Alcohol use Increases Risk of, and Worsens, Osteoporosis

Drinking is a health risk for many reasons, such as what it does to the heart and many other organs. What several studies have revealed in the past decade and a half is how alcohol deteriorates bone and cartilage.

Drinking Alcohol Harming Your Boneson

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Soft tissue, like spinal discs, are largely comprised of fluid. Alcohol dehydrates the body. As I personally experienced, the dehydrated discs lose elasticity. The spine is a series of joints cushioned by the discs, and when the discs get deteriorate, the lining of these joints gets worn and aggravated. It's not a pleasant feeling.

Bones deteriorate, too. Alcohol use, especially during adolescence and young adult years ups the risk of osteoporosis later in life. Two or three ounces of alcohol every day is all it takes for the small intestine to not absorb calcium adequately. Alcohol also messes with the kidneys, pancreas and liver and their regulation of calcium and vitamin D. Vitamin D, which in turn is important for calcium absorption. When alcohol lowers blood calcium, a parathyroid hormone is released by four rice-sized glands at the rear of the thyroid. The hormone leaches calcium from the bone.

Two other hormones important to bone health also are under seige from alcohol. For women, alcohol decreases estrogen. As estrogen drops, it leads to bone loss. In the menopausal years, this adds to the bone loss that's naturally occurring. The stress hormone cortisol – a key topic in the alcoholism relapse book Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud – is found at a higher baseline in those of us with the disease of alcoholism, and remains high even after quitting. High levels of cortisol decrease bone formation and increase bone breakdown.

Also, excess alcohol kills osteoblasts and osteoclasts, that's doctor-speak for cells that make bones. No osteo-cells, no new bone growth or remodeling.

Osteoporosis Risk Factors of Bones

Let's compound that with lousy balance when drinking. A drinker is more likely to fall, and the bones depleted by drinking are more apt to break. There's good news here though: Some studies have found that lost bone can be partially restored within 60 days of quitting. Another reason sobriety is better to have than to lack.

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Alcohol use forces disruption of the body's vitamin A levels

Several of The Sobriety :60+ video segments have mentioned how even moderate alcohol use plays havoc with vitamins. It raids the body of B-vitamins, covered in the episodes on the heart and brain. Alcohol also has a dramatic impact on the way vitamin A is handled. Part of that was alluded to in the episodes on the eyes, immune system and the liver. A new study published in the Sept. 2, 2015 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal gives a little more detail.

Alcoholism Alcoholic Symptoms

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The study suggests long-term alcohol use lowers vitamin A levels in the liver, which is the main site of both, alcohol metabolism and vitamin A storage, while bumping up vitamin A levels in many other tissues. Initially 15 percent of the body's vitamin A migrates out of the liver to other tissues. Ultimately, around 60 percent of the vitamin is lost with chronic drinking. “We hope this study will lead to a broader understanding and appreciation of the fact that excessive consumption of alcohol has a negative effect on vitamin A function in the body," said researcher, Robin Clugston, from Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

So it's a wash if liver vitamin A is low and vitamin A in other tissues is elevated, right? Not exactly. The liver needs the vitamin A to stave off liver disease. And the other tissues don't feed the A into the bloodstream the way the liver does. You'll know you're deficient in the vitamin if you get night blindness or blotchy rashes or both.

If it builds up in other tissues, it can become toxic. Self medicating with vitamin A supplements would worsen it, even if the liver stores are low. Vitamin A toxicity usually reveals itself with headaches, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting… which could be confused with the alcohol itself. In recovery, addiction care from professionals you experience at The Manor among others, will focus on diets that contain vitamin-rich food, not simply pill supplements for this reason.

One of the best things about recovery is feeling “well” again… sometimes for what feels like the first time ever. Part of where that feeling comes from is not dumping a toxin into the body, and part comes from a healthy diet. The rest? That comes from knowing you don't have to live the old way anymore.

