Latest / The Body Pod / The Truth About Women and Alcohol: Understanding the Real Impact with Dr. Kimberly Mallett

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The Truth About Women and Alcohol: Understanding the Real Impact with Dr. Kimberly Mallett · The Body Pod

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, This is Hayley and I'm Laura and welcome
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to the body Pod.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Today, on the body Pod we have doctor Kimberly Mallett,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: who happens to be not only a clinical psychologist but
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: also a good friend of mine. Doctor Mallett received her
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Washington in
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Seattle and completed her APA approved internship at Harborview Medical
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Center in Seattle, Washington. She is a licensed psychologist in
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the state of Colorado and a professor at Penn State University,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: where she focuses her research on improving the health and
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: lives of individuals through clinically based interventions. In addition to
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: working with individuals dealing with a variety of issues such
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: as depression, anxiety, adjustment to difficult life events, etc. She
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: has specialized expertise in the treatment of alcohol and substance
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: related problems and coping with chronic health problems. So we
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: are here to talk all things women and alcohol.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Let's dive in. Welcome to the Body Pod.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Doctor Kimberly Mallet is joining us to talk about all
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: things females and alcohol.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, duneuons on, you can tell I'm.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: The life of the party.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: When I go to is this a buzzkill episode? Everyone's
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: like wah wah, okay, yeah.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: Saying I show up at a party for people sitting
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: next to you like, well, I did want another glass,
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: but I guess I'll hold off.
• 1:47
  Speaker 6: Sometimes sometimes I am that person on the plane that
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: has to be really careful about what I say I
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: do to the.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Person next to me when they ask I.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Bet, yeah, you can think about that.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Well, let's start with this quote to alcohol the cause
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of and solution to all of life's problems Homer J.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Simpson.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am a massive Simpsons bad So this is
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: like that says it all right there, it's full circle, right,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: full circle.
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: We start off, and I think it really represents how
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: alcohol functions for so many people.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: We start off.
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: As younger adults or even teens an experiment.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: It's a social facilitator.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: It makes us think that we're being you know, lowers inhibition,
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: so we can talk to people more easily, we're more
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: fun and then over time we start to use it
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: to cope with things. If we go down that road,
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: and that's going to lead to a lot more problems.
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: But we see that in younger populations too, and that
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: is a huge indicator of risk for future problems. If
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: we see younger people using alcohol to cope with stress,
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: to unwine, to relax, and it starts a pattern that
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: really sets us up for potential auds in the future.
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: AUD means alcohol use disorder And this is like what
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: you this is your specialty? Yes, So I live two worlds.
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: So I'm a clinical psychologist and I'm a research professor.
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: You get trained to do both therapy and research when
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: you get your PhD in clinical psychology. So for the
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: past hmm, I'm going to date myself. So I say,
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: at least thirty years I've been in the field of
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: alcohol research.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: And when I.
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: First decided to go into this world, what drew me
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: to this area is how much of an impact alcohol
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: makes on our society, both at an individual level, the
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: people who care about individuals who struggle with alcohol, and
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: then society as a whole. And when we think about
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: drunk driving accidents, health we had just physical violence. Alcohol
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: is a huge problem for so many people and our
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: society in general. So based on that, I wanted to
• 4:25
  Speaker 6: be in health in some way and that is really
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: what stood out to me, and so I started as
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: an undergraduate and went into graduate school, and ever since
• 4:37
  Speaker 6: I have actually gone into more prevention work because after
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: learning about all of this, my research focuses on how
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: can we prevent people from having these problems in the
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: first place, Because once you get them, you're dealing with
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: them for the rest of your life. So if we
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: can prevent them, that's even better. In my clinical practice,
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: I do deal with treatment of these issues, So I
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: deal with working with people to try to help them
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: get to a place where they can get their life back.
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  Speaker 6: And so I see it full circle.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I see it.
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: From the beginning and I see it from the treatment
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: end as well.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Well, let's just dive right in to the Surgeon General's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: warning that just came out a few days ago. How
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: timely that the direct link between alcohol and cancer.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Let's just start there.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, so alcohol is the third leading cause of cancer.
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: It's right behind tobacco on obesity. And this is not new.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: This has been that way for a long time. It's
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  Speaker 6: not like some new research came out and everyone's floored.
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: It just never really translated to the public. So I
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: think we're very well aware of the risk of tobacco.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: Smoking causes lung cancer. We've known that for decades now,
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: but alcohol, we just have a very different relationship to it.
