December 22, 2024 • 26 mins
12/22/24
The Healthy Matters Podcast
S04_E05 - A is for Alcohol. A Primer.
Are you doing a "Dry January"? Do your family gatherings get a little more colorful when the wine starts flowing? Like it or not, alcohol plays a role in many of our lives, both directly and indirectly. It lives deep within the fabric of our society (and it has since ancient times!) but there've been quite a few changes to how the medical community has viewed it in the past decade. But is it all bad? How much is too much for us? And, maybe most importantly, how can I avoid a hangover?!
We've all likely developed our own relationship with alcohol, and it's safe to say it's a personal matter and one that can benefit from a fresh look every now and then. In Episode 5 we'll talk with an addiction medicine specialist Dr. Charlie Reznikoff, who himself enjoys good cider on occasion! He's an expert on the subject of substances and addictions and in our conversation we'll go over the physical effect alcohol has on the body, the current medical guidelines, how to assess your own consumption, and the options available for those looking to get things back under control. And yes, we'll discuss hangovers as well... Join us!
We're open to your comments or ideas for future shows!
Email - healthymatters@hcmed.org
Call - 612-873-TALK (8255)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast with
Dr. David Hilden , primary carephysician and acute care
hospitalist at HennepinHealthcare in downtown
Minneapolis, where we cover thelatest in health healthcare and
what matters to you. And nowhere's our host, Dr. David
Hilden .
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey everybody, it's Dr. David Hilden , and welcome
to episode five of the podcastwhere we are gonna talk about
alcohol and your health. Theholiday season is upon us
again, and we're gonna diveinto a subject that's been
fueling conversations and bartabs for centuries. Alcohol
from bubbly celebrations tolate night regrets. Most of us,
or at least many of us, have astory to tell, and many of them
(00:41):
do involve drinking. So what'sthe deal with alcohol and our
health? On today's episode, I'mjoined by a repeat guest and a
friend of mine, Dr. CharlieResnikoff. He is a specialist
in addiction medicine and allkinds of substance use
concerns. So Charlie, welcomeback to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Let's start right off with a question that many
people have. I like to have aglass of red wine with dinner.
Is that healthy?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Uh, we would not say that it's healthy anymore. Uh ,
it , we used to, we used to ,we used to talk about one glass
of red wine per day, drinkingand moderation. Red wine can be
healthy for your heart. Wedon't say that anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Do say that there is low risk alcohol consumption.
There are healthyrecommendations, but we
wouldn't call it healthy. Soit's a complicated topic and
it's honestly, it's changed inthe last three years. It
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Really has. Yeah , because I remember, I've been
doing this over 20 years, Iwould say to people I never
once told someone, startdrinking for your health. Yeah.
But we used to say things like,if you enjoy a , a drink or two
a day, averaged over the wholeweek. If it's one or two a day,
that's probably okay for you.
And even might even be good foryour heart. That's not true
anymore. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We would eliminate that last sentence where we'd
say drinking one to two, onefor women, two for men per day
on average over time isprobably okay for you. And then
you can have a more in-depthconversation with your doctor
about your specific healthissues.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Right. So it's maybe okay for you, but it's not, not
healthy. Not healthy. It's notbeneficial. We used to think it
was like, well, everybody inthe south of France lives
forever. Yeah . And they havegravy and sauces and butter and
butter. Good life . They eat astick of butter for breakfast
on their croissant and , butthey have red wine and so it's
all good. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (02:23):
There were, there were two or maybe three things
about red wine that raised thisbelief. Number one, alcohol
does probably raise your HDL oryour good cholesterol, and that
may have some protectiveeffects. And number two,
there's a , a compound in redwine called reservatol , and
that may also lower your LDL oryour bad cholesterol. So red
(02:46):
wine may have some beneficialeffects on your cholesterol,
but the overall effect on yourheart is to make it worse. Uh ,
alcohol causes and exacerbatesheart failure can cause atrial
fibrillation can cause strokes.
And overall it worsens yourheart health. But there is this
little area where it may indeedimprove some of your
cholesterol numbers.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Let's rewind back to some real basics to help us all
understand what alcohol is and,and what does it do in your
body, and why might it beharmful. So we've been drinking
alcohol for probably, I don'tknow who started this, hundreds
of years. Thousands. Thousandsof years. Thousands of years
probably. Yeah . Could you justtell us a little bit about its
effects on the body? Um , bothwhy people drink it and enjoy
(03:28):
it, and what are some of theharmful effects?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah. I mean, alcohol occurs naturally when
fruits or other productsferment, and you don't need to
do much to have alcohol becreated in the wild. In fact,
growing up, we used to, we used to watch the birds in
our backyard, eat the berriesas they got on in the season,
the berries on one of ourtrees, and then get drunk and
fly into our window. And
Speaker 2 (03:50):
We , because they're fermenting on the tree, that
Speaker 3 (03:53):
That may be a bit of a , you know, a ,
Speaker 2 (03:56):
A table , a nervous . The Resnick cough
Family Winery , uh, maybe givethat one a pass. We used
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To joke about the drunk birds. Uh , but,
but alcohol occur naturally,and alcohol actually was pretty
important to civilization whenthere weren't reliable sources
of potable water. When youcouldn't find healthy water,
alcohol at low levels willactually be safer to drink
because it will kill , uh,contaminants , uh, you know,
bacteria, whatnot in the, soalcohol has been part of human
(04:21):
civilization for centuries,millennia, in addition to
sterilizing water, which is notan issue for us, thankfully
anymore. It also causes peopleto relax. It's called , uh,
disinhibition. It takes some ofyour anxieties down a level. It
can relax your muscles as well.
So a lot of muscle tension cancalm down. People will tend,
(04:44):
when their anxieties go away,they tend to have a more
enjoyable, you know, fun. Theyterm that we use is jocular.
