When You Drink Whiskey Every Night, This Is What Happens To Your Body

Let's talk about whiskey. There are countless popular country songs written about it, and the popularity of this drink is only continuing to grow both in the media and in sales. According to a report done by Global Market Insights, Inc., the whiskey market will exceed $84 billion worldwide by the year 2025. "There's a growing appreciation for [bourbon] among millennials as opposed to beer and some other stuff," Michter's Distillery president Joseph Magliocco told CNBC.

In 2018, the oldest living woman in Great Britain, Grace Jones (aka "Amazing Grace"), attributed her long life to the glass of whiskey she drank each night. "I started having a nightly tot of it when I turned 50 so I've been having it every night for the last 60 years, and I certainly have no intention of stopping now," she told Gloucestershire Live. 

So, is there something to drinking whiskey every night? Here's what happens to your body when you drink whiskey often.

For those alcohol enthusiasts who aren't looking to gain a beer belly, whiskey is a great choice. It contains no carbohydrates and virtually no sugar, as noted by Medical Daily. It also contains the least amount of calories compared to beer and most wines, according to Medline Plus.

Some studies have even suggested that drinking whiskey can help a person to lose weight. According to Harvard University, "moderate drinking might be especially beneficial if you have low HDL that just won't budge upward with diet and exercise." HDL is the good type of cholesterol, and it helps to remove "excess cholesterol" in a person's bloodstream to keep a person's body in better shape (via Mayo Clinic).

However, keep in mind that adding any type of mixer to the whiskey can drive up your calorie count. "If you're looking for a lower calorie alternative, avoid the flavored vodkas and spiced rums and go for the original or 'plain' option offered," Caroline Cederquist, M.D., told GQ. So, when you order a Jack and Coke — maybe hold the Coke!

Turns out, it may be a good idea to have hot toddies on more of a regular basis. If people drink whiskey every night, they may not even have gotten sick in the first place, according to a study done by Oregon Health & Science University. Their experiment showed that drinking alcohol in moderation (one or less drinks per day for women and two or less for men, according to Harvard University) can help amp up the immune system and even help fight infections.

The key to keeping healthy is drinking in moderation. Drinking alcohol in excess, the study found, didn't provide the same results. "If you have a family history of alcohol abuse, or are at risk, or have been an abuser in the past, we are not recommending you go out and drink to improve your immune system," Ilhem Messaoudi, the study's author, said. "But for the average person who has, say, a glass of wine with dinner, it does seem in general to improve health and cardiovascular function. And now we can add the immune system to that list."

Grace Jones, who was once the oldest woman in Great Britain, told Gloucestershire Live, "My doctor said 'keep up with the whisky Grace, it's good for your heart.'" Turns out, her doctor was onto something.

WebMD reviewed 84 studies showing that people who enjoyed a daily drink — or less — were 14 to 25 percent less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease than those who didn't drink. This could be due to alcohol raising the body's levels of HDL cholesterol. Whiskey drinkers also reportedly absorb more antioxidants than red wine drinkers, which can help protect against coronary heart disease (via BBC News).

However, because whiskey affects different people in different ways, Harvard University found that for a 30-year-old, the risks outweigh the benefits. For a 60-year-old, one drink per day may have more heart disease protection than potential harm. So be sure to take that into consideration when deciding if you should drink whiskey every night.

It seems drinking whiskey can do a person's brain some good in the long-term. A study coming out of Boston concluded that drinking one to six drinks each week might actually lower the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's among older adults. This combined with a healthy lifestyle, of course.

"Although there is no surefire way to completely prevent dementia, the best current evidence indicates that as well as only drinking in moderation, staying physically and mentally active, eating a healthy balanced diet, not smoking, and keeping weight, cholesterol and blood pressure in check are all good ways to support a healthy brain as we age," Dr. Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer's Research U.K., told BBC News.

On the other hand, various studies have shown that drinking too much alcohol like whiskey can cause the complete opposite effect (via BBC News), so we better stick to enjoying a glass only six days a week at most like the study suggests! In our opinion, Mondays should definitely be one of those days.

Though drinking a daily glass of whiskey may help ease a person's stress, unfortunately, it can stress out their skin. After all, there are many ways drinking alcohol affects your looks. "While all alcohol can have damaging effects on your skin, dark liquors contain congeners, which are impurities," makeup artist Molly Leahy told StyleCaster. She added, "The more congeners you consume, the worse your skin will look the next day."

The ingredients found in whiskey deprive a person's body of water (via AcnEase), causing the skin to become dry and potentially age more quickly over time. "Hard liquor can also cause skin redness by dilating blood vessels, causing spider veins and broken capillaries, particularly around nose and cheeks area," Dr. Dimitry Rabkin, the founder of Esthetica MD, said.

However, even with all of that being the case, a person can still enjoy one glass of whiskey as long as they take precautions with their skin in mind. Having spoken to Dr. Isabel Sharkur, a naturopathic doctor, PopSugar advised people to moisturize the morning after drinking to prevent skin from drying out.

It's important to not over-drink when trying to reap the benefits that whiskey can bring. Drinking more than one glass daily provides none of the benefits that this drink of choice has been proven to provide. In fact, it could seriously harm your body.

One of the largest organs that can easily be ruined by whiskey is the liver. We have all been warned of this, but how much is too much exactly? Well, by drinking three or four glasses a day, a person has a much higher chance of developing chronic liver disease, as reported by Vice. It may not seem like much and a person may feel completely fine after drinking the stuff for years, but the damage builds up over time and is sure to catch up with any devout whiskey lover. "It's very sad, because when people do get sick from this, they're generally in their mid-30s to mid-40s," said medical director Steven Flamm from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

A drink a day may seem like it will keep the doctor away, but whiskey is best limited to just that.