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: I think what's startling about these findings is that people
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: think alcohol, of course, is problematic when you use an
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: excess of it, when you used too much. So we
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: think about it around liver disease, and we know it's
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: not good for a cardiovascular system, all these other things
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: are affected by it. But even lower amounts of alcohol
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: increase our risk for cancer. And that's what I think
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: people really need to pay attention to, is no amount
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: of alcohol is deemed safe.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Buzz.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: I know, I'm terrible.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I have to tell you this was I was just
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: telling Laura this before you jumped on. So I was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: down in November at a conference, a women's health conference
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with doctor Vonda Wright and all of these leaders in
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the in the mental PAS space were there and this
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: came up multiple times in multiple speakers, you know, in
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: what they were addressing. And I was telling Laura, this
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was the first time in my life where I went
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to this kind of sit down, very intimate, private dinner
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and they served mocktels like there wasn't alcohol anywhere, and I.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Just like it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It's just like you're so used to just seeing it
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: at any event, any event. I remember when we moved
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: here and Steve was working for you know, an advertising
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: agency here, and even like the kids Halloween party, and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: they would do all these like kids, you know, your
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: kids to work day and they'd have all these massive
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: parties for the kids, just fun stuff. But then every
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: like there was just alcohol for the adults during the day.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And I was like, well, this is the Halloween hit
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: party you guys.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Are at work. I mean it's like, you.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Know, has it gotten out of control? I mean, it's
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: just those are a few things that I've noticed, just
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: with my limited experience.
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: I would say, yeah, And that is really what we
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: have to remember is there is a huge behavioral component
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: with alcohol use, and we associate it with so many
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: social events and celebratory is a huge piece of it,
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: going out to dinner, being in a restaurant. I mean,
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  Speaker 6: there's a lot of societal pressure when we get together
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: to drink alcohol. And that's why it's I think, really
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: hard to wrap our heads around how is this so
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: bad for us? You know, what is this doing to
• 9:04
  Speaker 6: our body? And now I am going to caveat this
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: and say I'm not going to tell people to be
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: abstinate there. I think there are ways to be healthy
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: and include alcohol, but I think it really demands some
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: intention about it. And that's what strikes me about these
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: findings is it's really drawing our attention to being careful
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: and track how much we drink and being aware of
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: what we're drinking and picking when we do it, not
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: getting into patterns of it having to happen all the time.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: With all of these gatherings, that.
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: Was one of the questions I was going to ask
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: you that Haley and I were also speaking about before
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: you hopped on is I wanted to ask you if
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  Speaker 5: what your thought is around people that say, Okay, I'm
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: going to be completely obstinate and never to and alcohol again,
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  Speaker 5: because from a psychologist standpoint, do you find that that
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  Speaker 5: gets people in trouble sometimes to completely say I'm never
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  Speaker 5: going to do it again instead of having intention or
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  Speaker 5: good a good relationship with it.
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  Speaker 6: It depends on the person. There are a lot of
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  Speaker 6: people who choose to be abstinate for a variety of reasons.
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  Speaker 6: Some are proactive because maybe they have a strong family history,
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: maybe they have certain risk factors, certain health issues, remember
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  Speaker 6: if we're taking a lot of medications, and I can
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: kind of touch on that down the road with some
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: of these other topics I know you want to talk about.
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  Speaker 4: But.
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  Speaker 6: There are certain health reasons, certain psychological reasons, and family
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: history reasons. The other piece is if someone does have
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  Speaker 6: a problem and they've crossed what I call the line
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: in the sand of then going into dependence physical dependence,
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: they really can't drink alcohol anymore because their relationship with it,
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: it's just not possible to have a healthy one. So
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: if someone and I think what you're getting at, Laura,
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  Speaker 6: is if someone is just at war with themselves, like
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  Speaker 6: I have to be abstinate, but I don't really want
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: to be.
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  Speaker 4: So there's a lack of motivation.
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  Speaker 6: Well, i'd say, you know what, I'd want to understand
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  Speaker 6: what that motivation is. Do they want to drink? Are
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: there certain situations that might allow for it in their mind?
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  Speaker 6: You don't have to completely give it up. I think
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: what this is getting at the Surgeon General's report and
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: some of what we're seeing come out of Canada, which
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: is the whole country has basically taken the stance of
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: we really can't say any amount of alcohol is safe,
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: and we do that with certain populations here pregnant women,
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: we say no amount of alcohol is safe to drink
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: while you're pregnant, but we don't.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Say that for adults.
