Drinking a glass of wine here and there is a cultural thing. I also feel like drinking a glass of wine from time to time and when we meet friends it will surely include a drink or two. We know that too much alcohol is not really good for our health.
We also know that when we are pregnant we should stay away from drinking because it can affect our fetus but what do we know about consuming alcohol while we want to conceive? What do we know about the effect of alcohol on our cycle and hormones?
As a fertility and woman awareness facilitator, I need to educate myself on these topics to be able to pass the information on. So I started looking for information on this interesting topic and guess what? We didn't research these issues directly, but I found many other studies that can be very helpful in understanding at least some of the things.
First, I started by examining the effect of alcohol on female hormones and premenstrual syndrome. I discovered that alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer. According to one study, consumption of between 10-15 grams per day, with 250 ml of red wine at 12.5% volume containing about 14-16 grams of alcohol, was found to be associated with an increased risk. Additionally, although less extensive evidence shows Because possible early indicators of risk, such as benign breast disease and increased breast density are associated with alcohol consumption.
One study I found that talks about what the connection might be is that prolonged exposure to estrogen is associated with the increased incidence of breast cancer. Estrogen may cause breast cancer through a genotoxic effect. In premenopausal adult women, alcohol consumption was associated with higher levels of estradiol and estrone.
In another study, they took 34 premenopausal women aged 21-40 years with a history of regular cycles and who consumed 30 grams of alcohol per day, about 2 glasses of wine per day for 3 cycles and all had the same diet as the control group without alcohol consumption. The study shows that there was an increase in the amount of estrogen in the group that consumed alcohol.
Another large study shows the correlation between 10 grams of alcohol per day and increased estrogens and the link between this and breast cancer and other estrogen-related conditions. You can already notice the connection.
This is already a good indication of how alcohol can throw our hormones out of balance.
Taking it one step further, there are studies showing that alcohol consumption and, in addition, shortened cycles were reported by premenopausal women with moderate alcohol consumption compared to non-drinkers, indicating increased exposure to endogenous estrogens. Apparently, while the liver is the main metabolizing organ, normal human breast tissue has the ability to metabolize ethanol at low concentrations, but here we are talking about a higher amount that may affect the tissues.
Another aspect is that it can cause a sharp rise in testosterone levels before menopause, which can cause facial hair, acne and other symptoms. This can be explained by the change in the metabolism in the liver, another implication on our hormones.
Finally, it is important to understand the effect alcohol has on the liver. The liver collects the toxins, both those produced by the body and those from the outside; regulates fat metabolism; stores and produces vitamins; regulates and produces cholesterol and fats; synthesizes proteins; maintains the balance of water and salts in the body; secretes bile for fat digestion; stores energy in the form of glycogen which helps to regulate the general metabolism in the body; Converts the highly toxic ammonia produced by physical activity and by the metabolism of proteins which is eliminated in the urine and breaks down alcohol. The liver stores energy and nutrients and produces proteins and enzymes necessary for optimal health. It protects the body from disease and removes toxins such as alcohol by metabolizing it into carbon dioxide and water, but this process takes a lot of energy and can stop doing its job if there is too much. Another job it has is to help with the metabolism of estrogen but if we already have too much estrogen and too much to do, we can get to a point where the liver can't take it anymore, and we will have a huge hormonal imbalance and studies show that women are more prone to alcoholic liver disease than men.
We also need to remember that daily alcohol consumption increases insulin secretion and this can lead to additional health problems that I will not go into here.
Every body is different and has a different genetic history with different sensitivities and you never know how much is too much. If you want to conceive or even just maintain a healthy lifestyle, just pay attention to these things.
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