They, they tell more jokes,they laugh more often. So
alcohol at low levels can causepeople to relax emotionally and
physically.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So those sound like positive effects.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah. In the moment they're positive effects, for
sure, for most of us. But overtime, it's not a sustainable
effect. It's not it you'rehaving muscle tension or
emotional anxiety. Much betterto treat those with our more
modern approaches, medications,talk therapy, physical therapy,
not as fun as alcohol, but moreeffective and more safe. So
Speaker 2 (05:20):
What are the bad effects in your body? Now we're
gonna, we obviously know aboutsome other bad effects. There
are societal bad effects, thereare alcohol related crimes and
car accidents and all that. Wecan delve into that a little
bit later, but I'm talkingphysically what is bad about it
for your body?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah. Alcohol is a solvent. So alcohol dissolves
in basically everything. Andyou can use, you know, we know
that around the house we usealcohol to clean surfaces,
alcohol dissolves in fat,dissolves in water. And when
you drink alcohol, it goesthroughout your body
everywhere. And because ofthat, alcohol can have effects
on basically every part of yourbody. And it almost, you name
(05:57):
it, any part of your body canbe affected by alcohol. And
over time, exposure to alcoholis not healthy for almost any
part of your body. So, youknow, most prominent, I would
say the brain, the mentalhealth, sleep, mood, and the
digestive tract , your stomach,your intestines, your liver,
(06:17):
your pancreas, those are thebig ones, but it's not limited
to that. But I would say thedigestive track and the brain
are the big targets for alcoholrelated harm.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Why would we possibly think it's good for
your heart? Like what thatwhole red wine thing, you, you
touched on that a little bit,but if it seems like it's
pretty bad for your, all theseother parts of your body, why
would , did we ever think, isthat all just because of the
cholesterol effects? Well,
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It, it, well, there's a lot of reasons for
this. Uh, I think you , uh,mentioned earlier that certain
populations like the French ,uh, had good cardiac outcomes,
had good rates of cardiacdisease, and they were drinking
wines. So we saw thesecorrelations, this happens a
lot in medicine. We noticeassociations or correlations
between behaviors and outcomes.
(06:57):
And we sort of concluded that aglass of red wine a day may be
cardioprotective because peoplewho drink a glass of red wine a
day have lower rates of heartdisease. What it may turn out
that people who can afford aglass of red wine a day and
people who have the temperamentof moderation and
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Not having four or five,
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Those , those are the things that protect you.
The having moderation in yourlife and also having enough ,
you know, having the financialwherewithal to get a glass of
red wine per day. Those mayactually be the protective and
not the wine in the glass. Sothe , it was sort of an
association of correlation. Ourpublic health people observed
and concluded that red winemight help, but in fact, maybe
(07:37):
not. Let's
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Talk a little bit about people's day-to-day
drinking lives and things thatmight be , um, really relevant
to them. The types of thingspeople drink. Mm-hmm
. Beer, wine,liquor. Are they all the same?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You actually, you left out my favorite cider.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh, cider.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah. And cider
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is like , uh, now we're gonna move to the
northwest of France. .
Yes,
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Exactly. Or Minnesota. Minnesota has, you
know, a beautiful appleproduction and, and actually
has a , a , a , a greatindustry. I love a produc ci
producing hard cider . Mm-hmm . And , uh, cider
is one of the oldest drinksconsumed in America. Aside from
that, you know, I think most ofalcohol effects have to do,
does not matter what form ofalcohol you're drinking.
(08:16):
Obviously liquor is moreconcentrated. It's easier to
accidentally drink too muchliquor, but alcohol is alcohol
whether in whatever form itcomes in, there are particular
things about all the beerversus wine versus liquor that
we can get into. But I think itis really important to
understand how much alcohol isin whatever drink you're
(08:36):
drinking, and to know what thehealthy limit is.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I had a beer, Dr.
Resnikoff . Yeah. What doesthat mean? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah,, what
does that mean?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What does that mean?
Um , my wife gets beers in ajuice glass. Yeah. You know, I
think it's like four ounces.
Yeah. And then like, you'll beat the place and then they'll
bring somebody else's beer andit's in this big huge stine and
Yeah . That's a beer. Yeah. Isit, it's not the container
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Beers range all the way from 4% alcohol, maybe 12
ounces. That might be atraditional beer that you
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Buy in a , a can of your standard beer from the ,
you know, exactly
Speaker 3 (09:11):
All the way up to 10% or 11% alcohol in a 16
ounce bottle. And so, which
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You'd get that , you'd get drunk off of that.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yes. And it would be two or even three times the
amount of alcohol as thatstandard beer that you get at a
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Liquor store and you get a big 16 ounce thing of it
you're having. Yeah . Probably. Is there a, so is there a
standard measurement for drinks? So when I ask a patient how
much you drink, which I doevery single, probably every
clinic I ask people, yeah . Ialways triple it because
whatever people think it is,it's usually more. But what is
a drink? What is one? I mean ,what should people do in all
those various kinds ofalcohols?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
The standard drink is a little outdated for beer,
as you pointed out. Uh , thestandard drink is a 12 ounce 5%
beer. That's very much yourstandard commercial beer that
you would get in the liquorstore.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
The smaller cans, everybody, not those big tall
ones. But
Speaker 3 (10:00):
If you're, if you're drinking a tall boy or a 16
ounce bottle and it's a craftbeer, you might just assume
that's two drinks. Mm-hmm . I , I think I ,
that's a safe assumption, but astandard drink is one five
ounce glass of wine. And thatwine would be 12%. That's
pretty standard. So one fiveounce, it's not a full wine
glass. It's
Speaker 2 (10:19):
A , yeah. When they make those big red wine glasses
that look like fish bowls,that's to catch the aroma,
you're supposed to put a littleteeny bit in the bottom. Yes .
So like
Speaker 3 (10:26):
A five ounce glass of a 12% wine, that's pretty
standard. Or a shot, which isone and a half ounces of 40%
alcohol, 80 proof alcohol.
That's standard as well. It'sworth once or twice measuring
those out. So you kind of caneyeball it. It doesn't need to
be perfect. Yeah. But if youknow what a shot looks like and
you know what a proper glass ofwine look like, you're pretty
(10:48):
much there. And you just needto be careful about the alcohol
percentage of beer I would addto this. And th those are
numbers. So one standard drink,however, if you are drinking,
when you're dehydrated on anempty stomach and you're
slamming your drink, that drinkis gonna hit you real hard.
Whereas if you're drinkingslowly while you're eating and
(11:09):
you know you have food in yourstomach and it takes you an
hour to finish that one glass,that one glass is gonna be
really mellow for you. So it'sreally important not just to
know the quantity of alcoholyou're drinking, but the
context. How fast are youdrinking it? Is there food in
your stomach? And are youdehydrated or not? Those are
big factors in how you willrespond to the alcohol.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
How many is too much? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Good question. And the first answer to that
question is, it depends on theindividual. So my mother in
later in her life, in hereighties, one drink would be
way too much for her. She wasapt to have falls, she was
having memory issues, shereally couldn't drink at all.
So there are gonna be somepeople maybe with some health
conditions like liver diseasewhere any is too much. In
(11:54):
America in pregnancy, therecommendation is no alcohol.
So there are some people whereany is too much. That's
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A qualification in this country. Yeah. Are French
women like pounding it? Yeah .