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  Speaker 6: Without dependency issues or who aren't pregnant, and we do
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: give guidelines, but it's really something you have to examine yourself.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: And I think if people start to question is my
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: relationship with alcohol healthy, it might not be. And so
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: that's when you want to just take account of are
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: there changes that need to be made and where am
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: I struggling? And really, what I'd say is that drinking
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: to cope piece is kind of that.
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  Speaker 4: Red flag for a lot of people.
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  Speaker 6: If that if you find yourself thinking I need a
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: drink right now, that's what for me raises my red
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: flag is Okay, some thing's not okay. We shouldn't be
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: drinking to cope because that's a sign of a larger issue.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: What about the research that showed alcohol had some health benefits.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's add some light.
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: The reality is a lot of physicians that just don't
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: concur with that, and there's many reasons for that. Just
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: the way the studies were done, there could be a
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: lot of confounds. So basically what they found, I think
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: we're talking about red wine and heart health. Okay, so
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: they're looking at the antioxidants and red wine. There's a
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: lot of other things that could be going on there
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: in terms of potentially red wine drinkers also engage in
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: other healthier habits and healthier diets in general, so we
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: can't really attribute causation there. What we can say though,
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: is that the benefits don't outweigh the risk here. So
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: you can get antioxidants in a lot of other places.
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: Never ever, ever have I heard a doctor, or imagine
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: a doctor said to a patient, Hey, how much are
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: you drinking?
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: Nothing?
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: You might want to start, you know, it doesn't happen,
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: and so exercise, diet, taking supplements, you know, drinking grape juice.
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: I don't care. Just it doesn't have to be fermented.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: So yeah, I know, but I know that we want
• 14:35
  Speaker 6: it to be good. And that's the thing, is it
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: be great if we had positive effects from it.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Bias, Right, we'll find this Well, this study says that
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it's healthy, so exactly.
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and and there's just so many other issues too
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: where it people struggle it again, the risk outwagh, the
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: benefits because you're still getting the alcohol. And that being said,
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: what we know about alcohol itself is.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: It is a toxic.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: I mean, it can infiltrate. It's a central nervous system depressant.
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: The reason it affects so many of our systems, our, liver, cancer,
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: all these things cardiovascular is because it has a wide reach.
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: A lot of other drugs act on certain eurotransmitters. Well,
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: alcohol doesn't discriminate. It hits all of them. I mean,
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: it just goes for it. And so it's very, very powerful.
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: And because it's such an integral part of our society
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: and it's accepted, people don't give it the respect that
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: it deserves as a drug.
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: That's really true.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I never thought about it that way about yeah me either.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, so if people are like, okay, but I'm
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: still going to drink a little bit, what would your
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: recommendation be, Because that's the question that I'm sure a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: lot of women are thinking right now while they're listening.
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So I'll and I'll be very forthcoming.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: I do drink.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: I'm not an abstainer myself, so I do try. I
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: am right now though. So I have some interesting insights
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: on flee but but I'm just taking the whole dry
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: January thing, and because I know you very well, Hayley,
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: I'm doing a little series of not really fat loss,
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: but that's the goal. I'm coming off a surgery, so
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: I need to get back in shape. So alcohol is
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: the easiest thing to cut out of our diet to
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: cut calories that we don't need. But what are our
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: guidance for healthy drinking parameters? Just so you know, I'm
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: gonna I'm going to talk about that, but they are
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: kind of up for reassessment, which they periodically get reassessed,
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: so I wouldn't be surprised based on the surge in
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: general's statement that and recommendations that they might get reevaluated,
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: so they may come out with new ones. Stay tuned,
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: Stay tuned. So here's what they currently are for women.
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: The guidance is seven drinks or less a week. That
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: being said, these are standardized drinks. And I'm very clear
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: about this because what we know and a lot of
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: the data that we collect in our studies, people are
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: notorious about underestimating the amount that they drink because it's
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: not a standard drink. Isn't that much, especially if you're
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: drinking cocktails or mixed drinks. It can be really challenging.
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: And so for example, a bottle of wine is five
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: drinks and a lot of people think it's four, but
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: there's actually five drinks in a normal bottle of wine.
