(Liver disease is a serious risk of chronic alcohol use, but it takes longer to arrive.) If you kept to a strict beer diet—and swore off plain water altogether—you'd likely die of dehydration in a matter of days or weeks, depending on the strength and volume of beer consumed.
With an average pint of beer containing around 240 calories, you would need at least eight pints per day to fuel the body. Over time, the high volume of alcohol would harm your liver and kidneys. Alcohol is a diuretic, so dehydration could also be an issue.
Alcohol removes water and important nutrients from your body, and can bring on those not-so-fun symptoms of dehydration. And while the non-alcoholic fluids in beer, wine, and liquor are inherently hydrating, they're not necessarily hydrating enough to offset the effects of alcohol-induced dehydration.
Alcohol (such as beer) initially quenches thirst since its water content is high and it takes more time for alcohol to take effect. This is especially true when food is present in the stomach. Eventually, alcohol takes effect with one starting to pass lots of urine and losing a lot of water through sweating.
Dehydration happens quickly, causing extreme thirst, fatigue, and ultimately, organ failure and death. A person may go from feeling thirsty and slightly sluggish on the first day with no water to having organ failure by the third.
There are no precise answers. In general terms, the human body can go two to three days without water and, it is often said in survival guides, 30 to 40 days without food of any kind. (Many of these guides also discourage people from scavenging for wild plants or shrubs because of the adverse effects these can have.)
No. While you can enjoy alcohol in moderation and make other lifestyle choices that will maintain your hydration, alcohol will never contribute to your hydration goal. If being well-hydrated is one of your personal health goals, water is your best bet.
The reason alcohol dehydrates you is that alcohol is a diuretic, which means it causes you to use the bathroom more often. The lack of fluids not only strips your body of key electrolytes, but also exaggerates the symptoms of a hangover. Hydration is always important, but especially when you're drinking alcohol.
Because alcohol dehydrates the body twice as fast, it helps to make sure you're keeping up your hydration levels while you're drinking. Drink one glass of water for every alcoholic drink you have, especially if you do shots!
In general, drinks with a higher alcohol content – think spirits such as vodka, gin, whiskey, and rum – are higher on the spectrum of alcohol content, making them more dehydrating per ounce than alcohols such as beer and wine.
What is the most hydrating alcoholic drink? A vodka water or vodka soda is probably your best bet if hydration is a goal while drinking. This choice is great because you're drinking water at the same time as the alcohol, so you won't have to focus as much on rehydrating between drinks.
Why does alcohol cause dehydration? Alcohol is a diuretic and therefore causes excessive urination. As a result, a person loses vital fluids and electrolytes.
The chances of survival for heavy drinkers are low, on average. Moderate drinkers, on the other hand, tend to have increased life spans. Moderate alcohol consumption improves your health and reduces the risk of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases by almost half.
If you drink alcohol with an empty stomach, the alcohol passes directly into your bloodstream. If you've eaten before drinking, the rate of alcohol absorption slows down but doesn't stop.
And the meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open that involved 107 studies with more than 4.8 million participants also found no longevity benefit for drinkers. This research showed that people who have one or two drinks a day have essentially the same risk of dying prematurely as people who've never had alcohol.
Studies reveal that adult men and women should drink no more than four standard drinks on any one occasion. Above that is considered excess. If you drink six to 10 standard drinks, this could lead to 600–1,000 mL of lost fluids, causing dehydration.
If you're a healthy adult: To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day.
Milk is more hydrating than water
For example, milk was found to be even more hydrating than plain water because it contains the sugar lactose, some protein and some fat, all of which help to slow the emptying of fluid from the stomach and keep hydration happening over a longer period.
Having 2 to 3 alcoholic drinks every day or binge drinking can harm your liver. Binge drinking is when you drink more than 4 or 5 drinks in a row. If you already have a liver disease, you should stop drinking alcohol. There is no safe amount of alcohol for people with any type of alcoholic liver disease.
For example, diabetes, physical exhaustion, and mental disorders may all prevent you from feeling thirsty when your body needs water. If you are diagnosed with any of these chronic conditions or another disease, your doctor or physician should inform you about the potential for dehydration without feeling thirst.
So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is: About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men. About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women.
A 2% decrease in brain hydration can result in short term memory loss and have trouble with math computations. Prolonged dehydration causes brain cells to shrink in size and mass, a condition common in many elderly who have been dehydrated for years. Lack of mental clarity, sometimes referred to as “brain fog.”