14.04.2011, 16:03 10788

The real reason drinking is more dangerous for women

Women are more quickly affected by alcohol than men, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Almaty. April 14. Kazakhstan Today - Women are more quickly affected by alcohol than men, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Hard-drinking ladettes would never admit it, but it has long been known that women are more quickly affected by alcohol than men, the Daily Mail reported.

This forms the basis of the UK Government's recommended 'safe' drink limit of 14 units per week for women and 21 for men of all ages.

Doctors have now warned that young women are showing a dramatic rise in alcohol-induced liver disease.

So besides getting drunk faster then men, are women also more vulnerable to alcohol-related diseases?

Alcohol is metabolised by the liver at the same rate in both genders.

While most of us think women get drunk more quickly because of their smaller stature, and carry more fat, in fact this is not the true reason.

The real reason is that they hold less water in their bodies. A man is typically made up of 65 per cent water and a woman 55 per cent.

Dr Marsha Morgan, of University College London Medical School, explains: 'Alcohol is absorbed into the blood and then carried in water in cells. Because women have less body water than men, they are likely to end up with a higher blood concentration of alcohol after the same amount of drink.'

So the female liver is no more sensitive to alcohol than a male liver, but the 'concentrations of alcohol reaching a woman's liver will be so much higher', and her liver will be damaged much more quickly.

If a man and woman of the same weight were given the same dose of alcohol, the blood alcohol levels in the woman would be about a third higher. 'A 65kg man will have the same blood alcohol level after a triple gin as a 65kg woman would have after a double measure,' Dr Morgan says.

She says the rising incidence of younger women reporting liver problems could reflect the fact that women's patterns of drinking have become more like those of a man.

Photo: Daily Mail

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