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: So that's just what we're working with here. The other
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: caveat about that is you really don't want to drink
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: ever to access, so you don't want to pile up
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: and drink four drinks in a day if you're a female,
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: and you don't want to get that blood alcohol level
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: too high, which you would do if you're drinking more
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: in a concentrated time frame. So they really don't want
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: you to binge drink. And that's for women for or
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: more drinks in a two hour time frame. For men,
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: it's fourteen drinks a week. Yeah, and there are a
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: lot of physiological reasons why this is the case, but
• 18:46
  Speaker 6: so that's the parameter that we're working with. So if
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: you think about it, that's a if you're drinking a
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: glass of wine a night, that's it, right, that's one
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: drink a day. And if you want to have a
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: couple drinks on the weekend, so you kind of start
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: to have to be strategic. You want to stay within
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: these guidelines about when you drink. So certain things that
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: I think are helpful are not drinking every single day,
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: taking breaks in the week of where you just don't
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: drink anything. But again, don't load up and save for
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: the weekend, because it's we don't want to see people
• 19:26
  Speaker 6: getting that blood alcohol concentration too high.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And yes, this is so fascinating. So we just talked
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to Kristen Holmes. I saw her and met her for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the first time at a conference and she's actually coming
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: on my Fat Loss Happens course, and she talked all
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: about the female the gender differences with alcohol. So just
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: another thing, can you just review some of those differences
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: between men and women.
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: Yeah, before I go on, I do want to say
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: this because we just talked about how much is safe
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: to consume and there are a lot of mixed findings.
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: So the World Health Organization, I do want to point
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: this out because I think you're getting a lot of
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: information from different sources. They're taking the stance again like
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: Canada did, that there is no safe amount and they're
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: actually labeling alcohol as a carcinogen in the same category
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: as tobacco, radiation and asbestos.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Do they put the death that like cross with the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: skull on it?
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: I don't know, you know, they want these labels on it.
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: I don't know what those labels are going to look like.
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: But my guess is it's justs in general.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: So there's not stolen cross bus.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I swear that was on like Looney Tunes or I
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: don't know, like a something.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So moving on.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: Moving on.
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: Also as a resource, though we just talked about drink sizes.
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: This is a complicated topic and so I think there
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: is a great resource if people are interested. It's a
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: website that National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism puts
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: out called Rethinking Drinking. So it's by Anti Triple A
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: and they have a lot of great resources about how
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: to just compute your own VAC, what a standard drink sizes,
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: some of these guidelines about healthy drinking. So it's I
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: think a helpful resource. All right, men and women? So
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: why is it that women get the short end of
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: the stick here? And biology is really a big factor.
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: So when we calculate blood alcohol concentration, so when I
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: say bled alcohol concentration, a lot of people associate that
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: with our legal limit to drive. Right, just point oh eight.
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: And that's what we're talking about. So we take in
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: to sert into account for things. We take in the
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: amount of alcohol you've consumed, how long you've taken to
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: consume it, and your gender, And why am I forgetting
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: forgetting one of the things.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: But it's a gender.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: Well it's the fact that my dog would have had
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: me at path to night, so yeah, fun or that,
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: But it's it's this weight.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: Sorry, it's weight, so weight.
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: Gender, amount of alcohol, time to consume, and those are
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: really what goes into it. But gender is a big factor.
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: And the reason is women have a lower so the
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: enzyme that breaks down alcohol in our system, we have
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: lower amounts, so it's called alcohol dehydrogenase, and women don't
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: have as much of it as men, so we don't
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: break down alcohol as quickly as men do. It's stays
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: in our system longer, right, Keep that in mind for
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: what I'm about to say. The other thing is women
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: typically way less than men weights accounted for, but women
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: have higher rates of body fat and lower rates of alcohol.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: Are water and alcohol is water soluble, so in our
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: system it's think about like dilution. Men do that better
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: than women. So it's more concentrated in women's systems. This
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: is why it's just it's it's more powerful, and you're
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: seeing a lot of more negative effects health wise for women.
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: So even if a man, a male, and female weigh
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: the same amount, a woman is not going to process
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: alcohol is quickly as a man. She's going to have
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: a higher BAC and be more intoxicated if she drinks
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: the same amount.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: I've got life. I make it to the gates one day. Frustrating.
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, the problem, the really big issue is there used
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: to be a huge gender gap between males and females
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: in the amount of alcohol they consumed, especially in younger populations,
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: so we would see that males would drink a lot
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: more than females. What's happening and what we're seeking our
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: own data is this is narrowing dramatically. So women are
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: keeping up more and that's.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: A big deal because you're.
