Good hormone balance may help prevent problematic alcohol drinking

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In a new study, scientists from the Central Institute of Mental Health, Charité in Berlin, and the Technical University of Dresden examined how our body’s hormones and drinking alcohol are connected.

Their work was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

These researchers asked a bunch of people – 74 women and 278 men who had trouble controlling their drinking – to use their smartphones to keep track of how much they drank for a whole year.

They also took 667 blood samples from these people over four visits to check two things in their blood: progesterone and estradiol. These are special hormones that everyone has in their body.

What they found was really fascinating. In women, there’s a time in their monthly cycle, called the late luteal phase, when they’re less likely to drink a lot.

Only 13% of the days in this phase were heavy drinking days. This was less compared to other times in their cycle, like the menstrual (17%), follicular (19%), and ovulatory phases (20%). During this late luteal phase, the women had more progesterone compared to estradiol in their blood.

Now, what about the men? Well, it turns out that in men, having a higher amount of progesterone compared to estradiol also meant they were less likely to drink a lot or drink any alcohol at all.

So, what does all of this mean? It looks like when there’s more progesterone compared to estradiol in the body, both women and men who struggle with alcohol might find it easier to control their drinking.

This is a big deal because it could help scientists and doctors come up with new ways to help people with alcohol problems, especially treatments that are specific to whether someone is a man or a woman.

Professor Dr. Bernd Lenz and Sabine Hoffmann, who work at the Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health, are really excited about this.

They think this discovery could lead to new treatments for alcohol problems. These treatments would be special because they would consider the differences in men’s and women’s bodies.

In short, this study showed that our hormones might play a big role in how much we drink. This could open up new doors for how we treat people with alcohol problems, making sure we take care of everyone in a way that’s right for them.

It’s a step towards understanding ourselves better and finding better ways to stay healthy and happy.

If you care about alcoholism, please read studies that your age may decide whether alcohol is good or bad for you, and people over 40 need to prevent dangerous alcohol/drug interactions.

For more information about alcohol, please see recent studies about moderate alcohol drinking linked to high blood pressure, and results showing this drug combo shows promise for treating alcoholism.

The research findings can be found in American Journal of Psychiatry.

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