Latest / Health Unscripted / Ep 38 - Is Alcohol Really That Bad For Us?

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Ep 38 - Is Alcohol Really That Bad For Us? · Health Unscripted

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's up guys?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Help Unscripted with Dr.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: D.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I am Dr.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ashley Dwyer.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: This week we're going to talk about everyone's favorite topic.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean to rain on y'all's parade.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's summer.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of activities going on, a lot of uh barbecues and vacations and all of that.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, what better time to talk about alcohol and how it affects us and our goals?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Super duper fun.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you see me looking a little clueless on the video recording, it's because I have notes pulled up because I took a bunch of notes for this, because alcohol really affects our body in so many ways.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of us are still under the impression that like red wine is good for us.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: A glass of red wine a day or a drink a day is fine, and reservatrol and it helps us with antioxidants and yada yada yada.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry again to burst your bubble, but new data suggests otherwise.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're gonna dive into alcohol, how it affects our body, how it's gonna affect our results, especially if you're looking to achieve weight loss, fat loss, muscle growth, body recomposition, healing your hormones, all of the above.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're gonna dive into what that means for you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it used to be, like I was saying, that one drink for women and two drinks for men showed like cardioprotective effects, right?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And was helpful for you.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone says, like, oh, red wine is the better alcohol.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Drink alcohol, drink red wine because it has like positive effects for you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But as of a new study that just came out that monitored people for 26 years, it actually came out that no amount of alcohol is good for you.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: None, which I'm not surprised, y'all.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: No amount of alcohol is good for you.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is a neurotoxin, it is toxic to the body, and it's also third in line as a giant cancer risk factor after smoking and obesity.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We know how bad smoking is.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we are now also understanding the effects of obesity long term and the health effects from obesity, but alcohol is third in line, and yet it's so, so, so socially normalized that it is really hard to get away from it.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be the first one to say, I live in South Florida.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is like what most people do for fun, brunch or happy hour, or going out to dinner and there's always drinks, or barbecue and there's drinks, or beach day and there's drinks, or, you know, dating, like I'm also single.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's always like drinks, right?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of alcohol.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's very socially normalized.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You watch TV and you watch movies and you watch sitcoms and you see them come home from work and they pour a glass of wine and you just get like used to that habit.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll be honest, I used to be someone who drank like a glass of wine after my pharmacy shifts because it was so stressful and I'd come home and use that to unwind, not knowing at the time, like it was really badly actually affecting my hormones and my sleep, which we're gonna get into.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just like a social normative that it became like a coping strategy.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're going through a tough time, you use it to kind of like numb out, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like alcohol could be like a numbing agent.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you you kind of have to learn different coping mechanisms in that regard.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, it's a calorie bomb, also depending on what your alcohol is of choice, and it's very useless calories.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So for those who track macros and even those who don't, alcohol is the second most like calorie-dense macronutrient.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you didn't know, alcohol is actually the fourth macronutrient, it's just devoid of nutrients.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So for every gram of alcohol, it's seven calories.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't actually track macros that way with alcohol because there's no way to like actually put in the calorie amount.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And my fitness file doesn't do alcohol, it doesn't recognize alcohol.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when we're tracking it for our clients, we separate it as carbs or fat, or we have them log it as carbs and fat.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Never protein, you got to get your protein in.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's actually very nutrient dense for little to no nutrients at all.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of pointless.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this can really put us into calorie surpluses sometimes and really affect our results.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So now no amount of alcohol is good for us.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is super fun to learn already, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, guys.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say um to define drinking, right?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Where it used to be like moderate drinking, or this is moderate drinking, but the one drink for women and two drinks for men a day was considered moderate drinking.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And a drink is defined as either a beer, a five-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof alcohol.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're having like 151 or anything more, that's obviously considered more than one drink.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So one drink is a shot and a half, five ounces of wine, which is a standard restaurant pour, but I'm gonna say when we pour ourselves glasses of wine at home, it is rarely five ounces.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rarely.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Restaurants nowadays, you'll even see on the menu sometimes have a six-ounce pour or a nine ounce pour, and you can choose between the two.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you choose the six ounce, you're already above that standard one drink.