Timothy had always been health-conscious. After years of social drinking, she decided to quit alcohol for good. But giving up the ritual of sipping on a drink at social gatherings felt impossible. That's when alcohol-free beer and wine seemed like the perfect alternative—offering the taste and experience without the intoxication. However, what Sarah didn't realize was that these supposedly "harmless" drinks might still be affecting her liver in ways she hadn't anticipated.

With a global shift toward healthier choices, the rise of alcohol-free beverages has been fuelled. Do these drinks, however, live up to their promise of being risk-free? New research shows that while they may eliminate the dangers of intoxication, they still pose metabolic and liver-related risks, which calls for moderation in the long run.

What Happens in your Body within 10 Minutes of Drinking Alcohol-Free Beverages?

The first time you take a sip of an alcohol-free beverage, your body responds almost instantly. Anshul Singh, Lead Clinical Nutritionist and Dietetics Department says, "In as little as 10 minutes, your taste buds have picked up on the flavors, and your brain might even get a placebo effect, giving you the sensation that you're about to be drunk. Some alcohol-free drinks have up to 0.5% ABV, which goes into the bloodstream in minute quantities but will probably not affect you in any significant way."

By the 30-minute mark, your body has metabolized the sugars, artificial sweeteners, or additives in the drink. "Some people may experience a mild insulin spike, which can cause temporary energy boosts. Some non-alcoholic drinks also contain fermentation byproducts or botanical extracts that mimic the sedative effects of alcohol, causing slight drowsiness or relaxation," adds Anshul.

After 60 minutes, most of the drink has been metabolized. Although there is no risk of intoxication, repeated consumption can subtly affect metabolism, gut health, and even trigger cravings for alcohol among those in recovery. Those sensitive to sugar, caffeine, or preservatives might experience even more pronounced effects over time.

How Alcohol-Free Drinks Affect Your Gut and Liver Connection

Your liver and gut health are connected, forming what is called the gut-liver axis. Anshul emphasises, "Even though drinks without alcohol seem harmless, they usually contain sugars, artificial sweeteners, and fermentation byproducts that can disturb this delicate balance."

• High sugar content may lead to insulin resistance, inflammation, and fat accumulation in the liver.
• Artificial sweeteners may change the gut microbiota, causing metabolic imbalances.
• Preservatives and artificial flavors can also enhance gut permeability, thus potentially leading to leaky gut syndrome.

Long-term consumption of these drinks may gradually affect digestion, liver detoxification, and overall metabolic health, making moderation necessary.

Do Alcohol-Free Drinks Still Trigger Liver Enzymes?

Even though these nonalcoholic beverages contain virtually insignificant alcohol, the liver processes them as well. "These small concentrations of alcohol-which may go as high as 0.5% ABV-trigger the liver's detoxification pathways but only at much weaker intensities compared to ordinary alcoholic drinks. But the added sugars, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives in the products could pose significant pressure on liver functions over the long term," explains Anshul.

High sugar intake causes insulin resistance, which can lead to the buildup of fat in the liver and increase the risk of developing NAFLD. Some fermentation byproducts in these beverages also trigger oxidative stress, which puts extra pressure on the liver. Though occasional consumption will not pose a significant threat, regular consumption might lead to chronic liver stress and metabolic imbalance.

Do Non-Alcoholic Beverages Affect Liver Detoxification?

Although trace amounts of alcohol exist in alcohol-free beer and wine, the body will still have to metabolize them. The body employs the same enzymatic pathways used for alcoholic beverages but at a much lower intensity. However, the added sugars, preservatives, and fermentation byproducts present their own set of challenges:

• Mild inflammation to the liver due to the additives and byproducts within the drinks.
• Insulin resistance resulting from excessive sugar intake, causing fat accumulation in the liver.
• Detoxification pathways are overburdened, and impairment of liver function occurs gradually.

Alcohol-free drinks do not cause the liver to become overwhelmed as traditional alcohol does, although it does have a lower, but still important, risk for someone who is drinking too much. For someone with a problem of liver disease or metabolic syndrome, limiting alcohol-free drinks is also important.

Should You Drink Alcohol-Free Beverages?

Alcoholic beverages have always been a dangerous drink, but the safer option for those who want to avoid intoxication. However, it is not totally risk-free. Its impact on metabolism, gut health, and liver function cannot be ignored. Although they are not harmful at first, their consumption over a long period leads to insulin resistance, liver stress, and imbalance in the gut.