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: Seeing and hearing about all these health risks and that
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: is going we don't I mean, that's going to play
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: the long game. But they're also experiencing a lot of
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: acute consequences, so blackouts, sexual assaults, all of these acute
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: terrible consequences because they're drinking heavily.
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: Is this at a certain stage range? That's why I
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: was assuming, but I just wanted to make sure.
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, yeah, So these these gender gaps are narrowing
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: in certain populations, even in some older populations as well.
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: So you start to think about as we age, women
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: are typically in that you know, later twenties, thirties, even forties,
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: dealing with kids. They got a lot going on. But
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: then kids grow up and then they have more time
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: and we'll talk about more of those other things that
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: can lead to drinking. But drinking starts to make a
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: little bit more of a comeback again, So those gender
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: gaps start to narrow.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: Okay, speaking of that, how does aging and menopause affect
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: alcohol use and problems in women?
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: So you're gonna love it.
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: I know, I'm already magic throw it out us.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 26:05
  Speaker 6: First, and this is going to probably be a broken record,
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: seeing is you talk a lot about women's health. Guess
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: what the research needs to catch up? You know, traditionally
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: a lot more research has been done on men because
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: alcohol use disorder has been more prevalent in men. But
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: what we're starting to see is that especially in North
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: America and some European countries, women make up forty percent
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: of substance abuse addiction type of behaviors, and so there
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: used to be predominantly men, whereas women again are catching up,
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: so these things start to present more in this age group.
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: So remember, chronic issues often take a long time to evolve.
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: They're a pattern of behavior over time, and when they
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: start getting dist when they start creating a lot of
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: noticeable problems and people start addressing them, is around fifty
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: five sixty in some studies.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: Oh wow, that surprises me.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: That's late.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: Doesn't mean that's always the case. But they're happening at
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: all age groups. But we're also seeing younger people come,
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: you know, present with a lot of aud issues that
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: they're not maturing out of. So a lot of college
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: students have abuse of drinking patterns, which is considered an
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: ad but they mature out, they don't progress to dependency.
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: And so over time, though, if you maintain heavy drinking patterns,
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: you're going to some point develop into that if you
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: don't change, so or you're likely to. I shouldn't say
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: you necessarily will, but you're you're much more likely to.
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: So as we get older in age, you may cut
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: back a little when your kids are younger and you're
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: busy or your job's really busy. But once things may
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: be slow down a little bit, drinking sometimes can make
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: a comeback. So that's one piece. We're also seeing that
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: here you go, Hayley, this is why. So take a
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: woman that's say, menopausal, compared to a younger woman, all
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: things being equal weight, amount of alcohol consumed, the older
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: woman they're finding has higher BAC.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, why is that?
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Well, what would you guess?
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Lower lean mass, muscles.
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a big very lower. We lose muscle mass,
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: gain body fat. Remember, body fat puts us at a
• 28:53
  Speaker 6: disadvantage for alcohol processing. The other thing to remember here
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: is as we age, our liver doesn't work as well.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: This is fascinating.
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so our liver doesn't process alcohol, you know, it's
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: just it's everything slower. And we start taking more medications
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: as we age. So now you've got this potential of
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: having interaction effects with drugs or competition for the liver
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: to process it, because a lot of medication we take
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: is process through the liver. Yeah, so this is why
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: you may have heard of this. You don't want to
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: take Thailand all a receipta menafin if you've been drinking.
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: Do not take both of those together because it puts
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: a lot of it's hard for me.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: This is learning.
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: That's a lot of tip takeaway for sure. Okay, it's
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: good to know.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: So okay, so we have these, but there's also this
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: is a time when a lot of couples split up,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: or you have a a partner that passes, or you
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: have parents that pass.
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: And so I'm sure that adds to the psychological you know,
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: just the crutch. Yes, so here's the drinking the cope
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: kind of keys where you know. Alcohol, So let's not
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: Let's make no mistake about it. Alcohol is very reinforcing
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: in a lot of ways, right It it when we
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: drink it our brain because it acts on so many
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: of our reward pathways in our brain, it makes us
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: want more. And in the beginning, again it's it's this
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: is a whole other topic. You kind of get out
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: of alcohol what you go into it with. So it's
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: going to emphasize the mood you're already experiencing or your
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: expectancy of what it's going to do for you. So
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: the problem, though, is people start to use it. Tonumb
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: again to kind of have that relaxation. They associate it
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: with okay, anxiety. It can kind of ramp me down,
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: but it also can make us tune out if we're
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: dealing with a lot of challenges. So, yes, depression can
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: come up in menopausal women. We see increased rates of
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: that coming up for menopausal women and preparing menopausal women.