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then a beer is a 12-ounce beer.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So standard bottle.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're getting like a giant pint glass, you're getting anything like that, like that's obviously more than one drink.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it starts to add up, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So moderate drinking is one drink per day for women, two drinks for men.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Considered heavy drinking would be more than seven drinks per week for women and more than 14 drinks for men.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then binge drinking, um, I have this written down because I was like, I'm gonna forget.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Binge drinking is consuming four or more drinks on one occasion for women and five or more for men.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're out, you know, with friends and you take back like two shots and you have two vodka sodas as well, that's binge drinking, um, or three shots and two vodka sodas, whatever, you know, if you have more than that in a um on one occasion, it's considered binge drinking.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's noted that one in six adult binge adults binge drink.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would say where I'm from, everyone binge drinks.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, like down in South Florida, everyone binge drinks.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot easier uh to do than you think.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, excessive drinking really does put heart health at risk.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not cardioprotective, it does increase risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, all of that.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I also want to get into what we're here for today, which is our metabolic health, our hormonal health, and our weight loss and muscle growth effects, because that's what everyone comes to us to work on.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I will say that alcohol is a toxin to the body.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as you consume alcohol, your liver goes into detoxing mode.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing it does, is trying to metabolize the alcohol to get it out of your system to make sure you're not being poisoned anymore.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It uses the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are deficient in this.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know Asians and Native Americans are deficient more in alcohol dehydrogenase or alpha dehydrogenase.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I saying alcohol?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let me make sure I'm saying this right.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, wow, all of that.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was right.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: See what happens when I second guess myself?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is alcohol dehydrogenase.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I hate myself sometimes, guys.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So some people are deficient in alcohol dehydrogenase, and so you metabolize alcohol slower.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: The way the body actually metabolizes alcohol is one drink per hour.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: One standard drink per hour is how much the body can regularly get rid of if you have normal levels of alcohol dehydrogenase per hour.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So remember that's 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine, or a shot and an ounce and a half and a shot of liquor or a drink of liquor.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're having any more than that, it's gonna be more than an hour.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how it really affects recovery and sleep.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so like I was saying, it it as soon as you start drinking alcohol, your liver goes into conservation mode for your body, trying to protect you, getting rid of this alcohol.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that you do after that point, the food, the food you eat is generally stored as fat.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you, I know that's like horrible news too, because when we get a little drunky, we always want some little fun food.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: I remember being in college and going straight to Jimmy John's, Peta Pit, Flacco's.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you went to the University of Florida and you were in Midtown, five-star pizza, we always eat like the super carb and fat dense meals that are just so good when wasted.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it turns to fat.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So good times.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Good times.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Probably added the freshman 10, 15 to a lot of us, but that's fine, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So alcohol obviously is going to affect your affect your liver metabolic profile.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So because your body's storing more fat and more carbs, your liver is going to store more fat as well, which then can progress into something known as fatty liver disease.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is obviously not good and can eventually lead to scarring and lead to further issues like cirrhosis.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't want that to happen.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot live without a liver.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Our liver is super important.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: It literally has 500 jobs in the body with metabolizing everything: glycogen, storage, glycogen, production, hormones like cholesterol, you name it, the liver is involved.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is very, very important.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when we drink alcohol, it tends to shut down some of these effects.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, that can be really bad if we're chronic alcohol users.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Acutely, obviously, you know, this happens in the moment, but if we are long-term alcohol drinkers, it can really, really affect us.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing for the liver.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it can store more body fat, store more fat on the actual liver itself, leading to fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, and issues down the line, cancer, et cetera.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes into protection mode of metabolizing alcohol, one drink per hour.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's all that we really do.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So other effects on the body include effects on blood sugar.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when we drink alcohol in a fasted state or before a carb-heavy meal.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, those of us who don't eat before we drink, this can lead to the liver's inability to produce new glucose.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it tends to drive us into a hypoglycemic effect.