Night Blindness of Eye

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Erectile dysfunction can be caused by alcohol use

Sexual performance is a touchy issue -- excuse the bad pun -- and it could be even touchier when hooked up with how much men drink. Guys who want to avoid taking erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Cialis or the blue pill might want to back off the alcohol. Drinking alcohol can cause lasting damage to men's sexual performance even after abstaining from the booze, a 2017 study suggests.

Researchers said men can suffer "the droop" for more than a year after giving up heavy drinking. Academics from Santo Tomas University in Columbia and the University of Granada in Spain said their results show that, overall, all dimensions (pleasure, arousal, desire and orgasm) were moderately impaired. Pleasure and orgasm being the two most significantly impaired. After even two weeks of abstinence, there was no improvement.

The Journal of Sexual Medicine study noted: It does not seem to be just a temporary problem because erectile ability was still affected after a year, and according to the results, did not seem likely to improve by just reducing drinking rather than quitting all together. This 2013 study reverses long-standing myth that alcohol does not cause performance problems. In fact, studies show that men with the disease of alcoholism have a 60 to 70 percent chance of suffering from sexual problems. Alcohol users were found to have lower pleasure scores, which only backs up years of speculation about alcohol and how it changes male performance and overall reproductive health.

So the booze may make it easier to get a few digits at the club, but the depressant can kill the fun later that night... and possibly later in life if the drinking continues.

The researchers also found that heavy drinkers tended to enjoy sex less, and less often, than those who don't drink anymore. Might have something to do with how alcohol impacts other areas of relationships, too.

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Moderate alcohol consumption may reduce fracture risk in postmenopausal women

A new fracture-preventative medication comes in the form of a cocktail or a glass of wine, reports a new study. Researchers at the School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, published their findings online on July 9 in the journal Menopause. According to UCLA Health System, one out of five American women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis; furthermore,about half of all women over the age of 50 will have a fracture of the hip, wrist, or vertebra (bones of the spine).

The researchers noted that epidemiological studies have reported that higher bone mass is associated with moderate alcohol consumption in postmenopausal women. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effects of alcohol on bone are unknown. They note that excessive bone turnover, combined with an imbalance whereby bone resorption exceeds bone formation, is the principal cause of postmenopausal bone loss. In view of this effect of alcohol, the researchers investigated the hypothesis that moderate alcohol intake decreases bone turnover after menopause.

The study group was comprised of 40 postmenopausal women (average age: 56 years). During the week before the onset of the study, the women drank their normal amounts (average: 1.4 drinks/day) of alcohol and kept a diary. For the 14-day intervention period, the women abstained from drinking any alcohol. On day 15, the researchers gave a measured amount of alcohol, based on the women's previous drinking patterns, for them to drink. To assess whether alcohol consumption affected bone turnover, the investigators drew blood samples from the women before, during, and after the intervention. to assess whether alcohol consumption affected bone turnover. Bone mineral density was determined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Serum levels of the bone formation marker osteocalcin and the resorption marker C-terminal telopeptide (CTx) were measured by immunoassay at baseline (day 0) and after alcohol withdrawal for 14 days. The women then consumed alcohol and were assayed on the following morning.

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The researchers found that bone mineral density at the trochanter (upper tip of the thigh bone) and total hip were positively correlated to the level of alcohol consumption. Compared with baseline levels, serum osteocalcin (4.1 +/- 1.6%) and CTx (5.8 +/- 2.6%) increased after abstinence. Compared to the previous day, osteocalcin (-3.4 +/- 1.4%) and CTx (-3.5 +/- 2.1%) decreased after alcohol readministration to values that did not differ from baseline.

The authors concluded that abstinence from alcohol results in increased markers of bone turnover, whereas resumption of alcohol reduces bone turnover markers. They noted that their results suggest a cellular mechanism for the increased bone density observed in postmenopausal moderate alcohol consumers. They wrote: “Specifically, the inhibitory effect of alcohol on bone turnover attenuates the detrimental skeletal consequences of excessive bone turnover associated with menopause.”

Take home message:

This is another study that notes that moderate alcohol consumption may have certain beneficial effects on one’s health. The key, however, is moderate alcohol consumption. Excess alcohol can have deleterious effects, including the risk of a full, which can result in a hip fracture.

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