Does Alcohol Numb Pain? Risks of Using Alcohol To Manage Pain

Alcohol has been used to reduce pain for a while since it has been feasible to create booze. People believe alcohol is one of the earliest and most widespread drugs worldwide.

Have you ever seen any old Westerns? Does someone need to get a leg cut off? No painkillers? No issue. Grab a few swigs from a bottle of whiskey. Have to get that arrow out of the guy’s chest? We don’t need morphine since there is booze.

Since it calms down the central nervous system, alcohol is still used by many individuals for relieving pain. Alcohol assists in specific ways since it soothes your brain and nervous system.

Can Alcohol Help To Numb Pain?

Studies prove that it can, at least for a brief period. Experts nevertheless have no idea why alcohol aids with pain, though it appears to slow down the brain’s nervous system. This makes stress, depression, and anxiety seem minor, which could render pain easier to cope with. 

Alcohol can stop pain signals from going to the spinal cord, letting the pain go away. A study that came out in the Journal of Pain proved that people feel less pain after each alcoholic drink they take. 

Once three or four drinks, alcohol’s ability to reduce pain went from “small” to “moderate-large.” Researchers agreed that alcohol is as effective at lowering moderate pain as painkillers. 

It’s critical to remember that three to four drinks are more than the usual term for light drinking, meaning up to one drink for women and up to two drinks each day for men. So, it would help if you drank more than is typically acceptable for severe pain relief.

 So, does drinking help the pain go away? Yes. But like painkillers, prolonged use of alcohol for relieving pain carries a lot of dangers.

Can Alcohol Help With Emotional Pain?

Many people might feel that alcohol takes away the pain of their emotions. But drinking doesn’t make it better. The brain’s nervous system calms down once you drink, making you feel more relaxed. 

Alcohol helps the brain create a lot of dopamine, causing people to feel happy. It makes it tricky to focus and remember. Collectively, these outcomes can briefly help you feel better, particularly if you are feeling down or anxious.

 It has a focus on the term “temporarily,” though. Once you drink booze, you might feel temporary relief from emotional pain. 

Your sadness might feel a little lighter for a couple of hours or minutes. But once the alcohol passes off and the bad feelings return, you might feel more awful.

Mixing Alcohol With Prolonged Pain

Given how everyday drinking is within the U.S. and how long alcohol has been used to relieve pain, it’s not weird that so many individuals with persistent pain use alcohol to lessen their pain. 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that nearly 28% of people with persistent pain drink booze to make themselves feel better. Alcohol frequently takes the sting off of mental and physical pain. 

Chronic pain can be caused by unpleasant feelings like stress, anxiety, and sadness, and many people with it mix alcohol and painkillers to try to ease their emotions. 

Based on studies, men are more likely than women to take alcohol to manage persistent pain, and people with more money are more significant potential to do so than those with less money. It’s crucial to know that how much alcohol you drink has little to do with how bad your pain is. 

Instead, it has more to do with how frequently you feel pain. When you feel pain often, you’re inclined to abuse alcohol. People with ongoing pain have to be wary of alcohol. 

When you use booze for your pain, you are also inclined to take different drugs, both legal and illegal, with it. When you drink booze, you’re likely to try other drugs. Once you use painkillers, it is hazardous to drink alcohol.  

When you combine alcohol and Tylenol (acetaminophen), you may end up with liver damage. If you mix alcohol and aspirin, you could have abdominal bleeds.

 If you’re using an opioid painkiller, drinking could kill you since the two together make breathing challenging, particularly in the elderly.

Effects Of Alcohol On Issues That Cause Persistent Pain

Using alcohol for persistent pain has plenty of dangers, but it has advantages. Research issued in the journal Pain Medicine showed that those with fibromyalgia who drank small quantities of alcohol felt some reduction in pain.

Folks with severe pain who drank booze within limits had lesser depression and anxiety. But numerous experts disagree alcohol itself makes these wellness advantages appear. 

Instead, many people say that the social side of taking a small amount of alcohol can have a bearing on pain conditions. Mild social drinkers are busier physically and socially, which could be why their symptoms become better. 

On the contrary, alcohol has many harmful effects that worsen the pain. One of the worst aspects is that drinking makes it tricky to sleep. Alcohol is proven to tamper up our circadian timer, which is what controls when we sleep. 

When you’re drunk, you may find it simpler to fall asleep, but you’re also prone to wake up at night, and whatever rest you receive is less peaceful. If you lack enough sleep, your body isn’t ready to heal, and your pain worsens. 

One last thing to think about is that alcohol’s effects fade away gradually. Your brain and body become used to getting booze in them slowly. As time passes, you have to take a more significant portion of it to get the same pain-relieving results.  

This is, of obviously, a strategy for substance abuse that could hurt your wellness more than the pain did in the first place. To prevent this, you should follow a plan for long-term pain relief by a pain specialist.

Conclusion

So, drinking booze to relieve pain is unwise in the long run. Pain can be reduced simply by drinking. But if you drink it frequently, booze can make you dependent, create additional health issues, or even kill you if paired with specific painkillers.

Talk to your doctor when you drink alcohol frequently to reduce pain or cope with it. Thus, you can be sure that the amount of alcohol you drink is okay to mix with the medicines you’re using and that the perks of drinking usually trump the hazards of adverse effects that may harm the body or bring more harm.

Mark Simons

I am a passionate beer connoisseur with a deep appreciation for the art and science of brewing. With years of experience tasting and evaluating various beers, I love to share my opinions and insights with others and I am always eager to engage in lively discussions about my favorite beverage.