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: And so if we're trying to manage our mood with
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: alcohol or feel better because it used to make us
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: feel better right when we go out and have fun
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: or go to a party, it's not going to do
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: that if you enter drinking feeling down because alcohol is
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: a depressant, so it's going to make you feel more depressed.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: The clubs and bars are hating this trend.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have to say though, there's so there's also
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: this social aspect which you've kind of touched on. But
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I just like this memory just popped up of the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: first time that Steve and I went on a cruise
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: before we had children, and it was Carnival Cruise Line,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: which I think is like known for like the.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: Party cruise Line.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: We didn't know and we weren't drinking, but we get
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: on this ship and the whole time from sun up
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: eight o'clock party, like playing the music. I mean it's
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: almost like these all inclusive events. Nobody knows how to
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: not include it. You go to an all inclusive and like,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: that's what people love about it.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: You got to get your money's worth.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so they were thinking that.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: But like all of this, it's interesting to see if
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: we pulled it all away, like tomorrow it was all gone,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: what would it would be such a hard transition for
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: like companies and the parties, and just like we've had
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: it in everyone's social gatherings really, I mean the majority
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of them for anything.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So I think what you described earlier is this
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: idea of giving people alternatives the mocktails. So when I'm
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: working with someone who is making that conscious choice to
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: stop drinking, that's a big thing that comes up, especially
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: if they're in a professional world that involves a lot
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: of networking and events and now they don't drink anymore
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: because and again they don't really want to save people.
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: Why because if they have if they feel they have
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: a problem with alcohol and they're trying to stop drinking,
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: you don't want to pull that into work and announce it.
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: And people are pretty if you've been a drinker, it's
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: a hard to make that transition to not being a
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: drinker without feeling some pressure. People are kind of like, here,
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: have one, or they know what you're drinking. So it's
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: nice to be able to have something that you can
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: that you can have that's a non alcoholic that looks
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: like it it is, so you just don't even have
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: to deal with it, engage in a conversation about it,
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: or or answer questions that make you uncomfortable. So, you know,
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: people will often do that and say they'll just go
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: get like a club soda with line so it looks
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: like they have a cocktail and it's not.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Well. I have to give props to Lookquid Death.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Who Steve if I keep referring to Steve, that's my
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: husband who he his friend started Liquid Death and it
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: was it was just a marketing of like everyone's targeting
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: bottled water to the you know, yoga moms. And he
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: was like, there's all of this whole population of men
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: specifically that have stopped drinking, but they're at a bar
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and they want to you have something. Yeah, so genius idea.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I should have invested more in that.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: I think that's one positive thing about the awareness around
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: alcohol and how many things have changed with not only
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: mocktails but the can drinks of there's so many different
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: options now in restaurants, in clubs, in these social settings,
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: and I think it does help people that whether or
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: not they have aud it assists them to better facilitate
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: reaching their goal, whether it be to not drink as
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: much or to not drink at all.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: And there just may be some nights where one you
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: don't want to, two you're driving and you're wanting to
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: not consume alcohol because of that. Maybe you're on some
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: medication or something you know isn't going to be good
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: to mix, or you're recovering from some procedure medical medical procedure,
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: or you're dieting. You know, if you're if you're wanting
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: to lose weight, alcohol is not going to help you.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Not your friendly.
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: It's not your friend. It is empty calories, it's sugar basically,
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: so it's not your front. So having these alternatives I
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: think is helpful. And I do think now that people
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: are a little bit more respectful.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Even these dry.
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: January kind of phenomena have been helpful because I think
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: it gives people that ability to say I'm just taking
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: a break right now, that's.
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: Okay, this is why I'm training for something.
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: You know, it's it's okay to But if this is
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: something that's important to you, I always encourage people to
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: kind of figure out what you want to say and
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: just have it filed away so you don't have to
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: give it much thought or worry about it.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Kim, thank you so much. I think we're going to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: wrap this up. I know we're out of time here,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: but we have part two that will be coming, and
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I can't wait for the conversation because Laura and I
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: have a million more questions. But thank you so much
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: for joining us today and we will be back with
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: part two. Thanks for listening.
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: five star review and sharing the body Pod with your friends.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Until next time,