5 Reasons Why Alcohol Is Bad For Your Health

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help
you make stopping drinking asimple, logical, and easy
decision.
We help you with tips, tools,and strategies to start living
your best life when alcoholfree.
If you want to learn more aboutstop drinking coaching, then
head over to www.soberclear.com.

(00:23):
Alcohol isn't just bad for you,it's a poison disguised as a
drink.
It shrinks your brain, wrecks,and even rewires your hormones.
Ladies and gentlemen, in thisvideo, I'll give you five
scientific reasons why alcoholis one of the most destructive
drugs on earth.
Reasons that will make yourethink every single sip.

(00:43):
And please make sure to watchthis entire video because reason
number five is by far the mostterrifying of them all.
It's the one that proves alcoholdamages you all the way down to
your DNA.
And why should you listen to me?
Well, my name is Leon Sylvester.
I'm the founder ofsoberclear.com, which is a
coaching company that uses atotally new method to help
people get control of theirdrinking.

(01:04):
I myself struggled with alcoholfor close to a decade, trying to
stop drinking with willpower,going to AA meetings, stopping
and starting all the time, butseven years ago something
shifted and I haven't dranksince.
And now I help other people dothe same thing.
My company's approach has beenscientifically validated with a
96% client-rated success, andyou can find an academic paper

(01:24):
of the method by going to GoogleScholar and searching the word
sober clear.
So when I share these fivereasons why alcohol is
devastating for your health,it's not just an opinion.
This is going to be hard sciencecombined with personal
experience and years of helpingthousands of people break free.
So, number one, it's a highlyunusual evolutionary novelty.

(01:45):
Ethanol, the chemical name forwhat we call alcohol, is a
pretty unique molecule.
It's the only widely consumeddrug that is both highly toxic
and very calorie dense.
The toxicity is why you have todilute it.
If you drank a bottle ofstraight ethanol in one sitting,
you would die on the spot.
According to the CDC, severalthousand people do die in the US

(02:07):
annually from acute alcoholpoisoning.
This is only the people whooverdose in one sitting, not
counting any long-term healtheffects.
Alcohol is also extremelycalorie dense.
One gram of ethanol will giveyou 7.1 calories of energy,
which is astonishingly high.
For comparison, lettuce givesyou 0.1 calories per gram, steak

(02:28):
2.5 calories, and bacon 5.
Now, our ancestors firstdiscovered fermented alcohol
about 10,000 years ago.
And natural selection is stillin the very early stages of
dealing with it.
So we are dealing with a verytoxic and calorie-dense
substance that our body simplyhasn't evolved to deal with.
It can't handle alcoholproperly.

(02:48):
Given how rapidly our technologyand medicine are improving, it's
difficult to know how evolutionwill play out.
But if natural selection isallowed to do its thing, then in
a few hundred or thousandgenerations, all people will
find alcohol disgusting.
Just like, say, ammonia.
Mother Nature will solve theproblem of alcohol for good.

(03:08):
In the meantime, our body isleft with the unpleasant task of
dealing with this toxin.
Now, regular food containsnecessary macro and
micronutrients that areextracted and processed in
various useful ways duringdigestion.
With alcohol, on the other hand,we extract the calories, but
there is no other usefulcontribution to the body's
functioning.
That's why our body doesn'tregister them like normal

(03:30):
calories, and why it doesn'tcompensate our appetite for
them.
In other words, when you have ajuicy steak with its 2.5
calories per gram, you break itdown in your digestive tract,
you extract the proteins andother nutrients, and send a
signal to your brain to reducethe appetite.
When you have a beer, on theother hand, it quickly passes
into the blood, reaches thebrain and other organs, and

(03:51):
wrecks some havoc and is thensent to the liver to be
metabolized.
The liver being the organ taskedwith breaking down toxins.
Tragically, the liver will firstmetabolize ethanol into
acetaldehyde.
This is an extremely harmfulmolecule, between 10 to 30 times
more toxic than ethanol.
The acetaldehyde is then brokendown into ever simpler

(04:12):
molecules, which are eventuallyexpelled from the body.
And it's during this process,when your liver is dealing with
all these toxic chemicals, thatyou extract the calories from
alcohol.
So you have this realcatastrophe where you absorb all
the empty calories from thissuper calorie dense source, you
keep on eating as normal becauseyour brain doesn't register the
calories, and you destroy yourliver in the process.

(04:35):
So let's look at the secondthing, how it raises something
called oxidative stress.
So another unfortunateconsequence of ethanol's
metabolism involves the creationof molecules which scientists
call reactive.
As the name suggests, thesereactive molecules, which
include free radicals andreactive oxygen species or ROS,
just don't sit idly in the body.