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we can get dizzy, we can get low blood sugar, we can feel sweaty.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's not fun.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of where we also get more of the um, maybe you feel a little bit more drunk or you feel, you know, you don't feel good during this time.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hypoglycemia is not fun.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you eat a carb-heavy meal after, it's not going to pump out the right way it should.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it can lead to hypoglycemia.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is not obviously a favored thing.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it can also, alcohol consumption can also lead to hyperglycemia and an increased risk of insulin resistance and diabetes with binge drinking and heavy drinking.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So acutely, it can lead to hypoglycemia.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Over time, continuing to drink or heavy drinking or binge drinking, so lots of drinks in the hour.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, more than four for women, more than five for men can actually lead to high blood sugar and an increased risk of developing insulin resistance or diabetes later on, because it will impair your insulin sensitivity.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you really, really, really want insulin sensitivity when it comes to fat loss, weight loss, and muscle growth.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where the way the body works when we're trying to break down muscle tissue and work out is we need that glucose to go into our muscles to be able to use that as energy.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: If our insulin sensitivity is impaired, it's going to affect that process or affect that process.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not going to be great.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're also not going to be able to shuttle as much glucose into our muscles, which will remain, you know, it'll keep the glucose in the blood system.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Our pancreas is going to be like, hey, blood sugar's still high.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: We need to pump out more insulin.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: The insulin is what gets it into the muscles.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just going to keep this negative feedback loop, and the muscles are going to be like, nope.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: The cells are going to be like, nope, we are full.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want any more glucose.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where we tend to store more body fat.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: We decrease our insulin sensitivity.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how we get, you know, become diabetic or insulin resistant.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a good time.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what heavy alcohol drinking can do over time to blood sugar.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: So effects on recovery.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is really fun.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been anyone who's had an aura ring or a whoop, you will a thousand percent know what I'm about to say.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's zero fun to know how much alcohol affects your sleep and your recovery.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I first got my whoop and I was starting, I was drinking and I was like, oh my God, that tanks my recovery.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you wake up red the next day and you're like, yeah, I feel red.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I feel it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's if you don't know what a whoop is, it's like a little wrist strap, kind of like a Fitbit, but without a face.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it does recovery and sleep and it rates you on like red, yellow, or green for your recovery.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, drinking puts you in the red.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Aura has your sleep and recovery score, and it trashes that too.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because it has detrimental effects on resting heart rate and HRV or heart rate variability if you don't know what HRV is.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will say, when I had a whoop, I would try and like test different alcohols and be like, okay, wine, way worse recovery.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Tequila, better recovery, still not great, but I can drink more tequila for the same recovery.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is probably why I drink tequila more often.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would play with it to kind of see like how I could uh beat the recovery system.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And had I just known what I'm gonna teach you guys from this podcast, I wouldn't have had to like play around so much, but we learn later, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: We learn the hard way.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, in order to maximize your recovery while drinking, you're gonna want to drink earlier in the day, right?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if our body's processing one standard drink per hour, the earlier we start drinking, it'll have a chance to process more alcohol by the time we go to bed, which is when our HRV and all of that is calculated, our resting heart rate is calculated.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So day drinking, overnight drinking will give you a more positive recovery the next day.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Shocking, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Shocking.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing is to focus on hydration.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when we drink alcohol, we become dehydrated.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: It runs right through us.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: We know that once you break the seal, you've broken the seal.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's because it dehydrates us.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're losing electrolytes, we're losing water, and we're not really replenishing the water when we're drinking alcohol.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is why you should have a glass of water in between each drink, or even two glasses of water in between each drink, or something I like to do when I come home from drinking, no matter how many I've had, is have water with an element packet, like a drink element packet, and get some more electrolytes within me because I know that I've lost that through urination over the night as I've been out.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also try and drink a ton of water.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And no, guys, I know like I drink tequila water.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's not hydrating me at the same time.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's really not because it's mixed with that alcohol.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's still dehydrating me.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're one of those like data nerds who loves little science facts of how alcohol affects resting heart rate and HRV and all of that and recovery, um, I have the WHO statistics, I don't have Aura statistics, but I'm assuming it could be somewhat similar across the board.