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I think the recommendations in Europe is,
are more lax in that drinkingand moderation is more accepted
in pregnancy, but in America itis recommended not to drink.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So for some people, anything more than zero is
probably too much. I mean, therest in the rest of us , it
kind of varies. What, what isthen considered to be binge
drinking? Right? Because isn'tthat a higher risk? Right.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So then if you are not in one of those high risk
categories, then how much canyou drink? And the first answer
is for men averaging two a dayfor women averaging one a day.
Now we have many gender diversepatients who don't identify as
men or women, and we don'treally know how to answer that.
But those folks are at highrisk for alcohol related harms.
(12:47):
So I think talking to thosefolks about their alcohol use
is really important.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So I can have 14 of them on a Saturday night.
That's two that's averaged oftwo a day there,
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Doctor . Exactly. So then the next two limits are,
number one, binge drinking,which for women is no more than
four or more on an occasion.
And for men is no more thanfive or more on occasion.
That's still kind of a lot.
Yeah. So for three or fourdrinks in a, in a single
occasion should be consideredsafe if you don't have any
(13:17):
other risk
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Factors. And you're not driving. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
And you're not driving. Yeah. Yeah. There is a
new category which is calledhigh intensity drinking.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I just heard that term this month, which
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Is doubling the binge drink. For men it would
be nine or more drinks, and forwomen it would be eight or more
drinks. And that is anexceedingly high risk. And
there are a lot of people outthere that are doing high
intensity binging. So doublethe recommendation of a binge,
which is four or five drinks,depending on your gender. And
people get in a lot of troublein their high intensity
(13:48):
binging. So I would sayaveraging one or two per day,
depending on your gender, onany given day, not exceeding
four or five. And to reallyhave concern if you're doubling
that dose to high intensitybinging. So
Speaker 2 (14:01):
After the break, we're gonna talk about some
specific tips for you to manageyour drinking and what to do if
you think you might need to getsome , uh, professional help.
And after the break, I'm gonnaask you what's a hangover?
Charlie , we're talkingwith Dr. Charlie Resnikoff
about alcohol use and problemsthat can arise from drinking.
Stay with us. We'll be rightback
Speaker 4 (14:23):
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Speaker 2 (15:02):
So we're back talking with Dr. Charlie
Resnikoff about alcohol use. SoCharlie, what's a hangover? How
do you get rid of it? Okay,
Speaker 3 (15:08):
A hangover. Good
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Question. I wouldn't know , so I need you to
help me out here. Um,
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah. Hangover is the , the after effects of, of
alcohol use. And what it ishappening in your body is a
couple things. Alcohol needs tobe broken down by your liver to
acid aldehyde, which may soundlike formaldehyde, you know,
and , and for a reason it's analdehyde. So acid aldehyde, you
can imagine this compound acidaldehyde floating around in
(15:34):
your body. It
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Doesn't sound good for you.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It makes you feel terrible that , you know, it
really makes you feel crummy.
And then from there it's brokendown into a form of acid called
acetate. So your body isliterally acidic as it breaks
down alcohol. And a lot ofhangovers is just your body
processing all of these acidsand it just takes time. But
there are other thingshappening. When you drink
(15:57):
alcohol, you commonly becomedehydrated. You also commonly
lose essential electrolytes.
And I would call out potassiumand magnesium. And you commonly
aren't eating nutritioushealthy food as you're drinking
too . Excess buffalo
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Wings come on.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Or just nothing. Or
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Nothing. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (16:17):
, we used to
have a colleague who would joke
that having salted peanuts asyou drink would protect you
from your , from a hangover.
But the , it does emphasize theimportance of eating while you
drink
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Alcohol. Yeah. My college bar was Williams Peanut
Bar in uptown Minneapolis. I'vebeen there . And you
threw your peanut shells on thefloor. I think we literally
thought that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Exactly. So getting your hydration improved eating
food, including healthy foodsthat contain potassium and
magnesium. And also justunderstanding this is what your
body has to go through tometabolize the alcohol. And
some of it's unavoidable whenyou drink a lot of alcohol,
there's no avoiding a hangover.
There's no, there's no trick togetting in . Is there,
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Are there other ways to prevent? So is everybody,
should they all go down totheir, their nutritional
supplement aisle, but buy abunch of magnesium and palm
those when they're, whenthey're drinking? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And you will hear there's
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Not specific to do except not drink. Right?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You will hear specific supplements marketed
for this. There's not anevidence to support those.
Drink more slowly drink whileyou eat and listen to your
hangover. Your hangover istelling you something that you
, and when you choose how muchto drink, keep in mind tomorrow
, uh, and what you're gonna ,what you're gonna experience
tomorrow . Is
Speaker 2 (17:26):
There any truth to the alternate your drink with a
big, huge glass of water?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
There's some truth to it. Uh, that's
Speaker 2 (17:31):
It probably just slows your drinking down ,
keeps you hydrated.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah. Those things are, yeah. And you'll be , uh,
you'll be visiting the restroomall night. He'll be
Speaker 2 (17:39):
. So maybe
the best tip is don't get so
drunk that you have a
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Hangover. Yeah , yeah. And listen to your
hangover. I mean, it's tellingyou something and some of it
you can't, there's no magic outof it. Your body has to process
all that alcohol and it turnsinto acid, aldehyde and
acetate. Yeah. And those aretoxic substances.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Let's talk about dry January. So it's sort of taken
hold where a lot of peopleattempt or, and most are
successful I imagine, and don'tdrink any alcohol in the month
of January. And many people aregonna be listening to this
podcast either in late Decemberor in January. Not all but
many. Is that a good idea? Isit beneficial to you to take a
break?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I I don't think we would say that it is beneficial
to your health. Like you'lllive longer or you'll prevent
diseases because of dryJanuary. But I do think it's
beneficial in a lot of ways.
First of all, gives
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Your liver a break.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Well , yeah. Yes.
That's a good bite . I mean , , it'll, it'll give
you, it'll feel good. I mean, Ithink a lot of people by
January 1st haven't slept well.
Alcohol can affect your sleep.
Um, alcohol can affect yournutrition. Maybe you've been
overeating as well and youcould use some improved sleep,
some improved nutrition. And sothis would be a way to help
that happen. So I for sureit'll, I I see those health
(18:49):
benefits separately. I think itteaches people that they can
have a good time withoutalcohol that can extend past
January. That's big. That'shuge. You can have a great time
with your friends. You alsolearn alternative drinks.
There's a lot of greatnon-alcoholic beverages more
than ever. It's actually aamazing
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Diet . Even good non-alcoholic beers. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Oh, amazing.
Non-alcoholic beers. Yep . And,and there's non-alcoholic wine.