(04:56):
Instead, they like to interactwith other stable molecules.
They do this by either stealingparticles from them to convert
them into free radicals orcombining with them to form new
free radicals.
So what does this mean?
Well, this can set off a chainreaction of damage, with the
instability spreading from onemolecule to another.
To deal with these reactivemolecules, our body uses various

(05:17):
molecules that scientistscollectively call antioxidants.
The antioxidants combine withfree radicals and reactive
oxygen species, and rather thanbecoming unstable, they
neutralize them.
So the reactive molecules areneutralized and the chain
reaction is killed in itstracts.
In a healthy body, this systemworks smoothly, keeping the
damage in check.

(05:38):
But when there's an imbalancewhen too many reactive molecules
are produced or not enoughantioxidants are available, the
body enters a state known asoxidative stress.
And this is what you get withdrinking alcohol, because
alcohol generates reactivemolecules while simultaneously
depleting essential antioxidantdefenses.
Oxidative stress is nowrecognized as a key factor in

(06:01):
aging, and part of the reasonwhy heavy drinkers often look
prematurely aged, particularlyin the face.
But the effects go way beyondjust superficial appearances.
Oxidative stress is nowconsidered an aggravating factor
in the development of numerouschronic health problems.
These include cardiovasculardisease, cancer, fatigue, and

(06:21):
neurodegenerative conditions.
Oxidative stress also leads topersistent inflammation in the
brain.
It also inflames other organs,which sets the stage for
degenerative diseases likedementia and pancreatitis.
Research increasingly suggeststhat psychological disorders
like depression and anxietymight also be linked to
oxidative stress in the brain.

(06:43):
This does help explain why somany drinkers suffer from mood
swings, brain fog, and emotionalinstability.
Number three, it keeps youchronically inflamed.
So we just saw that aconsequence of oxidative stress
is the triggering ofinflammatory processes.
This is so fundamental to ourhealth that I need us to
elaborate on this a bit.

(07:04):
So inflammation is basically adefense mechanism.
It's our body's natural responseto things like injuries and
infections.
It removes what's causing thedamage, clears out the damaged
tissues, and initiates thehealing process.
The problem is that inflammationcomes at a price.
It takes a toll on the body, andwhen you become chronically
inflamed, your tissues andorgans begin to suffer.

(07:27):
This chronic inflammation alsoactivates immune cells that
generate additional reactiveoxygen species.
This creates a self-perpetuatingchain of oxidative stress and
inflammation at various levels.
It becomes a vicious cycle.
Another major factor driving theinflammation is the damage to
the gut's mucosal barrier.
Alcohol damages the intestinallining, allowing toxic bacterial

(07:50):
components to enter thebloodstream.
You might have heard thisreferred to as leaky gut
syndrome.
These toxic bacterial componentsprovoke an immune response in
the body, which furtheraggravate the inflammation.
So now you have chronicinflammation and you're setting
the stage for seriouslife-altering diseases.
The inflammation is across theentire body, but certain organs

(08:13):
are especially affected,starting with the brain, where
chronic neuroinflammationliterally kills off countless
neurons.
This contributes to brainatrophy, cognitive dysfunction,
mood disorders, and eventuallyneurogenerative conditions like
early onset dementia.
And this can strike drinkers asyoung as their 30s and 40s.
The liver will also suffer.

(08:33):
Most drinkers suffer from fattyliver, a condition where the
cells accumulate fat and theentire liver swells.
While this has no overtsymptoms, many of those with
fatty liver will progress to thenext stage of liver disease,
alcoholic hepatitis.
Now the liver becomeschronically inflamed, and you
get the first nasty symptoms ofliver disease: loss of appetite,

(08:55):
nausea, vomiting, weakness, andjaundice.
It's a similar story with thepancreas, where inflammation is
called pancreatitis.
Luckily, pancreatitis is not ascommon as liver disease, even in
heavy drinkers.
On the other hand, when it doesstrike, it's generally far
nastier and the pain can beexcruciating.
Oxidative stress andinflammation are two of the main

(09:16):
pillars of alcohol toxicitywithin your body.
They are what is corroding yourhealth at every level, from
molecular up to cellular, thentissue, all the way to the
organs.
Initially, oxidative stress ismore prominent, causing
widespread cellular damage.
As the damage accumulates, ittriggers inflammatory responses
throughout the body, but certainorgans and systems do become

(09:39):
particularly inflamed.
This persistent inflammationfurther exacerbates oxidative
stress, creating a vicious cycleof ever-increasing toxicity.
Over time, the person developsserious health conditions.
These can include liver disease,cardiovascular disorders,
neurodegenerative diseases, andcancers.
Number four, it upsets yourendocrine system.

(10:00):
By endocrine system, we refer tothe collection of glands that
produce hormones, which arechemical messengers that
regulate various functions inthe body.
This system includes thehypothalamus, pituitary and
thyroid glands, pancreas andreproductive organs like the
ovaries in women and testes inmen.
One of the main functions of theendocrine system is to achieve a
constant internal environment,so-called homeostasis.