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: But resting heart rate will increase on an average of 1.3 BPMs with drinking.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you want a low resting heart rate.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: So an increasing resting heart rate isn't great, and that's per drink.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So 1.3 BPMs per drink.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, HRV decreases on an average of 2.4, which again, you want a high HRV or the highest possible that you can get for yourself.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're very individualized.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then recovery decreases on average of 4.2% per drink.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I can definitely say that that's accurate because let's say you have I have three tequilas.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will have a resting heart rate like in the high 60s, which is nuts because my normal resting heart rate is like 50.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh HRV will decrease from like 80 down to 40.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so these aren't obviously accurate, it depends on the person.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then recovery will decrease from like 80% down to like in the red, which is 30s.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also have, you know, a little bit of Native American in my body.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I swear my alcohol dehydrogenase has got to be low because as soon as I drink, I get a little flushed immediately.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always been sold, told it's like an allergy.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I think my body processes it very slow.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the drinks to me are a little stronger and my body takes longer to get rid of it, which is super fun.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: We love that, but that's why I think it affects my recovery so much.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I've done is lots of water, electrolytes.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I drink earlier in the day.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um I, you know, only have one or two.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't binge drink anymore.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, I'm a lightweight cheap date.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, and uh it's it's been fun that way.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I only really drink one day a week now because of how much it affects like recovery and fat storage and my goals.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm really serious about my goals, I can't also be serious about alcohol.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the truth, guys.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you really have to focus on like, do I really want to meet this goal?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Am I really trying to like get a six pack?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Am I really trying to grow a booty?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Am I really trying to be serious about my goals?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you are, you cannot be drinking three to four nights a week like you usually do.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: You should not even probably be drinking two nights out of the week, if I'm being honest.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe if you're having like one drink each day, but you'll hit your goals faster with zero alcohol consumption.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's just gonna be the hard facts.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it is.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of I'm bulking right now, as everyone knows.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not the calories that scare that scare me.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's more the distribution of how my body is recovering to gain that muscle mass.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I've limited my drinking to once a week.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, could I completely give it up?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do I realistically want to because I do enjoy a cocktail and I do enjoy going out with friends?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't want to.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this is my like sacrifice here.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a lot better than what I used to do.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I used to drink like four nights a week and probably three drinks each night.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I did it, but pharmacy school was way worse.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll get to that soon.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: But um, next up is um other effects that alcohol can have on the body.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So gut distress.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: We all know of like bubble guts or dads, which is like the day after drinking shits.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows bubble guts, everyone knows dads.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you do now.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But alcohol can really, really, really mess up your stomach.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: So they always put in like hangover packages like Advil for your headache, Gatorade for electrolytes, water, and then like alka seltzer to balance your stomach, right?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know you have that like acidic, I just gotta go to the bathroom stomach.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not good.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the reason this happens is, you know, it can cause diarrhea or constipation.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So dads would obviously be diarrhea, and that's just because of all of the influx of water coming through your body or the fluid coming through your body that can just push everything out and you have you have diarrhea.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: It also inflames your stomach because it can it can really cause acid reflux, like it's a really big stressor on the on the stomach and very acidic.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this will have your body moving, you know, things moving through your intestines a lot quicker.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where diarrhea comes from.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can suffer from constipation with drinking too later on because it alcohol dehydrates you.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not rehydrating, you know, you need water to form bowel movements.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like water needs to be in the digestive tract to form the stool.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just hard matter to have it come out.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're constipated on a normal day today without drinking alcohol, add some more water to your day and your constipation will probably cease a little bit.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so if you're really dehydrated from alcohol, you can also have some constipation, which makes you feel backed up, really full, bloated.