We know the risks, so what keeps women pouring? – The Little Things

Drinking heavily can negatively impact skin, causing allergic reactions and flushes. Photo / 123rf

Most of us know alcohol is not great for us, but admitting how much we drink and why is another matter.

Honesty is the first hurdle, says Ree George, who joins Lousie Ayrey and Francesca Rudkin on this week’s episode of the Herald’s health and wellbeing podcast, rel="" title="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-little-things-107547020/">The Little Things.

“There are two things. One is honesty with yourself and the other is honesty with society,” she explains. “People really know what’s going on, but they have trouble being honest about what they want to do about it.”

That gap between knowing and doing is where many people get stuck.

“Most of us know the knowledge these days, but the gap between knowing and doing is the hard part. That’s where behaviour change really sits,” George says.

Physiologically, alcohol affects us far more than we like to admit. The liver can only detox one standard drink per hour, and overload can disrupt the gut, hormones and sleep.

“Alcohol reduces our really good-quality deep sleep. Even though we might go to sleep faster, we do not recover well and that can affect our mood, clarity, concentration, emotional regulation, all the things the next day,” George says.

For women, particularly in perimenopause and menopause, the impact can be more severe.

“Our whole physiology changes. Hormones shift, metabolism slows down, and alcohol just does not serve us in the same way,” she says.

So why do we keep pouring that glass? George says the first question is why alcohol shows up.

“Is it when things are great and you are celebrating? Is it when things are challenging and you feel like a wine at five o’clock is a treat? If so, what other things could you use in that space?”

George likes to frame cutting down on drinking as harm reduction rather than deprivation, and recommends finding other ways to treat yourself without feeling punished. She stresses that change is easier when it is framed as an experiment, saying: “Thirty days without alcohol can provide a powerful reset”

Culturally, alcohol is hard to escape. It is still central to birthdays, weddings, even kids’ parties. Yet George argues the real thing we are looking for is not the drink at all.

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection,” she says.

“Our body does not know what the guidelines are. So let us reduce our use and really analyse why we are doing it.”

Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more.

The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every Saturday.