Featured in The Red Door May 2011

ALCOHOL AND OLDER ADULTS

Roberta Heller, RN, Parish Nurse

Many older adults enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a beer while watching TV. Forty percent of Americans age 65 and older drink alcohol. Having a drink now and then is fine. However, as we age, our bodies become more sensitive to alcohol’s effects.

After age 65, your lean body mass and water content in your body decrease. Your metabolism slows down so alcohol stays in your body longer. When you drink, these combined factors make the same amount of alcohol in your blood remain higher than it did when you were younger, which means you feel the effects faster and longer. Thus an older person can develop problems with alcohol, even though his drinking habits have not changed. It is difficult to realize that as we age, behaviors that didn’t harm us when we were younger, may now be detrimental to good health.

Certain medical conditions common among older adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers can worsen with too much alcohol use. Drinking too much can increase your risk for certain cancers, chronic pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, stroke and even osteoporosis.

Medications and alcohol can interact even if you don’t take them at the same time since the medication may be in your blood when you have a drink. Alcohol can cause certain medications not to work properly and other medications to become more dangerous. Older adults are more likely to have serious interactions between alcohol and drugs, including prescription, over-the-counter (OTC) and herbal, than younger persons. Medications which cause sleepiness, confusion and lack of coordination can be enhanced when drinking alcohol. Aspirin and arthritis medications can increase the risk of bleeding in the stomach. Pain medication that contains acetaminophen (Tylenol) greatly increases the risk of liver damage. Cold medications containing antihistamines increase drowsiness and impair coordination. Drinking while taking medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, ulcers, gout and heart failure can make those conditions worse.  Read and adhere to labels on medicine bottles. Ask your pharmacist or physician about the use of alcohol with certain medications.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommend that people age 65 and older have no more than 1 drink a day. One drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled liquor. 

If you want to limit your drinking, try these tips from the National Institutes of Health:

1.   Write down your reasons for cutting back. These might include wanting to improve your health, preserve family relations, and sleep better. 

2.   Track your drinking habits for at least one week. Write down when and how much you drink every day. Often awareness is the first step to making change.

3.   Set a drinking goal. You may decide to cut down to one drink a day or to not drink at all. Write your goal and post it where you will see it every day.

Remember when we keep ourselves healthy, we are better able to do God’s work.