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not great.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I was saying, acid reflux is another side effect of drinking a lot of alcohol.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's very acidic.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: It can cause your throat to burn, it can cause just like that chest pain from having acid reflux because it's especially if you're drinking on an empty stomach, it's just pissing off your stomach, uh, which can later cause gastritis if left untreated and too acidic.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where my pharmacy school story comes in, is our last.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the way UF did pharmacy school was you go to school for three years, then your last year, you do rotations until the last eight weeks, and then you come back for eight weeks of class, you do a final project, and then you graduate.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: They don't do that anymore, but that's how they did it when I went there.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say the last eight weeks, because we only had one project left, and we had some like other classes, but um, by that time, it was just a party every day.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: We would probably be at happy hour every day at Swamp, sitting on the front lawn, having five dollar doubles.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: My best girlfriend Carly, if you're listening to this, we used to have three olives mango, like it was our job.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: We drank a lot, y'all, in pharmacy school.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not proud of it, and I don't even know how we survived, but we did.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I graduated pharmacy school, and I, you know, was working as a pharmacy grad intern at that point before I passed my boards.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was studying for my boards, which was really stress inducing to try and pass your boards, and all of the stress and all of the alcohol consumption gave me gastritis.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I had non ulcerative gastritis.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when I tell you I had to quit alcohol, quit coffee, quit all the trigger foods like citrus and chocolate and all of that and heal it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: For a while.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was insane.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's no fun.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was so painful.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't wish that on anyone, but alcohol will cause that.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Mix it with stress.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, perfect combination for an ER visit.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Telling you, don't do it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, another stomach side effect from a lot of alcohol and increased alcohol consumption is something that isn't totally recognized in Western medicine yet.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: They do have names for it, so I'll give both names.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's leaky gut, is what we terminize terminology, Ashley.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's leaky gut, which is our terminology and kind of like functional integrative mess uh medicine.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: In Western medicine, it's probably like increased gut permeability.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, what that means is in your stomach lining, in your in your intestine lining, you have these things called tight junctions, and they're supposed to be tight, which means nothing gets through them.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if something escapes through those tight junctions, it goes out into the bloodstream and that's bad.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your body recognizes it as a foreign invader, it attacks it.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is how autoimmune conditions happen, food intolerances happen, all of that.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we want those junctions set sealed tight.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want them to be leaky or loose.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Increased intestinal permeability caused by alcohol and stress and some other things will make these junctions loose and food particles will slip through them, and that's how we have an issue.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then we really just need to heal the gut and seal those tight junctions.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So alcohol will definitely do this to your gut.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do have gut issues, if you do have food intolerances, if you have a lot of that, this might be setting off some light bulbs in your head.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing it can do is impair the vililli in our stomach and in our intestines, not our stomach, our intestines, and villi are little like microhair-looking things, which is where we absorb nutrients from.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you have celiac disease, you know, eating gluten can also impair your villi, which is not great because once you've messed up your villi, you're kind of screwed.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, nutrient malabsorption will happen.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you are eating, you're not absorbing the nutrients like you should.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that can lead to nutrient deficiencies and could be weight loss or weight gain, depending on what's going on.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to impair your villi.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your villi are very important.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: They are your friends.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of covers gut function, and gut health is super important because 90% of your serotonin is produced in your gut, and you want to be happy.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to keep our gut really happy.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are suffering with any of this, you're gonna have to eliminate alcohol for a period of time to heal your gut.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just gonna, it's gotta happen.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't even get into the brain effects of alcohol, but because I wanted to focus more on like the health and fitness side right now, but obviously, um, I will say I randomly, Dr.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Eamon on Instagram.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's amazing.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's a brain guy.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Go watch his videos.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: He just posted one today about alcohol and the brain.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say today, I mean Friday, June 9th, is when I'm recording this.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, go follow his page, Dr.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Eamon, A-M-E-N.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: He is amazing, but he'll give you the brain aspects of alcohol.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just enjoy as much as this podcast is.