Why Alcohol Doesn’t Work in the Modern World

Alcohol is something ingrained in many cultures worldwide, dating back to 7,000 BC, nearly 10,000 years ago. Even early primates would mistakenly eat some rotten fermented fruit containing alcohol and get a bit tipsy, dating back up to 80,000 million years ago. Nowadays, you find that a lot of people enjoy having a drink on a special occasion, and in the Western world, that special occasion can be every weekend or sometimes every night.

Alcohol is a naturally occurring substance.

It is a byproduct of fermenting certain plants and grains. So if it’s natural, then it should be okay, right? If this were a few hundred years ago, I would be prone to agree, but our modern world differs from that in so many ways that I can personally say, from my own experiences and research, that alcohol is NOT something that should be used in the modern world if you want to look your best, feel your best, and live your best life. Let me explain.

Alcohol is found naturally when we ferment plants.

Alcohol has two main targets in the brain and body— it lowers anxiety and increases dopamine.

This is why it makes you feel great and works hand-in-hand with other substances like nicotine or cocaine and dopamine-boosting activities like socialising and dancing to music. Now, in moderation a few hundred years back, or even the last 100 years, the negative effects from alcohol would have been quite low.

Photo of me smoking a cigarette and drinking alcohol in the Philippines, 2019. My anxiety was very high at this point and self-medicating with these things was a common occurrence.

But unfortunately, the modern world is out to lower our dopamine levels and induce anxiety from many things. Alcohol, drugs, porn, artificial lights, a lack of sunlight, social media, processed foods, vaping, instant gratification from applications like Instagram and Tinder, EMFs, streaming services like Netflix, and food delivery services are all key players in robbing our dopamine, and when we lose dopamine, we become anxious, and when we become anxious, we want dopamine—it’s a vicious cycle. 

Our body will take the pathway of least resistance to get a nice juicy pulse of dopamine, and this comes from everything above, and not from the natural dopamine boosts like sunlight, nature, sex, being outside, and so on. But these things from nature give us the perfect amount of dopamine, so it’s not too much that we don’t get hooked. Artificial dopamine boosts set the bar too high, and then that is the only thing that can stimulate us anymore.

Tracing back to alcohol, this is the exact reason why it is no bueno in the modern world. Also, modern alcohol production methods involve the use of pesticides, artificial additives, and heavy metal/plastic packaging, which can have adverse effects on health. Coupled with the stressors of contemporary life such as job pressures and financial stress, alcohol-induced hangovers can exacerbate negative feelings and impair productivity for several days.

I truly think life without alcohol is the life to live. I found from my own and my client’s experience that quitting alcohol is the biggest needle-mover to feeling your absolute best.

I work with a lot of clients who are trying to limit their alcohol intake and optimise their health, if this interests you then please feel free to book a discovery call or reach out for a chat.