This makes sense when you consider the diuretic effect of alcohol on your body and its vasopressin production. For example, an average bottle or glass of beer has an alcohol content concentration of three to seven percent. On the other hand, wine is usually closer to around 11 to 14 percent alcohol content per glass. To understand how wine dehydrates you, we have to break down the dehydrating effects of alcohol overall. Despite the diuretic effect of wine, it’s crucial to consider the hydration factor.
For example, a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fiber, legumes, fish, and nuts already provides high amounts of antioxidants and helps prevent heart disease (38). Though drinking wine has been shown to have some health benefits, if you don’t currently drink, you shouldn’t start drinking for the health benefits. Learning to listen to your body, recognizing the signs of dehydration, and drinking plenty of water during the day can also ensure you’re meeting your fluid needs. Still, enjoying these drinks in moderation and pairing them with other beverages in your diet, such as water, is unlikely to cause dehydration.
Yet, other studies suggest that a daily glass of red wine does not reduce blood pressure in people with normal blood pressure or those who already have heart disease (16). Most research on drinking wine has been observational, meaning it has shown a does wine hydrate you link rather than conclusive proof of its benefits. Further studies are needed to establish whether small amounts of red wine are beneficial for health (4). Besides dehydration, alcohol can have other negative effects on the body.
Indulging in alcohol doesn’t mean you’re fated to alcohol dehydration symptoms the next morning such as dry mouth, throbbing headache, fatigue, brain fog, and nausea. Liquor and wine also have a higher amount of alcohol by volume (ABV) than beer, contributing to a potentially greater risk of dehydration from these beverages. “Alcohol inhibits the release of vasopressin, or ADH, the antidiuretic hormone,” says San Diego-based Taylor Graber, MD, a resident anesthesiologist at the University of California San Diego. “ADH helps your kidneys hold onto water. The less ADH, the more you urinate. The more you urinate, the more dehydrated you become.” You’ve probably heard about the damage alcohol can have on the liver, but it’s highly discussed for good reason.
Although research suggests that drinking a glass of wine has several potential health benefits, they can also be obtained by eating a healthy diet. A 2021 trial study of coronary heart disease patients found that low to moderate wine consumption lowered their inflammation (12). Because red wine grapes are higher in antioxidants than white grape varieties, drinking red wine may increase your blood antioxidant levels to a greater extent than drinking white (7).
Although the kidneys remove waste products, most of the water loss is due to the effect of vasopressin. When its processed by enzymes in the liver, alcohol is converted into a large amount of acetaldehyde. In order to break this substance down and remove it from the body, your liver does most of the work of turning it into acetate.
Moving beyond alcohol, red wines are known for their antioxidants, like resveratrol from grape skins. These antioxidants are great for health but don’t really change how wine affects your hydration. White wines, on the other hand, tend to be higher in sugar, which does impact hydration. This sugar can speed up how fast alcohol hits your bloodstream, potentially making dehydration worse. But when it comes down to it, the type of wine’s impact on hydration is more about the alcohol content than these other bits.
For many adults, the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected how much and how often they drink alcohol. Nearly 1 in 4 adults (23 percent) said that they increased their alcohol consumption during the pandemic, according to a 2021 report from the American Psychological Association. There’s been a push in recent years, especially among millennials, to cut back on alcohol.
In fact, an average of 140,557 people die in the United States each year due to excessive alcohol consumption (28). In fact, red wine has up to 10 times more resveratrol than white wine (26). Researchers believe that red wine’s Substance abuse high concentration of polyphenol antioxidants can help reduce your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and metabolic diseases (15). Meanwhile, a 2018 study determined that moderate alcohol consumption helped prevent inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis, though it didn’t affect the severity of already-existing inflammation (13).