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So finishing off this podcast, I want to finish with the hormonal changes that happen when we drink alcohol because a lot of the times we work with clients with slight hormonal issues, PCOS.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: We've already gone over the insulin resistance and stuff like that, right?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the sex hormone levels, fertility, uh testosterone in men, you know, thyroid, we go through all of that.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: We work with patients of all of that.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how alcohol can also affect hormone levels.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So over time, it can downregulate the thyroid hormone.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So not acutely, it won't really mess anything up, but over time with chronic alcohol consumption, it can downregulate your thyroid, which is not fun because it's the powerhouse of your metabolism.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: We want that to run efficiently.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have Hashimoto's or hypothyroid, you may want to look into decreasing your alcohol consumption.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it can also, I mean, this is, I feel like a given to me, but maybe not to everyone else.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: It increases cortisol across the board, whether it's acute, chronic, heavy drinking, binge drinking, moderate drinking, it increases cortisol across the board.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you already have high cortisol and you already have high stress going on, you do not want more cortisol flowing through your body because then again, it's going to impair sex hormones.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to impair the thyroid hormone.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not a good time.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's also going to impair insulin sensitivity.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want chronic cortisol elevation.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So all across the board in men and women, it increases cortisol.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: It also will decrease growth hormone levels, which we don't want, especially if we're trying to like have healthy sex hormones, healthy growth of muscle tissue, and just our body functioning properly.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You want active, you want good growth hormone levels.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of times for men, like I don't predominantly work with men, right?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: We work with women.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: But for men who look into taking steroids and they want growth hormone, they're taking peptides like sermelin and all of that for growth hormone, but you're sitting there kind of drinking multiple nights a week or, you know, drinking like a fish, you got to cut that out, guys.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, you can't just take a peptide or take growth hormone and expect it to counteract your lifestyle choices.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we got to really be smart here.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And since we're talking about men, um, it decreases testosterone in men.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Shocking.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it also increases estrogen in men.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: So for men, alcohol will increase your estrogen, decrease your testosterone, and we're decreasing growth hormone.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: None of those things are positive for y'all.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So just keep an eye on your alcohol consumption.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: For ladies, it will increase testosterone in you, which means more androgenic side effects.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: If we're already dealing with PCOS and androgenic, you know, issues and side effects, this is only going to make it worse.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which, you know, then you can have more androgenic side effects like acne, facial hair growth, uh, losing your hair on your head type of situations.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want that.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Weight loss issues.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for women, it will also um, you know, it can go either way for estrogen.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're estrogen dominant, it could make that way worse.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: If we're already low in estrogen, it can make that way worse.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it just depends on the woman.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: It could go either way for estrogen in women, um, but it's still not a positive effect.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not gonna balance out where we need it.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna do the opposite of what we want.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then it also decreases, or excuse me, I think it increases.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think I wrote my notes wrong, which wouldn't surprise me.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, um, I was like, decreases acutely, increases over time.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for women who who, you know, normal, like I will say I haven't had an issue with this, so it's never been something I've looked at.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have gone to the doctor and you've had increased prolactin levels as a woman, alcohol can be a culprit for that too.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so you don't want increased prolactin levels because it can be an issue for fertility, for thyroid hormone, all of that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we want prolactin within range.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we have chronic alcohol consumption, um, it will increase prolactin levels.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we we don't want that.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so those that covers all of the hormones in the body.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: I already went over insulin later.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: So look, guys, I get it.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to like rain on anyone's parade.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to give you the facts, and then you can decide how you want to roll into this, right?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will say more and more people are becoming abstinent with alcohol.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're becoming sober, they're giving it up because they understand the implications on sleep and recovery and how, like, you know, the old school thing used to be a nightcap before bed, and that's what helps you get to sleep, but it really doesn't, y'all.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: It might make you seem like it's easier to fall asleep, but it's really, really affecting your REM sleep and your slow wave sleep, which is deep sleep.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you really need to make memories clear out what's going on in your brain, clear out the plaques that build up over time, which are said to be, you know, causing Alzheimer's, right?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want plaques in the brain because of memory loss and dementia.