What Does Alcohol Tolerance Depend On?

Alcohol is an extremely popular psychoactive substance that is one of the most frequently consumed substances in the world. People who consume it are characterized by different tolerance to its effects. Colloquially, people often talk about a "strong and weak head." What is alcohol tolerance and what does it depend on?

Summary (TL;DR)

Alcohol tolerance is a phenomenon in which the body gradually stops responding to the same amount of alcohol, resulting in the need to consume larger doses to achieve the same effect. Factors affecting tolerance include sex (women feel the effects of alcohol faster), age (older people have weaker alcohol metabolism), body fat content, daily diet, and genetic factors. Two main types of tolerance are distinguished: functional (brain and behavioral adaptation) and metabolic (accelerated breakdown of alcohol in the body). Functional tolerance can occur in various forms, such as acute, environmental, or learned tolerance. Alcohol intolerance may result from allergy or hypersensitivity to alcohol components and manifests as rash, shortness of breath, cough, and blood pressure drop. Increased tolerance is often an early sign of addiction, while in advanced stages of the disease there may be a sharp decline.

Alcohol Tolerance – What Is It?

Alcohol has a strong impact on the body. Consuming this substance affects both physiological functions and human behavior. In the case of people who abuse alcohol for a long time, tolerance to some effects of this substance may develop. Alcohol tolerance refers to a situation in which, following a prolonged period of drinking, consuming the same amount of alcoholic beverages produces lesser effects. This is the so-called "strong head," which means that achieving the same effects requires drinking a larger amount of alcohol.

What Can Alcohol Tolerance Depend On?

Alcohol tolerance can depend on sex, age, body fat content, daily diet, and genetic factors.

Sex

The same amount of alcohol consumed will affect a woman much faster and more strongly than a man. This is due to:

• estrogens, which facilitate alcohol absorption

• higher body fat content, which causes consumed alcohol to break down in a smaller volume of fluids and reach a higher concentration

• lower content of ethanol-breaking enzyme, known as alcohol dehydrogenase, which causes more pure alcohol to enter the body

Age

Older people are characterized by greater sensitivity to the effects of high-proof drinks. This is due to the fact that with age, the activity of enzymes responsible for alcohol metabolic processes decreases, which leads to longer circulation of alcohol in the body. Read also: Can a Diabetic Drink Alcohol?

Body Fat

Whether someone has a strong or weak head for alcohol is greatly influenced by the ratio between body fat and muscle tissue content. Unlike fat tissue, muscle tissue contains significantly more water. Due to the fact that alcohol dissolves in an aqueous environment, people with more developed muscle tissue are significantly less susceptible to the effects of alcohol than people of the same body weight who have more fat tissue.

Daily Diet

Alcohol tolerance also depends on daily diet. Alcoholic beverages affect people who follow a high-protein and low-carbohydrate diet more strongly. A way to achieve a "strong head" is consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, which cause glycogen to accumulate in muscles and liver, binding large amounts of water that facilitates alcohol dissolution.

Genetic Factors

The way alcohol affects the human body largely depends on the activity level of enzymes involved in its breakdown processes. Some people have a modified aldh2 gene, which reduces the action of alcohol dehydrogenase and causes even small doses of alcohol to produce unpleasant symptoms, including facial flushing, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. This type of mutation occurs relatively rarely in Europe, but is present in as many as 36% of the East Asian population.

Types of Alcohol Tolerance

Two basic types of alcohol tolerance can be distinguished – functional tolerance and metabolic tolerance.

Functional Tolerance

Functional tolerance develops when brain function adapts to compensate for disruptions in physiological functions and behavior caused by alcohol. People who drink intensively and chronically, even with high blood alcohol concentration, are able to behave in such a way that obvious signs of intoxication are not visible. Functional tolerance allows an alcoholic to consume increasingly larger amounts of alcoholic beverages, as they do not experience visible impairment of functioning. This state of affairs often leads to the development of addiction, as well as the development of various diseases and conditions caused by the toxic effects of alcohol on the human body. Within functional tolerance, several subtypes can be distinguished. These are acute tolerance, environment-dependent tolerance, learned tolerance, and environment-independent tolerance.

• Acute Tolerance

Acute tolerance refers to a single drinking session. It means a reduction in alcohol-induced impairment of various body functions during the consumption of alcoholic beverages, even if the ethanol level in the blood has not changed.

• Environment-Dependent Tolerance

Environment-dependent tolerance develops in response to signals associated with alcohol. It consists of showing greater resistance to the effects of alcoholic beverages when consumed in a familiar environment associated with drinking. For example, the same person, consuming the same amount of alcohol, will experience alcohol intoxication faster at home than in a bar where they usually drink.

• Learned Tolerance

Learned tolerance is the so-called behaviorally reinforced tolerance. It develops in people who practice performing tasks requiring visual-motor coordination under the influence of alcohol.

• Environment-Independent Tolerance

Environment-independent tolerance is a type of tolerance that develops as a result of consuming large amounts of alcohol, regardless of environmental influence.

Metabolic Tolerance

Metabolic tolerance is tolerance resulting from faster elimination of alcohol from the body. It results from the rapid action of a group of liver enzymes that metabolize alcohol, which are activated as a result of long-term alcohol consumption. These enzymes accelerate the breakdown of ethanol in the body and shorten the time during which this substance exerts an active effect on a person, which limits the duration of alcohol intoxication effects. Read also: Alcoholism – Health Effects and Psychological Symptoms

Alcohol Intolerance – Alcohol Allergy

Alcohol intolerance can be caused by allergy or hypersensitivity. The allergic reaction usually concerns by-products present in alcoholic beverages, such as lactose or gluten, but in some cases it can be triggered by pure ethanol. Symptoms of alcohol hypersensitivity caused by allergy include:

• skin rash

• redness and tearing of the conjunctiva

• profuse, watery runny nose

• shortness of breath

• cough

• accelerated pulse

• drop in arterial blood pressure

Alcohol Tolerance and Addiction

Increased alcohol tolerance often represents one of the first symptoms of addiction. In the first phase of alcohol disease development, tolerance to ethanol gradually increases, which causes more frequent reaching for increasingly larger doses of alcohol. In later phases of addiction, the opposite phenomenon can be observed – decreased alcohol tolerance. This means that an alcoholic becomes intoxicated with just a small amount of alcohol. The decline in alcohol tolerance in late stages of alcohol disease is related to decreased activity of ethanol-metabolizing enzymes, as well as general body deterioration.

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