We used to give that to my momat dinner.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
She, she knew she, she caught on eventually
. Uh , but there'snon-alcoholic wine, there's
non-alcoholic beer. There'sother non-alcoholic cocktails
who teaches you there are theseoptions. And also if you
struggle in dry January, thatteaches you something about
yourself. And if someonecommits to a dry January and
(19:34):
then can't do it, that's asignal. And that you should pay
attention to that signal andyou should ask why. And maybe
talk to someone about why wasit so hard for me to go through
January without drinking? Sothose are all benefits to dry
January. But I think there areother ways to, you know, gain
those same benefits if youdon't want to do dry January.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Those are good tips.
That's that . I think that'sreally wise . Okay. I'm gonna
shift a little bit to peoplewho might think they're
drinking too much. Maybe theyknow they're drinking too much
or maybe they don't knowthey're drinking too much, but
it's, it's become problematicin their lives. Yeah . Could
you talk about when it's timeto get help and what help is
available?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, so there's a lot of help. And actually now
more than ever, there's manyways for people to get help
with their alcohol use. So thefirst thing, how do I know when
it's a problem for me? Well, ifyou're exceeding the limits for
of alcohol, so if you're a manand you're having five or more
drinks regularly, especially ifyou're having 10 or more drinks
(20:28):
regularly, if you're a woman,you're having four or more
drinks. Especially if you'rehaving eight or more drinks,
you should at least askyourself, honestly, is this a
problem for me? And what wouldyou ask? Has it affect my
family relationships? Has itaffected activities that I used
to do? You know, my nephew hasa high school concert
performance, but I skip it'cause I wanna be at home
(20:49):
drinking. Has it affect mysafety? Uh, I'm up on the
ladders cleaning out the, theleafs from the gutters. And is
that safe with a , with the ,the amount of alcohol I'm
drinking or driving safety? Hasit affected my job? Have I
shown up, hung over to my, mywork and has that affected my
performance at work? So theseare the , the types of
questions. How much time am Ispending every day drinking or
(21:13):
recovering from alcohol? Theseare all questions that you
would ask yourself. And if youhave some concern when you're
asking yourself that questionsthat the alcohol is affecting
your relationships, your work,your activities, taking all
your time is related toalcohol, then it might be worth
talking to a healthprofessional. And there's two
ways to go on this. One is adedicated addiction
(21:34):
professional. And that can bereally intimidating to people.
And they feel like they'regonna get put in rehab, they're
gonna go to 30 day rehab and,and all that. And they , maybe
they're not ready for that. Theother is to talk to your
primary care physician orclinician. Um, your primary
care clinician should have sometools to help you drink less
and to also help you moderateyour alcohol use or to help you
(21:57):
be sober if that's your goal.
So you can either go the routeof talking to an addiction
professional or I think mucheasier just to have an um ,
mm-hmm . Honest conversationwith your primary care
clinician.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Are there medications?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah, there's great medications now. There's,
Speaker 2 (22:11):
It didn't used to be.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah. There's, you know, four or five different
medications that can help youeither drink in moderation or
be totally sober. And one ofthe great parts of my job, just
last Wednesday, I had a clinicwhere eight patients showed up
with alcohol use disorder andseven of them were doing great
on medications and they lovedit. And you know, they , and
(22:33):
some of them took a medicationto help them drink in
moderation and some of themtook a medication to help them
not drink at all. And for themit was working for them. So I,
I think there's a lot of greatoptions. Talk to your primary
care clinician about that andyou can also reach out to an
addiction clinician. Those
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Are really good tips. There is much more
available now than there usedto be. So folks, if, if you
answered yes to any of thosequestions, I think I strongly
encourage you to seek out somehelp for that. I wanted to
revisit something you saidearlier about sleep. Does it
help you sleep or does it makeyour sleep worse?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Great question. What people who drink alcohol at
night before bed find is thatit kind of knocks them out. So
it helps them pass out and goto sleep initially, but they
wake up in the middle of thenight kind of almost feeling
wired and the quality of theirsleep is poor. So overall
alcohol has a negative effecton sleep and people who drink
(23:26):
before bed, you know, everynight are just gonna have, be
less well rested , be morefatigued throughout the day.
Even though sometimes they feelthey drink a couple drinks and
they go to their bed and passout. That's not high quality
sleep though.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah. That's not good for your sleep. Yeah . It
sounds like what you're saying.
Okay. To wrap us up, holidaygatherings, family events, the
Super Bowl , I dunno ,anything, you know, things that
people are gathering for. Whattips would you give people to
drink in a reasonably healthyway?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, you know, always drink with food or drink
after having eaten. Try todrink over time . So like
meaning one drink should beconsumed over the course of an
hour. So sip rather than chug,you know, for the younger
crowd, they're drinking games,drinking competitions, that all
that stuff is
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Problematic. I'm guess those are not a
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Good idea.
that is not a good idea. And
especially if you have concern,keep track of how much you
drink. Don't lose count, youknow ? So I bet
Speaker 2 (24:23):
A lot of people do lose count. Oh
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, yeah. Or they go in with a plan and a couple
drinks in , they just, youknow, go for it and drink as
much as they're feeling andthen they end up regretting it.
Um, I would add another thing,and that is for holiday
celebrations, you don't need tohave alcohol. One of the good
things about dry January is itteaches us you don't need to
have alcohol. You can have awonderful time with your family
(24:45):
and not drink alcohol. And ifthere's stress around drinking
in the holidays with yourfamily, I would recommend the
holiday brunch, which issomething , which is
something that my family hasdone and has been really
wonderful. We have a wonderfulholiday meals together. It's
just during the day there's noalcohol. And for those who want
to drink alcohol, they can doit later.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That last tip seems really important to me. 'cause
everything else is about how todo it safely, but you don't
need it at all. Yeah. Is areally good tip to think about.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I think we are very reliant on alcohol to have a
good time. And I, I wasthinking about how like the,
the grandkids, the teenagegrandkids, you have to tell 'em
to put their phone down andit's a little awkward for them
at first to rejoin the familyat the holiday table. The same
thing applies to adults wholike to drink wine. If you tell
'em we're going, we're gonnahave a , an alcohol free
(25:34):
dinner, they're gonna be alittle awkward at first, but
they'll relax and have a goodtime. It , it's, it , it'll
work out fine. Great
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Advice. Charlie. We have been talking with Dr.
Charlie Resnikoff , anaddiction medicine specialist
and good friend of mine here atHennepin Healthcare in downtown
Minneapolis. And listeners, Iwish you a safe, peaceful, and
healthy holiday season andlet's get 2025 off to a great
start. Thanks for joining usand I hope you join us in two
weeks for our next episode. Andin the meantime, be healthy and
(26:01):
be well.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast
with Dr. David Hilden . To findout more about the Healthy
Matters podcast or browse thearchive, visit healthy
matters.org. Got a question ora comment for the show, email
us at Healthy matters@hcme.orgor call 6 1 2 8 7 3 talk.