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: So during slow wave sleep, slow wave sleep and REM sleep is when we clear out those things in the brain and it just gets like a fresh start.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you're having memory problems, it's because we're likely, you know, either doing too much, not sleeping well, but also not cataloging our memories like we should because we're not getting enough of the deep, deep sleep and REM sleep.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're not dreaming, you might not have a lot of REM sleep, right?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a thing.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not good for us in any capacity.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I understand it's super fun, but uh not always, not always the best.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you do if you're going out and everyone wants to drink and you don't want to be like left out?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: You could do like mocktails um so that it's still fun.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know when I was competing in shows, it was really annoying to be in college.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: People like, where's your drink?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where's your drink?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't be like, I'm not drinking because I'm competing.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was so annoying to have to explain that to people.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I would just walk around with soda water and a lime on the cup.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it looked like I was having like a vodka soda.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: If people did shots, I'd just be like, no, I don't need any alerty, whatever.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd say no to shots.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I carried around a drink like that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: So people would stop asking me.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's sad because it's almost more normal to drink than not to drink now.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I get the stigma.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: But something you can do is order mocktails.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of menus have mocktails now.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: They can be high in sugar, so be careful with what they're made of.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you could always do like some bitters and soda.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: You could always do like just plain soda water or flavored soda water with the seltzers and things like that.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: You could do um something I like to do is like muddle strawberries or watermelon or even mint mint or something like that, and have like a virgin mojito, right?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or um just a virgin cocktail with some muddled fruit in it.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like refreshing cucumbers, things like that.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: You could do that for a mock tail.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: You could do kombucha.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So funny enough, when I quit alcohol when I graduated pharmacy school for that long period to heal my stomach, the first time I introduced it back, I was mixing it with kombucha because I was like, hmm, let me put this kombucha and then a little bit of tequila in it.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So at least I have the fermented probiotic effects of the kombucha while I'm having the alcohol.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: It worked, y'all.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you could just drink kombucha.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there are brands of kombucha that do have more fermentation and so they have alcohol in them.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: You need your ID to buy them, but I'm suggesting the non-alcoholic kombucha, not hard kombucha.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you can drink that instead.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: You could also do non-alcoholic beers.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a ton now.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my grandma actually drinks non-alcoholic beers because she can't drink anymore for like vertigo and stuff like that, but she still wants to be included.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: So she'll get like Heineken Zeros and um what are the other brands?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, duels, right?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a bunch of brands that make zero, zero now.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's also alcohol-free spirits, like uh wines and champagnes and all of that that you can buy from the store.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: They do tend to be higher in sugar.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So be careful with those from a calorie standpoint, but you can still make some fun drinks with alcohol-free spirits or um cider, apple like apple ciders or grape juice, or you know, things like that.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then um obviously the seltzer waters and soda alternatives we've already talked about, like Zevia or Spindrift, Waterloo, all of those, um LaCroix, LaCroix.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So there are ways we can still do mocktail to make it fun, um, non-alcoholic like ginger beers or things like that, right?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want it to seem like a total buzzkill, but if you are serious about your goals, that may be something you want to look into as an alternative because it will drastically affect your muscle building goals and your fat loss goals.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's something we have to work with with every client.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is with macros, is yes, you can make alcohol fit your macros, but it's not nutrient dense.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you're still gonna be missing nutrients and missing, you know, it could end up in nutrient deficiencies.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna feel as great, you're not gonna get the results you want, even if you're hitting your numbers, if a lot of your macros are filled with alcohol.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna end it on that note.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you guys like this episode.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's another longer one because I wanted to provide like a lot of data.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm taking notes for podcasts now.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I am gonna start getting some guests on here.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you watch, take a screenshot, tag me on Instagram at drdwyre at dr.dwyr.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we are doing some getting ready for summer for the team.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're bringing on a new coach.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be awesome.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: So look out for all of those new updates happening, and I'll see you guys soon.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.