ALCOHOL AND AGE: A RISKY COMBINATION

Alcohol and age: A risky combination

January 27, 2018 Harvard Health Publishing 

Most people drink less as they grow older. However, some maintain heavy drinking patterns throughout life, and some develop problems with alcohol for the first time during their later years. The many challenges that can arise at this stage of life — reduced income, failing health, loneliness, and the loss of friends and loved ones — may cause some people to drink to escape their feelings.

Several factors combine to make drinking — even at normal levels — an increasingly risky behavior as you age. Your ability to metabolize alcohol declines. After drinking the same amount of alcohol, older people have higher blood alcohol concentrations than younger people because of such changes as a lower volume of total body water and slower rates of elimination of alcohol from the body. That means the beer or two you could drink without consequence in your 30s or 40s has more impact in your 60s or 70s.

Your body might also experience other age-related changes that increase the risks associated with drinking. Your eyesight and hearing may deteriorate; your reflexes might slow. These kinds of changes can make you feel dizzy, high, or intoxicated even after drinking only a small amount. As a result, older people are more likely to have alcohol-related falls, automobile collisions, or other kinds of accidents. Drinking can also worsen many medical conditions common among older people, such as high blood pressure and ulcers.

OK, got that.

The Old Girl and I have noticed a decline in our ability to shrug off the effects of drinking alcohol and a corresponding reduction in the range and quantity that we drink.

For years now we've limited the range of wine styles we buy and drink down to mainly sparkling wine, chardonnay, pinot noir and zinfandel/primitivo. Occasionally we do try varietals  and styles outside of this like Chianti, roses rieslings and Bordeaux -styles but totally out are sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and shiraz.

She drinks Californian chardonnay and I prefer New Zealand (Hawkes Bay). We both drink pinot noir but only occasionally now. She drinks zinfandel and its Italian cousin primitivo. We both drink good sparklings - Champagne and methode traditionelles.

Now and then I will have a vodka and tonic. She occasionally has a gin and tonic or a rum and coke. We both sip Cognac or malt whisky on rare occasions.

We've sort of gravitated to these choices after many years of experiencing virtually all wine styles, wine regions and alcohol types having visited many wineries and distilleries around the world. More recently we've cut back on consumption in both volume and frequency. On average we probably drink alcohol three days a week instead of the five in the past. We tend to limit ourselves to two glasses per occasion. If we go beyond the two we feel sluggish the next day. The Harvard Health report above is consistent with this.

We are drinking less but 'drinking better'. I still am on the lookout for on-line wine specials and the wine sales in supermarkets but I no longer buy wines by the case load. To be honest I've never drunk cheap wines except for evaluation purposes in my previous employment and have sought out the middle to high ranges of wines that are price reduced for whatever reason. I've mentioned the best way to buy in special in The Wine Guy posts in the past. What I do now though is buy by the individual bottle or by twos and threes and shop from the top tier of the aforementioned styles we prefer. Of course I still seek out the bargains in looking for top wines that have been price reduced but generally we've decided that life's too short to drink bad wine (or gin, or rum or vodka). Her gin of choice is a Scottish triple distilled one named The Botanist and her rum of choice is Bacardi Reserva 8 anos. My vodka choice is the New Zealand one Broken Shed.