There's also a link in the shownotes. The Healthy Matters
(26:25):
Podcast is made possible byHennepin Healthcare in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, andengineered and produced by John
Lucas At highball Executiveproducers are Jonathan , CTO
and Christine Hill . Pleaseremember, we can only give
general medical advice duringthis program, and every case is
unique. We urge you to consultwith your physician if you have
a more serious or pressinghealth concern. Until next
(26:47):
time, be healthy and be well .
Welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast with
Dr. David Hilden , primary carephysician and acute care
hospitalist at HennepinHealthcare in downtown
Minneapolis, where we cover thelatest in health healthcare and
what matters to you. And nowhere's our host, Dr. David
Hilden .
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey everybody, it's Dr. David Hilden , and welcome
to episode five of the podcastwhere we are gonna talk about
alcohol and your health. Theholiday season is upon us
again, and we're gonna diveinto a subject that's been
fueling conversations and bartabs for centuries. Alcohol
from bubbly celebrations tolate night regrets. Most of us,
or at least many of us, have astory to tell, and many of them
(00:41):
do involve drinking. So what'sthe deal with alcohol and our
health? On today's episode, I'mjoined by a repeat guest and a
friend of mine, Dr. CharlieResnikoff. He is a specialist
in addiction medicine and allkinds of substance use
concerns. So Charlie, welcomeback to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Let's start right off with a question that many
people have. I like to have aglass of red wine with dinner.
Is that healthy?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Uh, we would not say that it's healthy anymore. Uh ,
it , we used to, we used to ,we used to talk about one glass
of red wine per day, drinkingand moderation. Red wine can be
healthy for your heart. Wedon't say that anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Do say that there is low risk alcohol consumption.
There are healthyrecommendations, but we
wouldn't call it healthy. Soit's a complicated topic and
it's honestly, it's changed inthe last three years. It
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Really has. Yeah , because I remember, I've been
doing this over 20 years, Iwould say to people I never
once told someone, startdrinking for your health. Yeah.
But we used to say things like,if you enjoy a , a drink or two
a day, averaged over the wholeweek. If it's one or two a day,
that's probably okay for you.
And even might even be good foryour heart. That's not true
anymore. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We would eliminate that last sentence where we'd
say drinking one to two, onefor women, two for men per day
on average over time isprobably okay for you. And then
you can have a more in-depthconversation with your doctor
about your specific healthissues.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Right. So it's maybe okay for you, but it's not, not
healthy. Not healthy. It's notbeneficial. We used to think it
was like, well, everybody inthe south of France lives
forever. Yeah . And they havegravy and sauces and butter and
butter. Good life . They eat astick of butter for breakfast
on their croissant and , butthey have red wine and so it's
all good. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (02:23):
There were, there were two or maybe three things
about red wine that raised thisbelief. Number one, alcohol
does probably raise your HDL oryour good cholesterol, and that
may have some protectiveeffects. And number two,
there's a , a compound in redwine called reservatol , and
that may also lower your LDL oryour bad cholesterol. So red
(02:46):
wine may have some beneficialeffects on your cholesterol,
but the overall effect on yourheart is to make it worse. Uh ,
alcohol causes and exacerbatesheart failure can cause atrial
fibrillation can cause strokes.
And overall it worsens yourheart health. But there is this
little area where it may indeedimprove some of your
cholesterol numbers.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Let's rewind back to some real basics to help us all
understand what alcohol is and,and what does it do in your
body, and why might it beharmful. So we've been drinking
alcohol for probably, I don'tknow who started this, hundreds
of years. Thousands. Thousandsof years. Thousands of years
probably. Yeah . Could you justtell us a little bit about its
effects on the body? Um , bothwhy people drink it and enjoy
(03:28):
it, and what are some of theharmful effects?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah. I mean, alcohol occurs naturally when
fruits or other productsferment, and you don't need to
do much to have alcohol becreated in the wild. In fact,
growing up, we used to
our backyard, eat the berriesas they got on in the season,
the berries on one of ourtrees, and then get drunk and
fly into our window. And
Speaker 2 (03:50):
We , because they're fermenting on the tree, that
Speaker 3 (03:53):
That may be a bit of a , you know, a ,
Speaker 2 (03:56):
A table , a nervous
Family Winery , uh, maybe givethat one a pass. We used
Speaker 3 (04:00):
To joke about the drunk birds
but alcohol occur naturally,and alcohol actually was pretty
important to civilization whenthere weren't reliable sources
of potable water. When youcouldn't find healthy water,
alcohol at low levels willactually be safer to drink
because it will kill , uh,contaminants , uh, you know,
bacteria, whatnot in the, soalcohol has been part of human
(04:21):
civilization for centuries,millennia, in addition to
sterilizing water, which is notan issue for us, thankfully
anymore. It also causes peopleto relax. It's called , uh,
disinhibition. It takes some ofyour anxieties down a level. It
can relax your muscles as well.
So a lot of muscle tension cancalm down. People will tend,
(04:44):
when their anxieties go away,they tend to have a more
enjoyable, you know, fun. Theyterm that we use is jocular.
They, they tell more jokes,they laugh more often. So
alcohol at low levels can causepeople to relax emotionally and
physically.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So those sound like positive effects.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah. In the moment they're positive effects, for
sure, for most of us. But overtime, it's not a sustainable
effect. It's not it you'rehaving muscle tension or
emotional anxiety. Much betterto treat those with our more
modern approaches, medications,talk therapy, physical therapy,
not as fun as alcohol, but moreeffective and more safe. So
Speaker 2 (05:20):
What are the bad effects in your body? Now we're
gonna, we obviously know aboutsome other bad effects. There
are societal bad effects, thereare alcohol related crimes and
car accidents and all that. Wecan delve into that a little
bit later, but I'm talkingphysically what is bad about it
for your body?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah. Alcohol is a solvent. So alcohol dissolves
in basically everything. Andyou can use, you know, we know
that around the house we usealcohol to clean surfaces,
alcohol dissolves in fat,dissolves in water. And when
you drink alcohol, it goesthroughout your body
everywhere. And because ofthat, alcohol can have effects
on basically every part of yourbody. And it almost, you name
(05:57):
it, any part of your body canbe affected by alcohol. And
over time, exposure to alcoholis not healthy for almost any
part of your body. So, youknow, most prominent, I would
say the brain, the mentalhealth, sleep, mood, and the
digestive tract , your stomach,your intestines, your liver,
(06:17):
your pancreas, those are thebig ones, but it's not limited
to that. But I would say thedigestive track and the brain
are the big targets for alcoholrelated harm.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Why would we possibly think it's good for
your heart? Like what thatwhole red wine thing, you, you
touched on that a little bit,but if it seems like it's
pretty bad for your, all theseother parts of your body, why
would , did we ever think, isthat all just because of the
cholesterol effects? Well,
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It, it, well, there's a lot of reasons for
this. Uh, I think you , uh,mentioned earlier that certain
populations like the French ,uh, had good cardiac outcomes,
had good rates of cardiacdisease, and they were drinking
wines. So we saw thesecorrelations, this happens a
lot in medicine. We noticeassociations or correlations
between behaviors and outcomes.
