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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Nearly one in five adults over 65 drink daily, not without risk

A July 2014 study by consumer analysts, The Mintel Group, concludes 18 percent of people over age of 65 drink daily. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says one in ten in this age group is a binge drinker. Not every daily or binge drinker is alcoholic, however there are considerations aside from the disease of alcoholism:

Middle-aged drinking more than the young

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Ø  There’s a three times higher rate of depression compared to non-drinking seniors;

Ø  Drinkers have a three times greater risk of hip fracture; and

Ø  Drinkers past the retirement age have a 16 times greater likelihood of a suicide attempt compared to a non-drinker.

There are drug interactions as well, as highlighted in a previous episode, and as people age they generally are prescribed more medications and take more over the counter remedies. All in, more than 120 meds have an adverse reaction to alcohol.

Statistics on alcohol-related deaths in older adults are not entirely accurate, although they point to a higher toll than the under-60 crowd. Take for example, a retiree who has a wicked fall following a drinking episode or an alcohol/drug interaction. The medical examiner's “cause of death” would be a head injury. What caused the head injury? Or more to the point, what caused the fall? Back to an earlier stat: Why do drinkers have a higher likelihood of hip fracture? Not just because old age weakens bone, but because alcohol compromises an already compromised sense of balance.

A July 2015 British Medical Journal study noted that those over age 50 who are active, social and well-off are drinking more – a “middle class phenomenon” which may be a hidden health and social problem in otherwise successful older people. What may skew all the stats on the extent of drinking in older adults is that maybe they’re drinking the same as ever before (which would be bad news or no news) but now they’re wise enough to admit to problem drinking and seek help for alcohol use disorders that nobody solves on their own (and that's good news).

Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Brain As You Get Older

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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.

Source: ED Treatment India