how does alcohol dehydrate a person? Is it through the actual act of drinking or that it makes you urinate more and you don’t replenish with water?
In: Biology
There is a hormone called ADH that tells your kidneys to just filter water but keep some and send some to the bladder. Alcohol won’t let it be produced by your brain so your kidneys just assume that there is too much water in your blood stream and send it all to your bladder.
So you pee like you are well hydrated, while actually becoming dehydrated. The common term “breaking the seal” is really just the start of this cycle of your bladder not holding anything back.
Alcohol is an antidiuretic hormone inhibitor. There’s this substance in your body that works to keep you from peeing out more of the water inside of you than is healthy, but alcohol gets in its way and interferes with its work, so when you drink, you pee too much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasopressin
Urinate more. Your kidneys become more “active” so more water is filtered out of your blood, so you pee more
Alcohol is a diuretic which causes your kidneys to pull more water from your body and produce more urine. If all you drink is alcoholic beverages you are not replacing the water you are losing, which can lead to dehydration and hangovers. Best advice, for every drink you have, drink a glass of water.
The other comments about alcohol being an antidiuretic hormone inhibitor are correct but a study I can’t find atm found that upto 4% alcohol still hydrates you as the ~96% water you’re drinking outweighs the keeping less water. And really you’re only going to the loo more because you’re often drinking a lot of liquid when out drinking.
Am I wrong? I always chug a lot of water during the day before I start drinking to avoid the problem of being dehydrated. I believe it works for me, unless it’s a Placebo
Your kidneys think you are being poisoned by the toxic alcohol and therefore trying to wash it all away, by using whatever water in your body it can find. To that end your dehydrated.
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