(06:57):
And we sort of concluded that aglass of red wine a day may be
cardioprotective because peoplewho drink a glass of red wine a
day have lower rates of heartdisease. What it may turn out
that people who can afford aglass of red wine a day and
people who have the temperamentof moderation and
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Not having four or five,
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Those , those are the things that protect you.
The having moderation in yourlife and also having enough ,
you know, having the financialwherewithal to get a glass of
red wine per day. Those mayactually be the protective and
not the wine in the glass. Sothe , it was sort of an
association of correlation. Ourpublic health people observed
and concluded that red winemight help, but in fact, maybe
(07:37):
not. Let's
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Talk a little bit about people's day-to-day
drinking lives and things thatmight be , um, really relevant
to them. The types of thingspeople drink. Mm-hmm
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You actually, you left out my favorite cider.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh, cider.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah. And cider
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is like , uh, now we're gonna move to the
northwest of France.
Yes,
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Exactly. Or Minnesota. Minnesota has, you
know, a beautiful appleproduction and, and actually
has a , a , a , a greatindustry. I love a produc ci
producing hard cider . Mm-hmm
is one of the oldest drinksconsumed in America. Aside from
that, you know, I think most ofalcohol effects have to do,
does not matter what form ofalcohol you're drinking.
(08:16):
Obviously liquor is moreconcentrated. It's easier to
accidentally drink too muchliquor, but alcohol is alcohol
whether in whatever form itcomes in, there are particular
things about all the beerversus wine versus liquor that
we can get into. But I think itis really important to
understand how much alcohol isin whatever drink you're
(08:36):
drinking, and to know what thehealthy limit is.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I had a beer, Dr.
Resnikoff . Yeah. What doesthat mean? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What does that mean?
Um , my wife gets beers in ajuice glass. Yeah. You know, I
think it's like four ounces.
Yeah. And then like, you'll beat the place and then they'll
bring somebody else's beer andit's in this big huge stine and
Yeah . That's a beer. Yeah. Isit, it's not the container
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Beers range all the way from 4% alcohol, maybe 12
ounces. That might be atraditional beer that you
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Buy in a , a can of your standard beer from the ,
you know, exactly
Speaker 3 (09:11):
All the way up to 10% or 11% alcohol in a 16
ounce bottle. And so, which
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You'd get that , you'd get drunk off of that.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yes. And it would be two or even three times the
amount of alcohol as thatstandard beer that you get at a
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Liquor store and you get a big 16 ounce thing of it
you're having. Yeah . Probably. Is there a, so is there a
standard measurement for drinks? So when I ask a patient how
much you drink, which I doevery single, probably every
clinic I ask people, yeah . Ialways triple it because
whatever people think it is,it's usually more. But what is
a drink? What is one? I mean ,what should people do in all
those various kinds ofalcohols?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
The standard drink is a little outdated for beer,
as you pointed out. Uh , thestandard drink is a 12 ounce 5%
beer. That's very much yourstandard commercial beer that
you would get in the liquorstore.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
The smaller cans, everybody, not those big tall
ones. But
Speaker 3 (10:00):
If you're, if you're drinking a tall boy or a 16
ounce bottle and it's a craftbeer, you might just assume
that's two drinks. Mm-hmm
that's a safe assumption, but astandard drink is one five
ounce glass of wine. And thatwine would be 12%. That's
pretty standard. So one fiveounce, it's not a full wine
glass. It's
Speaker 2 (10:19):
A , yeah. When they make those big red wine glasses
that look like fish bowls,that's to catch the aroma,
you're supposed to put a littleteeny bit in the bottom. Yes .
So like
Speaker 3 (10:26):
A five ounce glass of a 12% wine, that's pretty
standard. Or a shot, which isone and a half ounces of 40%
alcohol, 80 proof alcohol.
That's standard as well. It'sworth once or twice measuring
those out. So you kind of caneyeball it. It doesn't need to
be perfect. Yeah. But if youknow what a shot looks like and
you know what a proper glass ofwine look like, you're pretty
(10:48):
much there. And you just needto be careful about the alcohol
percentage of beer I would addto this. And th those are
numbers. So one standard drink,however, if you are drinking,
when you're dehydrated on anempty stomach and you're
slamming your drink, that drinkis gonna hit you real hard.
Whereas if you're drinkingslowly while you're eating and
(11:09):
you know you have food in yourstomach and it takes you an
hour to finish that one glass,that one glass is gonna be
really mellow for you. So it'sreally important not just to
know the quantity of alcoholyou're drinking, but the
context. How fast are youdrinking it? Is there food in
your stomach? And are youdehydrated or not? Those are
big factors in how you willrespond to the alcohol.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
How many is too much? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Good question. And the first answer to that
question is, it depends on theindividual. So my mother in
later in her life, in hereighties, one drink would be
way too much for her. She wasapt to have falls, she was
having memory issues, shereally couldn't drink at all.
So there are gonna be somepeople maybe with some health
conditions like liver diseasewhere any is too much. In
(11:54):
America in pregnancy, therecommendation is no alcohol.
So there are some people whereany is too much. That's
Speaker 2 (12:00):
A qualification in this country. Yeah. Are French
women like pounding it? Yeah .
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I think the recommendations in Europe is,
are more lax in that drinkingand moderation is more accepted
in pregnancy, but in America itis recommended not to drink.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So for some people, anything more than zero is
probably too much. I mean, therest in the rest of us , it
kind of varies. What, what isthen considered to be binge
drinking? Right? Because isn'tthat a higher risk? Right.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So then if you are not in one of those high risk
categories, then how much canyou drink? And the first answer
is for men averaging two a dayfor women averaging one a day.
Now we have many gender diversepatients who don't identify as
men or women, and we don'treally know how to answer that.
But those folks are at highrisk for alcohol related harms.
(12:47):
So I think talking to thosefolks about their alcohol use
is really important.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So I can have 14 of them on a Saturday night.
That's two that's averaged oftwo a day there,
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Doctor . Exactly. So then the next two limits are,
number one, binge drinking,which for women is no more than
four or more on an occasion.
And for men is no more thanfive or more on occasion.
That's still kind of a lot.
