Women are 15%-20% smaller than men; on average, men are at least 10 kgs heavier and 11 cms taller than women.
When you are smaller, the alcohol travels through your body quicker and, all other factors being equal, impacts you more than it impacts someone heavier and taller.
Reason 2: The average adult male is about 60% water while the average adult female is about 55% water.
The body-impairment we experience after drinking alcohol is caused by the amount of alcohol that reaches our brain through the bloodstream.
Much of the water in the human body is in the blood, and more water in blood means more dilution before the alcohol reaches our brain.
This means that even if a man and a woman had the same height & weight, the woman will get a higher concentration of alcohol and thus more impact.
Reason 3: Women produce smaller quantities of an enzyme called Alcohol DeHydrogenase (ADH).
Upon consumption, alcohol enters the stomach, then the small intestine, and then through the blood, it reaches the liver.
The liver knows that alcohol is bad and it tries to break down as much alcohol as possible into acetic acid, which gets broken down further into CO2 & water and released from the body.
To achieve this, the liver uses two enzymes – ADH & ALDHAcetaldehyde DeHydrogenase – and since women produce smaller quantities of ADH, more alcohol travels to the brain.
One of these changes is an increase in the amount of estrogen (one of the primary female sex hormones) for a few days in a month.
Research has found that the brain’s sensitivity, especially of the rewarding region of the brain, VTA, increases significantly when the estrogen levels are high.
This means that the pleasure-enhancing abilities of alcohol are increased during this time, making the women less in control and more drunk.
This factor may also play a role in the development of alcohol-addiction in women.