For those of us hoping to cut sugar completely out of our diets, whiskey may be the way to go. Because it contains no sugar at all — unless you add any sort of mixer to it — it may be one of the best alcohols for those with type 2 diabetes. One study published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases in 2010 even found that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol won't raise a person's blood sugar. Researchers noted, "Long-term alcohol use seems to be associated with improved glycemic control in [type 2 diabetes] probably due to improved insulin sensitivity."

Crazy enough, the study also concluded that whiskey may decrease the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, binge-drinking increased a person's chances of being diagnosed.

While this may be the case, it's still best for those who struggle with their blood sugar and insulin to take care in what they're putting into their bodies — especially when it comes to alcohol. For diabetics especially, "the most important thing is to make sure you aren't drinking alcohol on an empty stomach," Boston-based nutrition manager Liz Brouillard recommended to Everyday Health.

There are plenty of benefits that you can gain from enjoying a glass of whiskey each night, but if you're taking any kinds of medications, you could be canceling out both of their benefits and setting yourself up for some serious problems.

Taking a pill for something as simple as heartburn could be causing the alcohol in your system to affect you more intensely. Even just popping a pill for a normal headache can give you nasty side effects when combined with whiskey (via Verywell Mind). Unfortunately, it's a pretty common problem, too. One study published in PLoS ONE in 2018 found that many adults often combine their medications — whether they're prescribed to them or not — with alcohol. Surprisingly, many don't even seem a problem with mixing the two. "It is important therefore that health professionals including family doctors, community nurses, and pharmacists consider older patients' alcohol consumption prior to prescribing or dispensing medication," researchers concluded.

Moderate alcohol consumption may increase HDL cholesterol, according to a study published in 2000 in the journal, Circulation. We've already discussed how that can support better heart and brain health. It may also reduce your risk of death from atherosclerosis, which the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says is ultimately responsible for more deaths in the U.S. than any other cause. 

HDL cholesterol is called "good cholesterol" because it helps remove LDL cholesterol, the deservedly named "bad cholesterol" — i.e., the one known to deposit plaque along the inside walls of the arteries. That plaque buildup, known clinically as atherosclerosis, has the effect of narrowing the arteries. And narrowing of the arteries can damage one's health in numerous ways, including raising blood pressure or contributing to blood clots, thereby increasing stroke risk. Narrowing of the arteries also interferes with optimal blood flow, which diminishes the amount of oxygen available throughout the body, including the vital organs. That's why atherosclerosis is associated with various forms of organ damage, including kidney disease.

So, where does whiskey come into play? Well, an older study published in Experimental and Molecular Pathology went so far as to show that whiskey consumption had an anti-atherosclerotic effect in rabbits. In 2014, this was shown to be the case for humans as well (via Mayo Clinic Proceedings). However, the review noted, "The risk-benefit ratio of habitual moderate alcohol intake appears to be more favorable for middle-aged and older people compared with younger individuals."

Some have claimed that a post-dinner whiskey can quell digestive discomfort. As much as we might like that to be true, science suggests cynicism is warranted when it comes to treating whiskey as a "digestif," according to an academic paper published in the journal, Gut. As VinePair explains, a digestif is an alcoholic beverage served after a meal for the purpose of aiding in digestion. Traditionally, digestifs tend to be higher proof alcohols. And therein lies the rub.

As the authors of the academic paper pointed out, alcoholic beverages with a lower volume of alcohol — e.g., beer and wine — do, in fact, effectively stimulate gastric secretions that may aid in digestion. However, whiskey and other beverages with a higher alcohol content do not. In fact, it appears that anything with a higher proof than beer may offer diminishing digestive returns. Moreover, a later study, which was also published in Gut, found that only fermented alcoholic beverages offer digestive benefits. Thus, whiskey and other distilled beverages do not. 

Still more damning is what German physician Carsten Lekutat told Deutsche Welle in 2015, which is that it's not even the alcohol in alcoholic beverages that aid digestion, but rather other substances. "Alcohol actually impedes gastric emptying," Dr. Leuktat concluded.

Chronic inflammation is associated with oxidative stress, according to an academic paper published in Gut Microbes, and oxidative stress is responsible for DNA damage, not to mention the development of cancerous tumors.

Since whiskey has anti-inflammatory properties owing to its ellagic acid content, it stands to reason that to the extent that the ellagic acid in whiskey reduces inflammation, it also reduces oxidative stress, which, in turn, decreases the risk of tumor growth and other consequences of DNA damage. Indeed, that's the point the late Dr. Jim Swan seems to have been making when he told the 2005 EuroMedLab conference in Glasgow, Scotland: "Whisky can protect you from cancer and science proves it" (via Telegraph). 

Meds News concurs, explaining that ellagic acid fights free radicals and can stop them from regrowing. Nevertheless, other health experts, including Dr. Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, advise against thinking of whiskey as a cancer preventative. "Ellagic acid is a powerful antioxidant, but that does not mean it is necessary to hit the bottle," Dr. Walker told Prepared Foods. "There is an abundance of this acid in soft fruits" — a much safer source of ellagic acid. Additionally, the American Cancer Society cites alcohol consumption as a risk factor for the development of cancer, attributing 6% of cancers and 4% of cancer-related deaths to preventable alcohol consumption.