(10:23):
This allows our body to respondappropriately to changes in the
external and internalenvironment without being thrown
off balance.
Now, the effects of alcohol onthe endocrine system are far too
extensive to cover in thisvideo.
So I'm gonna focus on a coupleof key points.
An important way in whichalcohol upsets your endocrine
system involves cortisol.

(10:44):
Cortisol, along with adrenaline,is a key hormone in our body's
so-called fight or flightresponse, which was critical
during human evolution.
But what exactly do we mean byfight or flight?
Essentially, when we confront anurgent and potentially
threatening situation, the fightor flight response mobilizes our
body's resources.
So we will either stand ourground and confront the threat

(11:07):
or we will simply flee.
What happens is our heart rateand blood pressure increase,
blood sugar levels rise, andblood flows to the muscle, and
we're put on this red alert.
The problem, just likeinflammation, is that this is a
very costly response.
It's great in an emergency, butit's not something that you can
keep up indefinitely withoutdamaging your body.

(11:27):
And the damage is widespread, ascortisol activates a wide range
of tissues in our body.
So the symptoms can includeanything from high blood
pressure to immune problems,psychological issues, bone
problems, sexual dysfunction,and cognitive issues.
Drinkers do tend to havechronically elevated cortisol
levels, which is a part of thereason why they are prone to all

(11:48):
of these conditions.
Essentially, they are in a stateof chronic stress, and their
body is accumulating tremendouswear and tear.
And when they eventually do stopdrinking, their cortisol levels
will spike even more beforecoming back down.
The spike lasts for a few weeksafter the last drink.
Interestingly, during this peak,the person's fight or flight
response is also blunted.

(12:09):
In other words, they won't showthe expected physiological
responses to a stressfulsituation.
Another way alcohol damages ourendocrine system is through its
action on the sex hormones.
In men, chronic consumptionaffects testicular cells and
lowers blood testosteronelevels.
It also interferes with spermproduction, reduces libido, and
increases the risk of impotence.

(12:30):
In women, it raises estrogenlevels, contributing to an
increased risk of breast cancer.
And this is by far the mostcommon cancer in women.
Sadly, one out of every eightwomen will have to deal with it
in their lifetime.
And with each daily drink, thebreast cancer risk rises by a
whopping 7%.
All these problems will sooneror later affect fertility, which

(12:52):
is why one of the first medicalrecommendations for couples who
are struggling to conceive is tocut out alcohol.
Number five, it interferes withcellular repair mechanisms.
So far, we've looked at thevarious ways in which alcohol
damages your cells.
We've discussed the role ofacetaldehyde, oxidative stress,
and inflammation.
But something we haven't touchedon yet is our cells' ability to

(13:15):
repair themselves after damage.
And guess what?
Here, alcohol is just asdestructive.
Again, the topic is far too wideto cover in detail in this
video.
So we're gonna take a look at acouple of topics to give you a
general sense of this damage.
One key area involves the repairof DNA, the molecule that form
our genetic code, the buildingblocks of life, as they're often
called.

(13:36):
Now, acetaldehyde in particularlikes to interact with DNA,
combining with it to form largemolecules called adducts.
These adducts distort the normalstructure of DNA, interfering
with its replication andexpression.
When DNA adducts accumulate,they can lead to mutations,
which in turn may triggeruncontrolled cell growth and
ultimately cancer.

(13:57):
Normally, our cells usesophisticated repair mechanisms
to quickly fix such damage.
But alcohol impairs these repairsystems by interfering with
dedicated enzymes that normallyrepair the damage.
This overwhelms cells' naturalability to keep their genetic
blueprint intact.
Aside from raising cancer risks,this process accelerates

(14:18):
cellular aging.
It impairs the ability of ourtissues to regenerate and it
compromises our immune system.
Alcohol also disrupts anothercrucial cellular repair process
known as autophagy.
This is our built-in recyclingmechanism whereby cells
identify, break down, andrecycle damaged proteins,
microscopic cell organelles, andother debris.

(14:38):
Autophagy keeps our cellshealthy by clearing out faulty,
non-functioning components andmaintaining a balanced internal
environment.
Alcohol interferes with some keyproteins involved in autophagy,
throwing a monkey wrench in thecell's ability to keep a clean
house.
Damaged cellular componentsbegin to accumulate, raising
oxidative stress and leading toprofoundly dysfunctional

(15:00):
cellular environments.
With autophagy compromised, yourcells lose one of their most
effective repair mechanisms,setting the stage for chronic
diseases and further healthdecline.
So what do we do about this?
Stop drinking.
Thanks for checking out the StopDrinking podcast by SoberClear.
If you want to learn more abouthow we work with people to help
them stop drinking effortlessly,then make sure to visit

(15:22):
www.soberclear.com.