Why does alcohol make you thirsty?

A glass of wine consists of water for 87 to 90%, a beer even for 95%. So how is it possible that after a night of slump you wake up in the morning with a pounding headache, a dry mouth and an insatiable thirst? The signs that your brain and the rest of your body are severely dehydrated. This has everything to do with the effect of alcohol on your body.

Despite the fact that by drinking the necessary alcoholic refreshments you ingest a lot of water, your body still dries out. We explain how this works on the basis of the 'journey' that a sip of beer makes through your body after drinking.

From the mouth to the stomach

After you swallow a good gulp of your beer, the beer flows from your mouth through the esophagus to your stomach. There it mixes with food, fluids and stomach acid already present in the stomach. This process is super fast: before you have put down your glass, the sip of beer is already in your stomach. A small part (about 20%) of the alcohol immediately enters your blood via the stomach wall. The rest moves on to the small intestine.

Through the small intestine to the blood

80% of the alcohol in your beer sip finds its way from the stomach through the stomach port to the small intestine. The alcohol is then absorbed into your blood through the intestinal wall. When you drink spirits, this process is very fast. Because beer contains a lot of water, this process is a bit slower here.

From your blood to your whole body

The moment the alcohol is absorbed into your blood, it spreads throughout your body. Here it is absorbed into your body fluids. This is also the reason why women feel the effect of alcohol more quickly than men: women have relatively less body water. On average, a woman's body consists of 60% fluid, versus 70% in men. Via the body fluids, the alcohol then reaches your entire body, including the brain. Source: jellinek.nl and Kennisinstituutbier.nl

Brain and Diuretic Hormone

Your brain is affected by alcohol in different ways. One of its effects is that alcohol suppresses the release of the antidiuretic hormone. This hormone normally causes your kidneys to remove water from your pee and return it to your blood. Now your kidneys don't get this signal, with the result that you have to urinate more often after drinking alcohol. So you get moisture with your beer, but you pee it out just as quickly. As a result, your body dries out despite drinking.

Source: alcoholinfo.nl