Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Skin

You eat right, exercise, get regular facials, and feel like you are doing everything right for your skin. So, why do you still see signs of aging beyond your years? It may be bad habits that are undoing all of the good habits.  Drinking alcohol affects your skin.

As responsible adults, we drink alcohol in moderation while remembering the old adage, “Everything in moderation.” This gives us peace of mind, thinking we are acting responsibly and there is no harm in having a few glasses of wine with friends. This may, however, not be the case.

Alcohol affects skin in a few different ways:
• Dehydrates Skin – Staying hydrated fills out the wrinkles and creates a smoother, brighter, and younger appearance to your skin. Alcohol depletes skin of the moisture and nutrients, causing wrinkles to show and the skin to look dull.
• Dilates Blood Vessels – Your skin has tiny blood vessels close to the surface that can show up as red or purple when dilated. This is especially noticeable on the face. Prolonged drinking of alcohol can cause your facial skin to be red or show veins.
• Triggers Rosacea – If you already have an issue with the redness of rosacea, drinking alcohol can trigger an outbreak or make an outbreak worse.
• Triggers Psoriasis – If you already have an issue with psoriasis, drinking alcohol can trigger an outbreak or make an outbreak worse.

So, if you drink several times a week and notice your skin is aging faster than you would like, reducing it to only once a week may help slow the process. You may even notice you will sleep better and lose weight. Be sure to drink plenty of water when you do drink alcohol to reverse some of the negative effects. You may think you are drinking alcohol in moderation, but your skin may think you are drinking too much.