Women are generally more sensitive to alcohol and are more likely to develop alcohol-related issues at lower levels of consumption. A reason for this is that women tend to have a higher proportion of body fat than men and absorb alcohol more slowly. They also have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase – the enzyme responsible for metabolizing alcohol in the body. Thus, men are likely to drink more and develop higher alcohol tolerance.

Tolerance to Alcohol: A Critical Yet Understudied Factor in Alcohol Addiction

Even if you feel sober due to high alcohol tolerance, your BAC may still be dangerously high. However, it’s important to note that a high alcohol tolerance does not necessarily mean that you are addicted to alcohol. If any of the above sounds familiar, you must seek help before your addiction has severe consequences on your life. If you’re ready to find help for yourself or a loved one, call our helpline today for more information about alcohol abuse build up alcohol tolerance treatment options near you.

• Nevertheless, there is a burgeoning reawakening of the link between neuroadaptations that are involved in driving the “dark side” of addiction and tolerance that deserve attention (Pietrzykowski et al., 2008; Koob, 2020; Koob, 2021).
• The first month is the hardest, but gradually decreasing the number of drinks per week can help bring down the tolerance level without suffering from withdrawals.
• The most important thing to remember, though, is that you should always drink responsibly, which means pacing yourself and stopping when you or others think you’ve had enough.
• Pretreatment with alcohol in male rats did not cause rapid cross-tolerance to pentobarbital, but pretreatment with pentobarbital caused rapid cross-tolerance to alcohol (Khanna et al., 1991a).
• So while it’s a fun idea, being a redhead doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have a higher alcohol tolerance.

Is a High Tolerance for Alcohol Genetic?

AT may not show signs of physical intoxication, but its development typically paves the way for serious health issues. Certain genetic variations can affect the enzymes responsible for metabolizing alcohol. Genetics can also impact your brain’s sensitivity to the effects of drinking.

Does tolerance mean addiction?

Masking the a-process by a growing b-process results in “apparent tolerance” (Colpaert, 1996; Laulin et al., 1999; Park et al., 2015). If the drug does not generate a sufficient b-process, then it follows that tolerance does not develop. Hypothetically, a treatment that prevents the b-process would block the development of tolerance, although to our knowledge this hypothesis has not been directly tested. From our theoretical hedonic domain perspective, the neuropharmacological blockade of any of the within- or between-system neuroadaptations that are discussed below would have such an action.

• It might be time to talk to a professional if you are drinking more to get the same effect.
• Repeatedly driving the same route home while intoxicated could cause the driver to develop a tolerance for the task and reduce alcohol-induced impairment.
• AddictionResource.net, and its parent company Recovery Guide LLC, is not a treatment provider and does not offer medical advice or clinical services.
• The expression of NMDA receptor type 1 and 2B clusters is increased on the surface of cortical neurons (Qiang et al. 2007), as well as hippocampal neurons, specifically in synaptic boutons (Carpenter-Hyland et al. 2004).

Alcohol tolerance will help you increase your consumption but won’t make you dependent on it. Addiction Resource is an educational platform for sharing and disseminating information about addiction and substance abuse recovery centers. Addiction Resource is not a healthcare provider, nor does Drug rehabilitation it claim to offer sound medical advice to anyone. Addiction Resource does not favor or support any specific recovery center, nor do we claim to ensure the quality, validity, or effectiveness of any particular treatment center. No one should assume the information provided on Addiction Resource as authoritative and should always defer to the advice and care provided by a medical doctor.

Long story short, drinking alcohol will affect your behavior and different bodily functions. Thus, increasing alcohol tolerance is crucial for your health if you are a regular alcohol consumer or party-goer. Well, it depends because the time required to change tolerance level varies from person to person. Decreasing the number of drinks per week may work for almost everyone; for others, a month without a drink works just fine to reduce someone’s tolerance. The first month is the hardest, but gradually decreasing the number of drinks per week can help bring down the tolerance level without suffering from withdrawals.