For the consumers who love these drinks, moderation is the way forward. The expert shares, "The choice of brands with the least additives, lower sugar, and natural ingredients will reduce risks. In addition, supplementing with a diet that is rich in antioxidants, fiber, and hydration can complement the liver in general."

For most, thought that adopting alcohol-free beverages was a healthier decision. On discovering their side effects on liver health, though, she learned to limit its intake and settle for alternatives that included infused sparkling water, herbal teas, or even kombucha with controlled sugar levels.

The bottom line? Alcohol-free doesn't mean consequence-free. The best way to achieve long-term health is by paying attention to what goes into the body and yet still enjoy social rituals of preference.

Anshul Singh is the Team Lead with the Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Artemis Hospitals in India.

Athletes who spend years training their bodies undergo remarkable physiological changes. Athlete's heart is one of them. It becomes stronger, more efficient, and sometimes even larger. This natural adaptation is known as athlete's heart, a condition that is completely normal in most cases but can occasionally resemble serious heart disease.

What Is Athlete’s Heart?

Understanding the difference between a healthy athletic heart and an underlying cardiac disorder is crucial, especially as awareness grows around sudden cardiac deaths in young athletes.

HealthandMe spoke to Dr. Ruchit Shah, Interventional Cardiologist at Saifee Hospital, Mumbai, who said, “If a person exercises too much, normally more than 60 minutes in most days of the week for a prolonged period of time, the body's need for oxygen and for blood to supply the oxygen rises significantly. This can often be seen in the very intense training regimens of competitive athletes. The heart muscle responds to this extra demand by getting "conditioned" and thickening with time.”

Just like skeletal muscles that get bigger and thicker and with training and exercise, the heart muscle can get bigger and thicker too.

Athlete's heart is usually characterised by a “conditioned heart rate”. People with athlete's hearts will now show symptoms or serious warning signs and thereby won't need a specific treatment for the condition.

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Common Signs Of Athlete’s Heart

Signs include:

• Slow resting heart rate (bradycardia)

• Mild enlargement of the heart on imaging

• Changes on an electrocardiogram (ECG)

• High exercise capacity with no symptoms

Athlete’s Heart Is Different From Cardiac Diseases

The expert also says that athlete's heart is different from serious cardiac diseases like cardiomyopathies, especially hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM).

He says, “HOCM is a serious disease, with heart muscle thickening also occurring and causing the left ventricular cavity to narrow. The left ventricle's outflow tract can also become obstructed from this excessive thickening. Athletes with HOCM have a risk of sudden cardiac arrest and death, unlike athletes with athlete's heart.”

An athlete‘s heart, by itself, is considered a benign physiological adaptation and does not require medical intervention.

However, it becomes important to investigate further if an athlete experiences:

• Chest pain during exercise

• Unexplained fainting

• Palpitations

• Shortness of breath out of proportion to exertion

• Reduced exercise performance

• A family history of sudden cardiac death or inherited heart disease

Ignoring these warning signs can delay the diagnosis of potentially serious cardiac conditions. Those who have an athlete’s heart must get periodic cardiac evaluation, do a temporary reduction in training if the diagnosis remains uncertain, and monitor when minor abnormalities are present.

Athlete's heart is proof of the body's extraordinary ability to adapt to sustained physical activity. For most athletes, it represents a healthy, efficient cardiovascular system rather than a medical problem. The challenge lies in distinguishing these normal adaptations from potentially dangerous heart conditions that can look remarkably similar.

Adults under 40 with obesity continue to face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than their peers with a normal Body Mass Index (BMI), according to a new study published in The Lancet.

The international study, led by researchers at Imperial College London, found that differences in blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels between older adults with obesity and those with a normal BMI have narrowed—or even disappeared—in several high-income countries over the past three decades. In contrast, little or no such improvement was seen among younger adults.

Younger Adults Show No Similar Improvement

The findings suggest that adults under 40 with obesity continue to have higher blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels than those with a normal BMI.

Obesity is a key risk factor for heart disease.

Researchers also found that the use of cholesterol-lowering and blood pressure medications remains low in this age group, supporting the idea that medication has played a key role in reducing cardiovascular risk among older adults.

