Alcohol has a talent of making you lose control of yourself – sometimes you lose control of your emotions and sometimes…your gut? Alcohol can quietly mess with your digestion and gut health, resulting in a “downstream” in the toilet. The result? What the internet lovingly calls a “booze butt”. Before you down too many drinks and experience this phenomenon first-hand, here’s what you should know about booze butt and how you can prevent it!
Alcohol is notorious to have some serious hangover effects, especially when you’ve forgotten the count of your drinks. It leaves you with a pounding headache, a dry mouth, and an uncontrollable urge to text/call people you wouldn’t on a normal day. However, along with all these effects, alcohol can mess with your digestive system, i.e. your gut health and lead to diarrhea.
This phenomenon has earned a Gen Z approved name in the form of ‘Booze Butt’. And as hilarious as it may sound, know that it can have a terrible impact on your gut health.
Andrew Black, gastroenterologist based in the United States, explained to Men’s Health that hangovers usually come with serious diarrhea. According to his inputs, here’s why alcohol makes your stomach go ‘loose’!
Also Read: Does Mixing Drinks Really Make Your Hangover Worse, or Is It Just Bad PR?
Alcohol has the notorious ability to irritate your gut lining, particularly of your intestines. This irritation of the lining can make muscle contractions stronger and more frequent. In case you didn’t know, these muscle contractions move waste through your system and give your brain a signal to visit the toilet.
Too much alcohol can trigger their ‘emergency mode’, resulting in faster and more frequent contractions. The result? Your digestive waste gets pushed out of your system at a faster rate than usual. A faster rate of waste getting pushed out translates to minimal absorption of extra water and nutrients. And this results in frequent stomach cramps and loose stools – simply called diarrhea. Alcohol doesn’t just irritate your intestines, it also disturbs your gut’s absorptive abilities.
Black states that, “Thus there is a triple whammy—too much fluid exiting, too little being absorbed, and the gut working overtime to push things out the door”.
Excess alcohol can put you at risk of getting diarrhea in the future. This is because it eradicates the ‘good’ bacteria in your gut, increasing the number of ‘bad’ bacteria comparatively. When there are more bad bacteria than the good ones, the lack of good bacteria can result in an impaired digestion and water absorption. Excess alcohol can also result in the increased production of acid in your stomach – fluid that is often mixed with the stool.
While neat alcohol does put you at risk of a ‘booze butt’ as it literally introduces your gut to alcohol, other ingredients and additives can also affect your chance of getting a booze butt. Black says that additives like sugar can also cause loose bowel movements. Sugar, particularly fructose, is often linked to diarrhea. It is a common sugar additive in fruit juices, liqueurs, and syrups – all of which are generously used in some cocktails and drinks.
Along with fructose, artificial sweeteners in mixed drinks are also linked to gut stress – take sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol as examples!
Let’s now address the elephant in the room: how to avoid a booze butt in the first place?
If you plan in advance, you will save yourself from several trips to the toilet. The most important key to avoiding alcohol-induced diarrhea is to limit your daily alcohol intake. Sticking to no more than two drinks a day can be a good start.
Next, have your drink(s) with dedicated ‘water intervals’. Drink water in between drinks or even when having a single drink as it helps you stay hydrated. It also dilutes the alcohol in your system, toning down its effects.
Reduce or cut down on high-carbohydrate drinks like margaritas, beer, cider, etc as they can put stress on your digestive system. Opt for low-sugar drinks like a single malt instead.
Last but not least, do not consume alcohol on an empty stomach! This is a classic rule to abide by if you wish to minimize any ill effects of alcohol. An empty stomach means no food in your gut and that translates to an open invitation for alcohol to enter your gut (with no interruptions) and mess with your gut.
Also Read: Hangover In Your 30s: Why It Is Worse Than Your 20s
In this article, we briefed you about what booze butt actually is and how it is caused. Along with the causes, we’ve also mentioned how you, with the right planning, can prevent or minimize it. So the next time you’re at a party, slowly downing drinks, remember that running to the toilet the next day – for 100 times in a day – is the last thing you’d want to do!
