The liver becomes more efficient at eliminating alcohol with repeated use, reducing the amount of alcohol in the body and diminishing its effects. Factors like ethnicity, metabolism, and family history of alcohol use can influence how your body processes alcohol. However, high tolerance increases your risk for other problems, such as functional or metabolic tolerance, alcohol dependence, and alcoholism. Drinking every day can lead to tolerance regardless of environmental influences. When place isn’t a factor, it’s called environment-independent or consumption-induced tolerance. It usually occurs in people with alcohol use disorders (AUDs), such as alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
Increased Drug Toxicity
Additionally, pretreatment with these NMDA receptor antagonists had no effect on the development of rapid tolerance in rats that were only placed on the tilt-plane without actually tilting the plane on day 1 (Khanna et al., 1997). In a within-system adaptation, repeated alcohol administration would be argued to be the process by which the primary cellular response to the drug within a given neurochemical circuit itself adapts to neutralize the effects of the drug. In a between-system adaptation, repeated alcohol administration recruits circuitry changes whereby other circuits (that generate opposing responses) are activated to oppose overactivity in reward circuits (Koob and Bloom, 1988). The limited data that are available from studies of alcohol tolerance have provided evidence of both within- and between-system neuroadaptations. Clearly, one could theoretically block the development of tolerance by blocking the initial acute neuronal-activating or -inhibiting effects of alcohol before any within- or between-system neuroadaptation occurs.
Taking breaks from drinking, such as through a “dry January,” can also help reset your body’s sensitivity to alcohol. People typically show signs of intoxication when they reach specific blood alcohol concentrations (BAC). Low alcohol tolerance means you show these signs at lower drinking levels than usual. People who have functional tolerance are less responsive to alcohol’s effects.
Regular alcohol consumption is one of the most significant factors contributing to increased alcohol tolerance. When individuals drink frequently, their bodies undergo enzymatic adaptations in the liver, which plays a central role in metabolizing alcohol. The liver produces an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which breaks down ethanol (the active ingredient in alcohol) into acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct.
Body Composition: Higher muscle mass and lower body fat often correlate with greater alcohol tolerance
Early adulthood marks the peak of tolerance, but this declines with age due to metabolic and physiological changes. Men generally tolerate alcohol better than women due to differences in body composition and enzyme production. Recognizing these variations is essential for individuals to make informed decisions about alcohol consumption, ultimately fostering healthier lifestyles. The interplay between ADH and ALDH genes further complicates alcohol metabolism and tolerance.
Genetic Factors: Variations in genes like ADH and ALDH affect alcohol metabolism and tolerance levels
This occurs because the brain adjusts its neurotransmitter systems to compensate for alcohol’s depressant effects. For example, a person who drinks 3-4 standard drinks (14 grams of pure alcohol each) several times a week may exhibit fewer signs of intoxication over time. A functionally tolerant individual might seem steady on their feet but still have dangerously slowed reaction times when driving. The danger lies in the false confidence this tolerance creates, often leading to riskier behavior.
Moreover, tolerance appears to be necessary but not sufficient for the development of more debilitating AUD symptoms that have received greater attention and research focus, such as withdrawal, craving, relapse, or the escalation of drinking. Nevertheless, there is a burgeoning reawakening of the link between neuroadaptations that are involved in driving the “dark side” of addiction and tolerance that deserve attention (Pietrzykowski et al., 2008; Koob, 2020; Koob, 2021). Over time, the body will readjust, and sensitivity to alcohol’s effects will return. The genetic predisposition to alcohol tolerance could contribute to increased alcohol consumption and the risk of alcoholism in the sons of fathers with AUD.
These findings suggest that, under these conditions, rapid tolerance to hypothermia develops, regardless of the alcohol dose, but only when the second exposure to alcohol occurs within 24 h of the first alcohol exposure. To determine if your metabolism rate is influencing your alcohol tolerance, consider how quickly you sober up after drinking. If you find that the effects of alcohol wear off faster for you compared to others who have consumed the same amount, your metabolism may be a contributing factor. Another indicator is how you handle alcohol on an empty stomach versus after a meal. A faster metabolism may process alcohol more quickly even without food, whereas a slower metabolism might require food to slow down absorption and reduce immediate effects.
Figure 3. Dose-response curve for alcohol-induced hypothermia and the development of rapid tolerance.
Individuals with more body mass, particularly muscle mass, tend to have a larger volume of water in their bodies. As a result, when they consume alcohol, it becomes more diluted in their system, leading to a lower concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream compared to someone with less body mass. This dilution effect can delay the onset of intoxication and reduce the overall impact of alcohol on the body.
By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website. There is no definitive answer to this, as people respond differently to alcohol.
- People who can “hold their liquor” have a high alcohol tolerance, while those who become intoxicated by relatively small quantities have low alcohol tolerance.
- Your overall health and physical condition may also play a role in your building alcohol tolerance.
- This relationship stems from the fact that alcohol distributes itself in the body’s water content.
- Drinkers with functional tolerance will show few obvious signs of intoxication despite high blood alcohol levels.
Cues Associated With Drinking
Naloxonazine, a potent and irreversible μ-opioid receptor antagonist, was administered in the core and shell of the NAc and also blocked the development of rapid tolerance in the tilt-plane test (Varaschin and Morato, 2009). There are several reasons why the construct of tolerance has fallen out of neurobiological inquiry. Historically, many studies of tolerance focused on physiological processes and measures that at least superficially have apparently little relevance to the development of addiction or AUD (e.g., locomotor activity and body temperature).
Even if the subjects only mentally rehearsed the task after drinking alcohol, they developed the same level of tolerance as those who actually physically practiced the task while drinking. The problem is that a higher level of consumption can result in developing a physical dependence on alcohol and developing alcohol-related organ damage. When someone has had enough to drink, they should be exhibiting some signs of behavioral impairment. If not, their tolerance to alcohol is allowing them to drink increasing amounts of alcohol. Those who drink chronically, in high amounts, may be able to function at a high BAC, such as .30%.
- If you think your alcohol tolerance is becoming a problem and you can’t seem to manage it, it would be helpful to speak with a professional.
- This results in faster and more intense intoxication, as the alcohol is not as diluted.
- Nitric oxide synthase inhibitors that were administered before but not after alcohol administration also blocked the enhancement of rapid tolerance by the NMDA receptor agonist cycloserine (Khanna et al., 1995a).
- Alcohol treatment produced an anxiolytic-like response in male rats in the elevated plus maze and induced molecular effects that increased the expression of neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the central and medial nuclei of the amygdala.
- It can also impair judgment and increase the likelihood of accidents or risky behaviors.
Sharma et al. (2014) showed that male mice that binge drank alcohol developed rapid tolerance to alcohol-induced increases in non-rapid-eye-movement sleep, measured by electroencephalography and electromyography. Male and female rats exhibited rapid tolerance to alcohol’s sedative effect during adolescence on postnatal day 36 and during young adulthood on postnatal day 56, whereas no rapid tolerance was observed in rats on postnatal day 16. On postnatal day 56, males exhibited greater sedation compared with females, but no sex differences in the development of rapid tolerance were observed (Silveri and Spear, 1999). Male rats of three different ages (4, 13, and 25 months) did not differ in rapid tolerance to hypothermia that was induced by alcohol, alcohol tolerance explained but 4-month-old rats developed greater rapid tolerance to sedation than the other ages (Chan and York, 1994). Gender is another critical factor that influences alcohol tolerance, with men often having a higher tolerance than women. This difference can be attributed to variations in body composition, metabolism, and hormone levels between men and women.