Yeah. So for three or fourdrinks in a, in a single
occasion should be consideredsafe if you don't have any
(13:17):
other risk
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Factors. And you're not driving. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
And you're not driving. Yeah. Yeah. There is a
new category which is calledhigh intensity drinking.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I just heard that term this month, which
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Is doubling the binge drink. For men it would
be nine or more drinks, and forwomen it would be eight or more
drinks. And that is anexceedingly high risk. And
there are a lot of people outthere that are doing high
intensity binging. So doublethe recommendation of a binge,
which is four or five drinks,depending on your gender. And
people get in a lot of troublein their high intensity
(13:48):
binging. So I would sayaveraging one or two per day,
depending on your gender, onany given day, not exceeding
four or five. And to reallyhave concern if you're doubling
that dose to high intensitybinging. So
Speaker 2 (14:01):
After the break, we're gonna talk about some
specific tips for you to manageyour drinking and what to do if
you think you might need to getsome , uh, professional help.
And after the break, I'm gonnaask you what's a hangover?
Charlie
about alcohol use and problemsthat can arise from drinking.
Stay with us. We'll be rightback
Speaker 4 (14:23):
When Hennepin Healthcare says we are here for
life. They mean here for you,your life and all that it
brings. Hennepin Healthcare hasa hospital HCMC and a network
of clinics both downtown andacross the west metro. They
provide all the primary careand specialty care you would
expect to find, but did youknow they also have services
like acupuncture andchiropractic care available at
(14:46):
many of their primary careclinics and at their
integrative health clinic indowntown Minneapolis? Learn
more@hennepinhealthcare.org.
Hennepin Healthcare is here foryou and here for life.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So we're back talking with Dr. Charlie
Resnikoff about alcohol use. SoCharlie, what's a hangover? How
do you get rid of it? Okay,
Speaker 3 (15:08):
A hangover. Good
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Question. I wouldn't know
help me out here. Um,
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah. Hangover is the , the after effects of, of
alcohol use. And what it ishappening in your body is a
couple things. Alcohol needs tobe broken down by your liver to
acid aldehyde, which may soundlike formaldehyde, you know,
and , and for a reason it's analdehyde. So acid aldehyde, you
can imagine this compound acidaldehyde floating around in
(15:34):
your body. It
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Doesn't sound good for you.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It makes you feel terrible that , you know, it
really makes you feel crummy.
And then from there it's brokendown into a form of acid called
acetate. So your body isliterally acidic as it breaks
down alcohol. And a lot ofhangovers is just your body
processing all of these acidsand it just takes time. But
there are other thingshappening. When you drink
(15:57):
alcohol, you commonly becomedehydrated. You also commonly
lose essential electrolytes.
And I would call out potassiumand magnesium. And you commonly
aren't eating nutritioushealthy food as you're drinking
too . Excess buffalo
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Wings come on.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Or just nothing. Or
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Nothing. Yeah .
Speaker 3 (16:17):
that having salted peanuts asyou drink would protect you
from your , from a hangover.
But the , it does emphasize theimportance of eating while you
drink
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Alcohol. Yeah. My college bar was Williams Peanut
Bar in uptown Minneapolis. I'vebeen there
threw your peanut shells on thefloor. I think we literally
thought that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Exactly. So getting your hydration improved eating
food, including healthy foodsthat contain potassium and
magnesium. And also justunderstanding this is what your
body has to go through tometabolize the alcohol. And
some of it's unavoidable whenyou drink a lot of alcohol,
there's no avoiding a hangover.
There's no, there's no trick togetting in . Is there,
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Are there other ways to prevent? So is everybody,
should they all go down totheir, their nutritional
supplement aisle, but buy abunch of magnesium and palm
those when they're, whenthey're drinking? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And you will hear there's
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Not specific to do except not drink. Right?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You will hear specific supplements marketed
for this. There's not anevidence to support those.
Drink more slowly drink whileyou eat and listen to your
hangover. Your hangover istelling you something that you
, and when you choose how muchto drink, keep in mind tomorrow
, uh, and what you're gonna ,what you're gonna experience
tomorrow . Is
Speaker 2 (17:26):
There any truth to the alternate your drink with a
big, huge glass of water?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
There's some truth to it. Uh, that's
Speaker 2 (17:31):
It probably just slows your drinking down ,
keeps you hydrated.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah. Those things are, yeah. And you'll be , uh,
you'll be visiting the restroomall night. He'll be
Speaker 2 (17:39):
drunk that you have a
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Hangover. Yeah , yeah. And listen to your
hangover. I mean, it's tellingyou something and some of it
you can't, there's no magic outof it. Your body has to process
all that alcohol and it turnsinto acid, aldehyde and
acetate. Yeah. And those aretoxic substances.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Let's talk about dry January. So it's sort of taken
hold where a lot of peopleattempt or, and most are
successful I imagine, and don'tdrink any alcohol in the month
of January. And many people aregonna be listening to this
podcast either in late Decemberor in January. Not all but
many. Is that a good idea? Isit beneficial to you to take a
break?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I I don't think we would say that it is beneficial
to your health. Like you'lllive longer or you'll prevent
diseases because of dryJanuary. But I do think it's
beneficial in a lot of ways.
First of all, gives
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Your liver a break.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Well , yeah. Yes.
That's a good bite . I mean ,
you, it'll feel good. I mean, Ithink a lot of people by
January 1st haven't slept well.
Alcohol can affect your sleep.
Um, alcohol can affect yournutrition. Maybe you've been
overeating as well and youcould use some improved sleep,
some improved nutrition. And sothis would be a way to help
that happen. So I for sureit'll, I I see those health
(18:49):
benefits separately. I think itteaches people that they can
have a good time withoutalcohol that can extend past
January. That's big. That'shuge. You can have a great time
with your friends. You alsolearn alternative drinks.
There's a lot of greatnon-alcoholic beverages more
than ever. It's actually aamazing
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Diet . Even good non-alcoholic beers. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Oh, amazing.
Non-alcoholic beers. Yep . And,and there's non-alcoholic wine.
We used to give that to my momat dinner.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Speaker 3 (19:14):
She, she knew she, she caught on eventually
non-alcoholic beer. There'sother non-alcoholic cocktails
who teaches you there are theseoptions. And also if you
struggle in dry January, thatteaches you something about
yourself. And if someonecommits to a dry January and
(19:34):
then can't do it, that's asignal. And that you should pay
attention to that signal andyou should ask why. And maybe
talk to someone about why wasit so hard for me to go through
January without drinking? Sothose are all benefits to dry
January. But I think there areother ways to, you know, gain
those same benefits if youdon't want to do dry January.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Those are good tips.
