How does alcohol affect your skin? Long and short-term effects

These can be difficult to get rid of completely and you might need expensive professional skin treatment to remove them. If you’re heading out for drinks with friends make sure you’re already well hydrated and try alternating each alcoholic drink with a glass of water. This will help reduce the possibility of feeling hungover and seeing the effects of alcohol on your face the next day. This article discusses some of the short and long-term effects that drinking alcohol can have on a person’s skin. There is also evidence, such as in this 2022 study, that prolonged consumption of alcohol can cause skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and melanoma.

How Does Alcohol Consumption Affect the Skin?

• To ease symptoms, cut back on your drinking or treat the underlying disease.
• While alcohol doesn’t directly cause acne, many of its effects increase your risk of developing it.
• Fine lines and pores are less visible, and your skin appears plumper and healthier.
• The bacteria get into your body through a cut or wound in your skin.
• In fact, photos of people’s skin before and after quitting alcohol demonstrate that with time, you can reverse much of the damage caused by drinking.
• Eliminating alcohol from a person’s diet and lifestyle should help the skin to clear up.

The average person metabolizes alcohol at a rate of one drink per hour. Once all the alcohol has been eliminated from your system, you will no longer be dehydrated, you will be well-rested and short-term symptoms such as dark circles should fade away. You might notice dandruff on your scalp or itchy patches of greasy skin on other body parts. Doctors call this skin disease seborrheic dermatitis, Twelve-step program and it’s often a sign of immune system problems or a yeast in the body. Over-the-counter shampoos are a good first treatment option, but you may need a prescription remedy. To combat the short-term effects of alcohol on the skin, people can drink water to stay hydrated while consuming alcohol.

But its breakdown product, acetaldehyde, is a very potent vasodilator in the skin,” Soleymani said. As vasodilators, alcohol and acetaldehyde dilate our blood vessels, causing our faces to flush and turn red. This alcohol-induced dehydration is why we can look a bit “rougher” than usual the morning after a night of drinking.

The bacteria get into your body through a cut or wound in your skin. When it isn’t working right, the toxins stay in your cells, which leads to warmth and flushing. It’s a genetic issue that’s more likely to affect people from Asian backgrounds. Dr Shergill adds that if you’re a very heavy drinker you should seek advice from your GP before stopping as some withdrawal symptoms can be life threatening. However, there are some serious skin changes heavy drinkers are putting themselves at risk of if they regularly drink more than 14 units per week. Many of us will have woken up after having a few drinks the night before and not been too impressed with how we look in the mirror.

• It also found that people who drink heavily may take more risks when it comes to protecting their skin from the sun, which could lead to skin cancer.
• Many of us will have woken up after having a few drinks the night before and not been too impressed with how we look in the mirror.
• Before you shell out for the latest hydrating serum in an attempt to achieve plump, dewy skin, you may want to first take a look at your drinking habits.
• While harmless, larger pores make your skin look older and less healthy overall.

How to Combat Alcohol Effects on Skin

In addition to all its other health advantages, quitting alcohol has numerous benefits for the skin. To fight them, your body uses antioxidants such as vitamin A, which decreases your overall levels of those antioxidants. Chronic alcohol use limits your skin’s ability to repair itself and depletes collagen and elastin,  two key proteins that give skin firmness and elasticity.

How Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Skin

• Seeking help for addiction may feel daunting or even scary, but several organizations can provide support.
• It breaks up your normal sleep rhythms and can make you restless throughout the night.
• Antioxidants play an important role, Dr. Chang says, especially in removing free radicals and protecting skin from damage.

Those who suffer from rosacea know their skin flushes and gets hot when drinking alcohol. Many react more strongly to citrus-based mixers or alcohol with high tannins, like red wine. Rosacea can come on quickly, affecting the nose, chin, forehead, and cheeks. The red coloring can be so dark if not countered immediately, it can appear purple. Dr Phillips says drinking over 14 units a week can also cause other significant changes, some of which may not be reversible. “Repeated dilation of blood vessels can lead to broken capillaries on the nose and cheeks, and persistent redness,” he explains.

Treat them with cool compresses and over-the-counter antihistamines. Researchers do not know the exact cause of rosacea and believe many factors may influence the condition. However, according to a 2021 systematic review, drinking alcohol can increase the risk of rosacea. Although drinking alcohol can cause a person to fall asleep faster, it may cause them to wake up more often during the night. It also found that people who drink heavily may take more risks when it comes to protecting their skin from the sun, which could lead to skin cancer. Many heavy drinkers may also be smokers – another habit that can have a detrimental impact on skin.

It is rare you will hear someone proclaim they had several cocktails and woke up feeling rested and hydrated! As people age, less and less alcohol is being consumed because people are choosing to feel and look better rather than overdo it when consuming alcoholic beverages. Alcohol dehydrates the body, which leads to puffiness, often under the eyes. If consuming alcohol, it is always recommended to have water alongside to keep giving the skin and body the water it needs. Without enough water, alcohol can cause more damage to the stomach and lead to bloating and swollen abdomens. There are bloating remedies at local drug stores, but the best approach is to drink water when consuming alcohol, and if you must, always consume it in moderation.

This allergy-like reaction usually happens within an hour of drinking. It’s common in people who also have asthma, sinus disease, or problems with aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Your doctor can help by slowly getting you used to aspirin, which should ease your symptoms. Because of this, drinking alcohol can cause dehydration, which may affect a person’s skin. Many of the long-term effects of alcohol on a person’s skin happen as a result of AUD.

• Six months to 1 year after quitting drinking, your skin will have fully recovered.
• Sometimes they’re a symptom of alcohol intolerance, meaning your body can’t break down alcohol well.
• Alcohol might make you drowsy and help you fall asleep faster, but you may not stay that way.
• Without the chronic inflammation caused by alcohol in your system, your skin will have a better immune response.

Your skin after a week

Anyone worried about the amount of alcohol they consume or who has difficulty managing their alcohol intake can contact a doctor or local support group to help with treatment. Alcohol may stimulate the release of histamines, which can cause the blood vessels under the skin to dilate. A person with AUD may be unable to manage their drinking habits and may drink excessively. For this reason, we can infer that alcohol may have a greater impact on the skin of people who are older rather than on younger skin,” Zeichner said. “Keep in mind that consuming the same volume of a drink with a lower alcohol content like beer or wine will have less alcohol than the same amount of liquor,” Cices said. And while hard liquor may contain less sugar and gluten that trigger inflammation, ounce for ounce, liquor delivers more alcohol, which is highly inflammatory.

Chronic misuse can lead to conditions such as rosacea, psoriasis and acne, and more serious health concerns such as skin cancer. We don’t need to tell you alcoholic beverages are popular in social settings, but did you know consuming a lot of them can cause a number of short- and long-term effects on the skin? If you’ve ever woken up with not only a headache and an egg sandwich craving after a night out, but a new pimple, puffy eyes, and a particularly dull, lackluster complexion, here’s why. Your nose might get red and stuffy or runny when you have a beer or a glass of wine.