"While good news for older adults with obesity, our results suggest that cardiovascular health risks remain higher for adults under 40 than for their counterparts with a normal BMI,” said author Ysé d'Ailhaud de Brisis, from the School of Public Health at Imperial.

"Early lifestyle interventions, screening, and, when appropriate, medication in this younger group should be considered to prevent long-term cardiovascular complications linked to obesity," de Brisis added.

Older Adults See Reduced Risk

Since the 1990s, blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels have fallen more rapidly among adults aged 40 to 79 with obesity than among those with a normal BMI in most of the seven high-income countries studied, including England and the US.

The greatest improvements were seen among adults aged 60 to 79. In England and the US older adults with obesity—particularly those with severe obesity—had similar or even lower blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels than those with a normal BMI by the end of the study period.

Heart Medications May Explain the Trend

The researchers said the narrowing gap is largely due to increased use of cholesterol-lowering medications, such as statins, and blood pressure medicines among adults over 40 with obesity.

For example, by the early 2020s, around 70% to 72% of older men with severe obesity in England and the US were taking cholesterol-lowering medication, compared with 40% to 48% of older men with a normal BMI.

“This latest analysis suggests that the observed convergence in cholesterol and blood pressure levels between people aged over 40 with obesity and those with a normal BMI is largely due to statins and other widely accessible medications to reduce cardiovascular risk. That is a significant public health success story, and one we should not lose sight of as new weight-loss medications enter the picture,” said author Lakshya Jain, from the School of Public Health at Imperial.

How Was the Study Conducted?

The researchers analyzed blood pressure and cholesterol data from nearly one million participants across 110 health datasets collected between 1990 and 2024.

The study included people with obesity, overweight and normal BMI from seven high-income countries: England, the US, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Finland.

The authors also acknowledged limitations of the study such as, the findings may not apply to low- and middle-income countries, where access to cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering medications is lower. Further, the study could also not assess the impact of different medication doses because prescription data were unavailable.

Popular GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound are well established for improving metabolic health, lowering blood sugar and promoting weight loss. These blockbuster drugs are also known to reduce the risk of conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Now, researchers are exploring whether these medications could also help slow biological aging and potentially increase longevity.

Study Explores Anti-Aging Potential

A recent US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-backed study, published in the journal Nature, found that Ozempic slowed biological aging in people living with HIV and lipohypertrophy, a condition in which fatty deposits develop under the skin.

People with HIV often experience accelerated aging because of the infection, making them an important group for age-related research, said lead author Dr. Michael Corley, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego's Stein Institute for Research on Aging, according to The New York Times.

Although the trial was preliminary, Dr. Corley said it "provided us an opportunity to say, hey, is there any signal here that warrants all the hype?"

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Can GLP-1 Drugs Slow Aging?

Experts believe the findings are promising, but stressed that more research is needed.

Dr. Nicolas Musi, director of the Diabetes and Aging Center at Cedars-Sinai, told NYT that because these drugs reduce the risk of diseases associated with aging, they could potentially improve lifespan as well.

"GLP-1 agonists decrease the incidence of diseases that are related to aging and are associated with decreasing life span. One would assume that they're also potentially going to increase life span and be beneficial for longevity," Dr. Musi said.

Researchers also point to the drugs' anti-inflammatory effects. Chronic inflammation is one of the biological processes linked to aging, said Dr. Thomas Blackwell, professor of general internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

However, scientists caution that there is currently no evidence showing that GLP-1 drugs provide longevity benefits for people who are already metabolically healthy.

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What Are GLP-1 Drugs?

Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy contain semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, while Zepbound and Mounjaro contain tirzepatide.

These medications are approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and some are also approved for chronic weight management.

GLP-1 receptor agonists work by binding to GLP-1 receptors in the body. This increases insulin production in response to food, suppresses glucagon—a hormone that raises blood sugar—and helps regulate blood glucose levels.

What Does GLP-1 Do in the Body?

GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a hormone naturally produced by the small intestine after eating. It plays several important roles in regulating blood sugar and appetite by:

• Stimulating insulin release from the pancreas.
• Suppressing glucagon secretion, which helps prevent unnecessary increases in blood sugar.
• Slowing stomach emptying allows glucose to enter the bloodstream more gradually.
• Increasing feelings of fullness (satiety), which helps reduce food intake.