Women get drunk faster than men

From the NY Times:
The Claim: Women Get Drunk Faster Than Men By Anahad O'Connor

THE FACTS Even for a woman who drank with Hemingway and has a martini named in her honor, Dorothy Parker, the heavy-drinking, acid-tongued writer and poet, acknowledged that she could rarely handle more than two martinis - "after three I'm under the table," she once said.

Today simple observation suggests that Parker was not alone: women in general feel the effects of alcohol faster than men. But while most people chalk it up to average differences in size, studies suggest it has more to do with body composition.

Because women's bodies have a higher ratio of fat to water, they reach a higher blood alcohol concentration after a single drink than men, even when matched for weight and size.

Enzymes also play a role. A landmark study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1990 found that in women levels of gastric alcohol dehydrogenase, a compound that breaks down alcohol, are on average nearly half what they are in men. It also found that the amount of alcohol metabolized after its first passage through a woman's liver and stomach is 23 percent of what it is in men.

As a result, other studies show, women who drink heavily develop cirrhosis and other alcohol-induced conditions sooner than male drinkers.

The silver lining? Women who indulge in a drink or two a day have lower rates of heart attacks than those who prefer their drinks alcohol-free.

THE BOTTOM LINE Women metabolize alcohol differently from men.