In my more than two decades of law enforcement experience, I've seen more than one of my colleagues overtaken by the powerful effects of alcohol consumption. What may have begun as "just a drink or two with work mates" became a powerful addiction that ended with a slow, torturous death.
So is there anything really wrong with having a drink or two? The answer to that question depends on myriad factors, including your current overall health and family history. But the dangers are real, and you need to be aware of them. Let's start by looking at some effects of alcohol on the body and on your ability to maintain a healthy weight.
Effects of Alcohol on the Body
Alcohol moves quickly through the body. It enters the blood without being metabolized in the stomach. Alcohol can be measured in the blood within five minutes of having a drink and within 30–90 minutes after you've had a drink, the alcohol in your bloodstream will be at its highest level. The liver is responsible for most of the breakdown of alcohol once it is in your body. However, the body needs time, and if you're drinking alcohol faster than your body can break down the alcohol, the excess begins to move through your body and into other areas, such as the brain, where it can destroy cells.
Alcohol & Diabetes
Alcohol raises HGa1C levels, which is a marker for pre-diabetes and a marker in the management of diabetes. When a pre-diabetic person (many are without realizing it) consumes alcohol, they're susceptible to hypoglycemia, an abnormally low blood glucose level. Hypoglycemia can cause seizures, unconsciousness and, in rare cases, brain damage or death.
If you have pre-diabetes, you may safely consume a drink on occasion, depending on the severity of your pre-diabetic state. However, don't over-consume, and always allow your body plenty of time to absorb the alcohol. If you've been diagnosed with diabetes, you need to take even more care, strictly limiting alcohol or stopping altogether.
Aside from the effect on sugar production and metabolism in pre-diabetic and diabetic persons, alcohol is a source of calories. Excessive intake of alcohol contributes to weight gain, which can in turn disrupt blood sugar levels. There are seven calories per gram of alcohol, a fact that is rarely thought of with regard to its intake. One drink can lead to two, two drinks lead to three, and so on.
Speak to your physician about alcohol in your diet to help reduce your chances of developing diabetes. If you do have a drink, make sure you aren't drinking on an empty stomach, and limit consumption to one drink if you are female, two if you are male. Select drinks that are low in alcohol and sugar, such as a spritzer. Also, use mixers that are sugar-free, such as diet drinks, tonics and seltzers or water.
Alcohol & Weight Loss
If you need to lose weight, avoiding alcohol is a wise decision. Not only is alcohol packed with empty calories and devoid of any nourishment, it inhibits your fat-burning and fat-storing hormones, providing a double- and triple-whammy against all your weight-loss efforts. If that's not bad enough, it lowers your inhibitions and changes your decision-making processes, causing you to make poor food choices. As stated, alcohol lowers your blood sugar levels, thereby making you feel hungrier and much more likely to consume excess calories. Add this to the calories from the alcohol, and you'll quickly see how bad alcohol is for weight loss.
Even worse, when your body is attempting to metabolize alcohol and food that have been consumed together, it will use the energy from the alcohol first and store the food as fat. Because the body perceives alcohol as a poison and because it cannot store the energy from alcohol, its first priority is to eliminate it, while digesting and processing the food becomes secondary. That means your meal gets stored and synthesized as fat while the alcohol gets burned off. Because the food you've consumed is being stored and not properly metabolized with the overconsumption of alcohol, the nutrition from that food is not being absorbed by your body. The vitamins and minerals you need to be healthy are not utilized. Without adequate nutrition, your body is less healthy and more likely to store fat.
Bottom line: Too much alcohol causes insulin resistance and increases the likelihood of weight-loss resistance.
Happy Hour?
For most of us, drinking alcohol won't lead to a dangerous addiction. But it can easily contribute to a host of negative health effects. So next time your fellow officers hit the bar at the end of the shift, slow down and remember what you know about the effects of alcohol on the body. When you're armed with the right information, you can make a better decision about whether to have that "routine" drink.