Women tend to get high quicker than men, and there’s a scientific reason why only few women can drink their male counterparts under the table — they have less of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol before it enters the blood stream.
“Females have only about one-fifth as much alcohol dehydrogenase in their stomachs, so women get more effect, ounce for ounce, than men,” explains Dr Marianne Legato, founder of The Foundation for Gender Specific Medicine in New York.
It seems that as a result, women suffer more the next morning, too.
A survey by the University of Missouri found that women’s experiences of the most common hangover complaints — dehydration, tiredness, headaches, nausea and vomiting — were more severe than men’s.
This may have a long-term effect on women’s health, says Dr Adam Taylor.
“A high amount of alcohol consumption in females has the potential to show a progression to liver damage more quickly than in men.
“This is probably because the female liver is having to do more work in the first place due to fewer enzymes being produced to process it.”
Women have to drink only half of what men consume — between seven to 13 drinks a week — to be at risk of alcohol-related liver disease, according to a 2013 study in the journal Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Source: Daily Mail