohol. When the body metabolises alcohol, it creates a metabolite that is toxic to the brain and causes damage and neurotransmitter dysregulation. Cue more mood dyregulation, anxiety and depression or a worsening of other mental health disorders.
7. Alcohol actives our HPA axis- hypothalmus-pituatory-adrenal system. Simply put, this causes more stress hormone to be released increasing our fight or flight system. Cortisol should be highest in the morning so we can get out of bed. By raising our cortisol levels with alcohol regularly we eventually create a dysregulated HPA axis response driving sleeplessness, anxiety and fatigue to say the least.
8. Alcohol spikes blood glucose levels leading to a plummet the next day. Cue poor mood with anything from anxiety and depression to irritability and difficulty coping with even basic tasks not to mention the cravings for carby food that perpetuates the situation. Fun huh?
9. We develop a tolerance to alcohol which means we need to consume more over time for the same effect. This is why one glass quickly becomes 2-3 over time and before you know it you’re drinking 4-5 standard drinks a night. Sound familiar?
Wowsers! Even I’m surprised at all of that, and it was only the tip of the iceberg. There is an enormous body of research on alcohol and it’s physical and mental effects. I hear you when you say ‘but a glass of red is good for us’. And there is certainly some research to show that a glass of red wine with a meal combined with a Mediterranean diet can be beneficial but it’s a tiny amount of red wine AND it’s just one part of the diet AND do the benefits outweigh the damage? Where are you in life? Is it still beneficial? Can you stop at just one, small drink?
Just to finish up with the Australian standards for drinking are 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 on any given day (average standard drink equals 100ml of wine, 375ml mid strength beer (3.5%)). Take a minute to do an audit on your drinking.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8625009/
https://academic.oup.com/ijnp/article/26/1/32/6711720
https://www.health.gov.au/news/australian-alcohol-guidelines-revised
https://www.health.gov.au/topics/alcohol/about-alcohol/standard-drinks-guide