If you’re someone who enjoys a glass of wine, you may think twice after hearing what can happen in the body once it’s been consumed — and how A Diary of A CEO host Stephen Bartlett says it affected his day-to-day life.
No matter whether you prefer white, rosé, or red, the short-term effects can be broadly similar — though personal factors can significantly change how strongly you feel them.
Wine is woven into everyday life in many places, often enjoyed with meals or at social gatherings.
Countries including Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Australia, France, the UK and the US are among those well known for their wine culture.
But the experience isn’t always as simple as a pleasant drink with dinner.
Bartlett recently said that even a small amount — just a “couple” of glasses — had lingering consequences that lasted well beyond the night itself.
The reason, experts say, lies in the substances found in wine and the way alcohol is processed in the body.
Dr Tina Ghela MBBS, MRCGP, BSc, from Medichecks, says a wide range of things can influence the effect alcohol has, including sex, genetics, and what’s actually in the drink.
She said: “Drinking and drinking culture have long been topics of discussion among medical professionals and across different cultures, with many Mediterranean countries traditionally viewing a glass of wine with a meal as part of a healthy lifestyle.” However, the expert said that ‘wine does have an impact on both the mind and body, and how it affects us can vary considerably between individuals.’
She explained that ‘body size, sex, genetics, medications, underlying health conditions and individual sensitivity can all influence how we respond to alcohol’.
Dr Ghela also outlined the immediate effects after drinking, saying: “On consumption, wine will immediately be absorbed into the bloodstream, which enhances the activity of the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) system, which is the brain’s main inhibitory chemical messenger.
“This slows down brain activity and produces a calming and relaxing effect. It can also affect reaction times, coordination and judgement. In some people, alcohol may cause a slight increase in heart rate. While your liver will process alcohol, it does also produce a toxic byproduct that can damage liver cells with repeated or excessive drinking, which will outpace any re-healing from the liver.”
And for some people, the after-effects don’t stop when the alcohol wears off — they can continue for days.
One common issue is disrupted sleep, as ‘alcohol can also reduce the quality of your sleep, with REM cycles being interrupted leaving you feeling less refreshed when you wake.’
It can also influence brain chemistry in ways that affect mood and mental wellbeing, while potentially setting off an ‘inflammatory response in the body, which can also contribute to that general feeling of being unwell.’
Physically, she added, alcohol may lead to issues such as ‘mild dehydration whilst irritation of the stomach linking increases acid production causing nausea and discomfort.’
Ultimately, she stressed that the overall impact varies from person to person, depending on the factors unique to them.
For Bartlett, the biggest knock-on effect was poor sleep that then fed into other choices and performance across the next few days. Speaking on his podcast, he said: “I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn’t get drunk, it ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect that it caused.”
He added: “It meant that I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or the cortisol system or whatever was all messed up. Then I podcasted worse and I didn’t go to the gym the day after and I could track all of this on my Whoop, hashtag ad, hashtag sponsor, investor… whatever.”
After Bartlett spoke openly about alcohol’s impact on him, others weighed in — with one well-known figure arguing it’s a sign that “optimization” has gone a step too far.
Optimization, in this context, is the growing movement around using data, science, and technology to fine-tune routines and habits in the name of better health.
BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James criticised what he sees as the pressure to measure everything, saying he wants to push back against that mindset.
He said on Instagram: “So I’ve sort of been railing against this for years. Not the alcohol thing, fair enough if you want to give up alcohol, it can ruin lives, got that – that’s not what my issue is. My issue is this endless optimisation and measuring of everything to the point where it starts to make you feel a bit miserable if you don’t quite hit your own targets.”
Dr Ghela said the wider “self-optimisation” conversation needs moderation, particularly when people become fixated on wearable data at the expense of how they actually feel.
She said: “While the temporary effects of wine on our overall mental and physical wellbeing are something to be aware of, there is a wider concern that wearable tech is making us become overly focused on bodily metrics in a way that may itself become unhelpful. If you are worried about your overall wellbeing it is important that you seek advice from a medical professional.”