Alcohol affects various physiological functions and interferes with urine production, fluid regulation, and electrolyte balance, all of which are crucial for maintaining proper hydration. Let’s look at why alcohol dehydrates you and discover how electrolytes can help does alcohol make you dehydrated prevent alcohol-induced dehydration. According to the CDC, heavy drinking equates to more than three drinks per day or eight drinks per week for females and more than four drinks per day or 15 drinks per week for males.

What Is the Best Way to Curb Alcohol Intake?

It’s up to you to decide if the pleasures of alcohol are worth the potential next-day effects. Thirst isn’t always a reliable early indicator of the body’s need for water. Many people, particularly older adults, don’t feel thirsty until they’re already dehydrated. That’s why it’s important to increase water intake during hot weather or when you’re ill. Electrolytes are minerals that can conduct electricity and use that ability to help the body relay messages.

• Heavy drinking can also lead to a host of health concerns, like brain damage, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and even certain kinds of cancer.
• And the liver converts that five per cent of alcohol into roughly the same mass of water and some carbon dioxide.
• If you have a full stomach, it can essentially slow down the absorption of alcohol.

Signs of Dehydration After Drinking Alcohol

Besides dehydration, alcohol can have other negative effects on the body. For this reason, a person should drink alcohol in moderation and avoid binge-drinking or chronic heavy drinking. In high-altitude areas, people tend to get drunk faster, too.

• And prolonged alcohol use can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
• Severe dehydration can cause feelings of dizziness, the appearance of sunken eyes, fainting spells, increased heart rate, and even loss of consciousness.
• Most of it will go out in your urine, and you’ll still end up dehydrated at the end of a night of drinking.

Dehydration from Alcohol: How to Bounce Back from a Hangover (Or Prevent One)

In another study, thirsty adults perceived a cold carbonated beverage to be more thirst-quenching than water. However, the amount you drink may make a difference, and some beverages may affect the perception of thirst differently. It’s important to talk to your doctor if dehydration is listed as a side effect. Emergency medicine physician Baruch Fertel, MD, explains dehydration and what can cause it.

• It’s best to drink while eating or just after, and to snack as you continue to drink.
• Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways.
• While it’s well known that drinking too much alcohol can lead to a hangover, even moderate alcohol consumption can lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
• Since alcohol travels through the bloodstream, it can travel to other areas of our body including the pituitary gland in our brain.
• Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis.
• Remember, the more you drink, the more dehydrated you’ll get.

Alcohol convinces the pituitary gland that ADH shouldn’t be introduced into the situation, despite the alcoholic drink itself being made up largely of water. Indulging in alcohol doesn’t mean you’re fated to alcohol dehydration symptoms the next morning such as dry mouth, throbbing headache, fatigue, brain fog, and nausea. Alcohol actually interferes with your body’s production of vasopressin, or antidiuretic hormone (ADH). Vasopressin causes your body to hold onto water, which limits the amount of urine output. And while chips and popcorn are mainstays at BBQ’s, it’s best to limit your consumption of them. Too much sodium increases fluid loss as your body tries to flush it out.

We created our BodyBio E-Lyte concentrate to counteract the effects of dehydration and boost electrolyte and mineral stores to help alleviate symptoms across the board. Let’s talk about dehydration from alcohol — why it happens, how to avoid it, and the immediate remedies you can use to avoid a hangover. Remember, alcohol dehydration has both acute and chronic effects. If you mix alcohol with caffeinated drinks (ex. rum and Coke), you’re also increasing your dehydration factor, as caffeine will make you pee more which leads to further dehydration. But just because a drink has a lower ABV (alcohol by volume), it doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to pound beers all night.

Stick to drinks with lower alcohol content

• Drinking alcohol can dehydrate you, and it’s one of the main reasons you can get a hangover.
• Factors can include how much you exercise, how much you sweat and how much fruit and vegetables you eat.
• Electrolyte imbalance can exacerbate dehydration and worsen the unpleasant aftereffects of drinking alcohol, including headaches, low energy, muscle aches, and poor sleep.
• It can also weaken immunity, increasing a person’s risk of infections.
• Steatotic liver disease develops in about 90% of people who drink more than 1.5 to 2 ounces of alcohol per day.
• Be sure to stay hydrated throughout the day, and if we’re going to be drinking alcohol, be sure to include water whenever possible.

The action of suppressing this hormone exacerbates the diuretic effect and leads to dehydration. Dehydration also can occur in any age group if you don’t drink enough water during hot weather — especially if you are exercising vigorously. Anyone may become dehydrated, but the condition is especially dangerous for young children and older adults. “Excessive alcohol consumption can cause nerve damage and irreversible forms of dementia,” Dr. Sengupta warns. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. Ways that your standard hangover cures won’t even begin to touch.

Alcohol’s components are flushed from the body

Due to the lower alcohol content, beer will dehydrate you slightly less than liquor. However, due to how alcohol affects the production of ADH, you will still become dehydrated after drinking beer. Consuming one beer leads to a 62% increase in urine produced compared to having a glass of water. The higher the alcohol content, the more dehydrating the drink will be. A heavy alcoholic drink like whiskey, brandy, or rum can dehydrate you more than lighter drinks.

Does Alcohol Dehydrate Your Skin? Your Muscles?

Letting thirst be your guide is an adequate daily guideline for most healthy people. The pituitary gland decides to do this based on signals sent from detectors that read the volume of water in the body, as well as its salt level. When dehydration is detected, a message is relayed and ADH is released.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)

However, when your body works to eliminate alcohol from your system through these processes, other crucial substances, like water and essential nutrients, are removed, too. You can experience water and nutrient depletion, leading to unwanted symptoms such as dehydration. To prevent dehydration, drink plenty of fluids and eat foods high in water such as fruits and vegetables.