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If your hangovers have gone from 'rough morning’ to ‘Someone call me a doctor, stat!’ there's a reason for that. Several, in fact. 

And they're not just happening to you.

The wellness accounts will tell you alcohol is a poison. That's not technically accurate. 

But what is going on inside your body when you drink past 40 is genuinely worth understanding, because the actual picture is both more nuanced and more useful than the fear-first version you've been getting online.

I dig into three major biological shifts that are quietly changing the way your body responds to alcohol in midlife: an overactive immune response triggered by something called inflammaging; 

The slower processing of acetaldehyde — the compound your body converts alcohol into — the real culprit behind how dreadful you feel; 

And a cortisol cycle that, thanks to midlife hormonal changes, now takes far longer to stand down. 

This isn't about scaring you off alcohol. It's about giving you the actual science — in plain English — so that whatever choices you make around drinking are genuinely informed ones.

By the end of this episode, you'll know...

·       Why any amount of alcohol in midlife can trigger a response that feels like the onset of a cold

·       What "inflammaging" is — and why it makes your immune system overreact to every drink

·       Why it's not the alcohol itself that causes the most damage, but what your body turns it into

·       Why your hangovers seem to be lasting longer, the older you get, and the exact enzyme that's to blame

·       How cortisol and a night's drinking combine into a perfect stress storm by the morning

·       Why the "alcohol is a poison" narrative you see everywhere online is missing some important nuance

·       Why giving yourself that grace and space to recover from a night out matters more now than ever

Chapters
0:0 Why Hangovers Feel Harder Now
2:25 Inflammaging and Overeager Immunity
6:11 Alcohol Clearance and the Damage it Does
13:41 Cortisol Spikes and The Stress Hangover
19:31 Different Bodies, But We All Need Time to Recover

Join the membership and get the resources you need to make the change you want - https://mindfuldrinking.substack.com/s/the-vault

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