That's that . I think that'sreally wise . Okay. I'm gonna
shift a little bit to peoplewho might think they're
drinking too much. Maybe theyknow they're drinking too much
or maybe they don't knowthey're drinking too much, but
it's, it's become problematicin their lives. Yeah . Could
you talk about when it's timeto get help and what help is
available?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, so there's a lot of help. And actually now
more than ever, there's manyways for people to get help
with their alcohol use. So thefirst thing, how do I know when
it's a problem for me? Well, ifyou're exceeding the limits for
of alcohol, so if you're a manand you're having five or more
drinks regularly, especially ifyou're having 10 or more drinks
(20:28):
regularly, if you're a woman,you're having four or more
drinks. Especially if you'rehaving eight or more drinks,
you should at least askyourself, honestly, is this a
problem for me? And what wouldyou ask? Has it affect my
family relationships? Has itaffected activities that I used
to do? You know, my nephew hasa high school concert
performance, but I skip it'cause I wanna be at home
(20:49):
drinking. Has it affect mysafety? Uh, I'm up on the
ladders cleaning out the, theleafs from the gutters. And is
that safe with a , with the ,the amount of alcohol I'm
drinking or driving safety? Hasit affected my job? Have I
shown up, hung over to my, mywork and has that affected my
performance at work? So theseare the , the types of
questions. How much time am Ispending every day drinking or
(21:13):
recovering from alcohol? Theseare all questions that you
would ask yourself. And if youhave some concern when you're
asking yourself that questionsthat the alcohol is affecting
your relationships, your work,your activities, taking all
your time is related toalcohol, then it might be worth
talking to a healthprofessional. And there's two
ways to go on this. One is adedicated addiction
(21:34):
professional. And that can bereally intimidating to people.
And they feel like they'regonna get put in rehab, they're
gonna go to 30 day rehab and,and all that. And they , maybe
they're not ready for that. Theother is to talk to your
primary care physician orclinician. Um, your primary
care clinician should have sometools to help you drink less
and to also help you moderateyour alcohol use or to help you
(21:57):
be sober if that's your goal.
So you can either go the routeof talking to an addiction
professional or I think mucheasier just to have an um ,
mm-hmm . Honest conversationwith your primary care
clinician.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Are there medications?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah, there's great medications now. There's,
Speaker 2 (22:11):
It didn't used to be.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah. There's, you know, four or five different
medications that can help youeither drink in moderation or
be totally sober. And one ofthe great parts of my job, just
last Wednesday, I had a clinicwhere eight patients showed up
with alcohol use disorder andseven of them were doing great
on medications and they lovedit. And you know, they , and
(22:33):
some of them took a medicationto help them drink in
moderation and some of themtook a medication to help them
not drink at all. And for themit was working for them. So I,
I think there's a lot of greatoptions. Talk to your primary
care clinician about that andyou can also reach out to an
addiction clinician. Those
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Are really good tips. There is much more
available now than there usedto be. So folks, if, if you
answered yes to any of thosequestions, I think I strongly
encourage you to seek out somehelp for that. I wanted to
revisit something you saidearlier about sleep. Does it
help you sleep or does it makeyour sleep worse?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Great question. What people who drink alcohol at
night before bed find is thatit kind of knocks them out. So
it helps them pass out and goto sleep initially, but they
wake up in the middle of thenight kind of almost feeling
wired and the quality of theirsleep is poor. So overall
alcohol has a negative effecton sleep and people who drink
(23:26):
before bed, you know, everynight are just gonna have, be
less well rested , be morefatigued throughout the day.
Even though sometimes they feelthey drink a couple drinks and
they go to their bed and passout. That's not high quality
sleep though.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah. That's not good for your sleep. Yeah . It
sounds like what you're saying.
Okay. To wrap us up, holidaygatherings, family events, the
Super Bowl , I dunno ,anything, you know, things that
people are gathering for. Whattips would you give people to
drink in a reasonably healthyway?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, you know, always drink with food or drink
after having eaten. Try todrink over time . So like
meaning one drink should beconsumed over the course of an
hour. So sip rather than chug,you know, for the younger
crowd, they're drinking games,drinking competitions, that all
that stuff is
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Problematic. I'm guess those are not a
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Good idea.
especially if you have concern,keep track of how much you
drink. Don't lose count, youknow ? So I bet
Speaker 2 (24:23):
A lot of people do lose count. Oh
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, yeah. Or they go in with a plan and a couple
drinks in , they just, youknow, go for it and drink as
much as they're feeling andthen they end up regretting it.
Um, I would add another thing,and that is for holiday
celebrations, you don't need tohave alcohol. One of the good
things about dry January is itteaches us you don't need to
have alcohol. You can have awonderful time with your family
(24:45):
and not drink alcohol. And ifthere's stress around drinking
in the holidays with yourfamily, I would recommend the
holiday brunch, which issomething
something that my family hasdone and has been really
wonderful. We have a wonderfulholiday meals together. It's
just during the day there's noalcohol. And for those who want
to drink alcohol, they can doit later.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That last tip seems really important to me. 'cause
everything else is about how todo it safely, but you don't
need it at all. Yeah. Is areally good tip to think about.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I think we are very reliant on alcohol to have a
good time. And I, I wasthinking about how like the,
the grandkids, the teenagegrandkids, you have to tell 'em
to put their phone down andit's a little awkward for them
at first to rejoin the familyat the holiday table. The same
thing applies to adults wholike to drink wine. If you tell
'em we're going, we're gonnahave a , an alcohol free
(25:34):
dinner, they're gonna be alittle awkward at first, but
they'll relax and have a goodtime. It , it's, it , it'll
work out fine. Great
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Advice. Charlie. We have been talking with Dr.
Charlie Resnikoff , anaddiction medicine specialist
and good friend of mine here atHennepin Healthcare in downtown
Minneapolis. And listeners, Iwish you a safe, peaceful, and
healthy holiday season andlet's get 2025 off to a great
start. Thanks for joining usand I hope you join us in two
weeks for our next episode. Andin the meantime, be healthy and
(26:01):
be well.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast
with Dr. David Hilden . To findout more about the Healthy
Matters podcast or browse thearchive, visit healthy
matters.org. Got a question ora comment for the show, email
us at Healthy matters@hcme.orgor call 6 1 2 8 7 3 talk.
There's also a link in the shownotes. The Healthy Matters
(26:25):
Podcast is made possible byHennepin Healthcare in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, andengineered and produced by John
Lucas At highball Executiveproducers are Jonathan , CTO
and Christine Hill . Pleaseremember, we can only give
general medical advice duringthis program, and every case is
unique. We urge you to consultwith your physician if you have
a more serious or pressinghealth concern. Until next
(26:47):
time, be healthy and be well .
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