"Even in Paris's hard-drinking intellectual circles, French philosopher and feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir found that a glass of wine hit harder than expected. De Beauvoir once joked that two glasses left her feeling quite dizzy, long before any existential debates began. Decades later, science can explain why: Women's bodies process alcohol differently from men's often faster and more intensely and women's brains also respond more strongly to its rewarding effects, even when drinking the same amount as men."
"Alcohol affects the body almost immediately. Before it hits the stomach, taste buds signal the brain, causing small changes in heart rate, blood flow, and brain chemistry to get the body ready. When you swallow alcohol, a little is absorbed in the stomach, but most moves to the small intestine, where it quickly enters the blood. Some of it is broken down in the stomach and liver by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), a process known as first-pass metabolism (FPM)."
"In 1990, researchers gave 20 men and 23 women the same amount of alcohol adjusted for each individual's body weight. The women drank the same amount as the men but their bodies filtered out less alcohol early on, so more of it entered the bloodstream, resulting in higher blood alcohol levels on average. But intoxication isn't only about how fast alcohol enters the blood. What happens next in the brain also differs by biological sex."
Women's bodies process alcohol differently from men's, often faster and more intensely, and women's brains respond more strongly to alcohol's rewarding effects. Alcohol begins affecting the body immediately through taste-bud signaling that changes heart rate, blood flow, and brain chemistry. Most ingested alcohol is absorbed in the small intestine and enters the bloodstream; some is metabolized in stomach and liver by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) via first-pass metabolism. A 1990 study giving equal alcohol doses adjusted for weight found women had higher blood alcohol levels because they filtered out less alcohol early. Intoxication also depends on sex differences in brain responses.
Read at www.dw.com
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