5 damaging effects of alcohol on your skin

That cocktail in your hand might look stylish, but if you make it a habit it can make you look 20 years older in return.

By: Debjani Arora | | Published: December 13, 2017 8:45 pm

Even if you are an occasional drinker, you still can’t escape the damages that alcohol does to your skin. Alcohol is a toxic, period. We know that regular alcohol consumption can lead to a lot of health crisis – liver damage, kidney failure, blockages in the heart, etc. Its ill-effects don’t spare your skin as well. ‘Too much of alcohol leads to toxin build-up in the body, oxidative stress and robs the skin of its essential nutrients. This makes the skin look dull, pale and wrinkly,’ says Dr Soma Sarkar, Medical Director & Dermatologist, Skin Inn Clinic, Mumbai. Talking more about the damages that alcohol can induce on skin she lists down a few of them:

1. It leads to premature ageing: Probably when you are sipping your drink or cocktails you don’t think of it too much. But your drink, even if it is quenching your thirst is making you dehydrated at the same time. The excess toxic that build-up in your system, thanks to that glass in your hand, robs your skin of its natural moisture and makes it dehydrated. This dehydration is further responsible for those fine lines and wrinkles that habitual and social drinkers end up having. If you don’t control your drinking then premature ageing is inevitable. Here are foods that can prevent premature ageing.

2. It worsens pre-existing conditions: For people who suffer from skin conditions like rosacea, psoriasis, etc, alcohol consumption flares up of the symptoms. At times, it gets so worse that even with help of dermatologists getting the symptoms in control becomes a challenge.

3. It leads to breakouts: We are not just talking about acne over here. Of course, those who suffer from chronic acne, alcohol is not going to help them in any way. But even otherwise, alcohol increases blood flow in the facial area and dilates the blood vessels. For chronic drinkers, this could mean danger as the pressure in the veins on the face can increase and lead to a capillary to break or burst. When this happens it leaves behind red spots on the face making it difficult to treat.

4. It makes face look pale: Of all the blunders that alcohol does to your skin this is the greater evil — it robs your face of vitamin A which is essential for skin renewal. This particular vitamin helps in making new cells and getting rid of dead cells from the face. The absence of vitamin A means no skin renewal, no glow on your face. This makes your skin look dull, pale and greyish too.

5. It makes the face look bloated: One mistake that most chronic drinkers do is that they don’t drink enough water to get rid of the toxins in the body or replete the lost moisture. Drinking adequate amount of water is a natural way of keeping your skin glowing and healthy. But excess alcohol intake robs the skin of vital nutrients, electrolytes and fluids but it fills up with the toxins instead, which makes the face look bloated. Add to it the excess blood circulation that is influenced due to alcohol your face looks puffy.

Image source: Shutterstock

Published: December 13, 2017 8:45 pm

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