It’s common knowledge that women feel the effects of alcohol more quickly than men, and doctors are warning young women about a dramatic increase in alcohol-induced liver disease.
Contrary to the popular belief that alcohol is metabolized at the same speed in both sexes, pound for pound, women will always get drunk faster than men, reports the Daily Mail.
Regardless of body weight, women’s bodies contain less 10 percent less water than men, and therefore the alcohol is less diluted in the bloodstream. Men’s bodies are 65 percent water, and women are 55 percent water.
“Alcohol is absorbed into the blood and then carried in water in cells,” said Dr Marsha Morgan of University College London Medical School. “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.”
Although the male and female liver is equally sensitive to alcohol, the concentration of alcohol reaching the woman’s liver is much higher, meaning her liver will be damaged much more quickly.
If a man and a woman, weighing exactly the same, were given the same dose of alcohol, the blood alcohol levels in the woman would be about one third higher. “A 65 kg (143 lb) man will have the same blood alcohol level after a triple gin as a 65 kg woman would have after a double measure,” Dr Morgan advised.
She believes that women are tending to drink more like men, accounting for the rising incidence of liver problems in young women.