CLAIM:
Alcohol does not truly keep the body warm; the warmth felt is temporary, and drinking alcohol can actually lower core body temperature.
FACT:
Alcohol does not keep the body warm. Scientific studies and medical experts show that alcohol disrupts normal temperature regulation and increases the risk of hypothermia, especially in cold conditions.
In a viral Instagram reel posted by dietician Bhawesh Gupta, who has 7.18 lakh followers, he addresses the common belief that alcohol helps people “keep warm.” The video has reignited the debate around whether drinking alcohol actually warms the body or is just a temporary sensation.
In the reel, Bhawesh explains the science behind the sensation, “You also think that drinking alcohol, especially rum, in winters keeps your body warm and reduces the cold? Then stop and watch this video till the end because today you will get to know the real reality of this.” He points out that whenever you consume any alcoholic drink, the blood vessels near your skin dilate - a process called vasodilation. “After drinking rum for some time, more blood flows near your skin, and you feel temporary warmth,” he says.
But Bhawesh also cautions that this warm feeling is misleading. The increased blood flow near the skin actually causes your core body temperature to drop, and alcohol can disturb the body’s natural temperature-regulating mechanisms. He adds, “Due to this reason, after drinking alcohol, in many case reports, people have had to be hospitalised due to hypothermia.” The reel highlights that alcohol, a group 1 carcinogen, is linked to multiple health risks, and suggests safer ways to stay warm - consuming hot beverages like soups, teas, and spices.
The video has struck a chord online, garnering 2.85 lakh views, 11.7k likes, and nearly 4,000 shares, sparking renewed discussion on common winter myths.
Does alcohol really keep you warm?
Scientific evidence shows that this belief is largely a misconception. While alcohol can create a sensation of warmth, studies suggest it does not actually raise core body temperature and may even increase heat loss.
An older study examined the effects of alcohol on the body in cold environments and highlighted the risks associated with its consumption. The researchers noted that alcohol is a dominant cause of death in urban hypothermia, emphasising that while it may produce a pleasant feeling of warmth, this sensation can be misleading.
They explained that “experimental studies on humans during relatively short exposure to moderate cold have given inconsistent results concerning heat balance.” Moreover, during longer exposure to colder conditions, particularly when combined with strenuous exercise, alcohol has been shown to enhance heat loss.
For your daily dose of medical news and updates, visit: HEALTH
The study cautioned that “a warning must be given to drink alcohol beverages in connection with outdoor activities in a cold environment. It gives a feeling of bravery and influences judgement leading to ignoration of prophylactic measures.” In other words, alcohol can impair decision-making, making people less likely to take protective measures against the cold.
Physiologically, alcohol interferes with the body’s natural responses to cold. It delays the onset of shivering and reduces its duration, which diminishes the body’s ability to generate heat. The study also observed that alcohol “augments cold diuresis, thereby diminishing blood volume and physical working capacity.”
Supporting this, a randomised trial examined alcohol’s effect on core body temperature during cold‑water immersion. In this study, eight healthy male volunteers drank a beverage containing 50 g of alcohol or a placebo before one hour of immersion in 20 °C water. The results showed that the mean core temperature decreased by 1.0°C after alcohol consumption, compared with a 0.66°C drop in the placebo condition, indicating a greater fall in core temperature with alcohol.
Another 2024 study looked at how alcohol affects the body’s thermoregulation, particularly under heat stress. The researchers noted that “ethyl alcohol (ethanol) consumption is ostensibly known to increase the risk of morbidity and mortality during hot weather and heatwaves.” However, they explained that how alcohol independently alters physiological, perceptual, and behavioural responses to heat stress remains poorly understood, prompting them to conduct a systematic scoping review.
The review included studies that involved oral ethanol consumption, used randomised or crossover-control designs with volume-matched non-alcoholic beverages, and were conducted in healthy adults. After screening 7,256 titles and assessing 29 papers for eligibility, 8 studies with a total of 93 male participants were included. The results showed that the physiological marker most influenced by alcohol was core temperature, which was lowered in 3 out of 4 studies, while “skin blood flow was increased with alcohol consumption in the one study that measured it.” Other measures, such as urine volume, body mass, and plasma changes, were inconsistent, except at the highest alcohol dose.
The authors concluded that “the effect of alcohol consumption on thermoregulatory responses is understudied, and is limited by moderate doses of alcohol consumption, short durations of heat exposure, and is only conducted in young-healthy males.” They added that, contrary to common heat-health advice, the available literature suggests that alcohol does not appear to impair physiological responses to heat in young healthy males.
In fact, in a 2025 case report, hypothermia was described as a condition marked by an abnormally low body temperature, typically following prolonged cold exposure. The authors noted that “hypothermia has a broad differential diagnosis that may require thorough evaluation for various etiologies beyond cold exposure.”
The study focuses on a 34-year-old man who presented to the emergency department with confusion and weakness. He was ultimately found to be suffering from hypothermia and hypoglycemia following an episode of binge drinking alcohol and dietary fasting. The report highlights “the pathophysiology and interplay among alcohol use, nutrition, hypoglycemia, and hypothermia,” emphasising that appropriate history collection in cases of hypothermia is crucial. The authors conclude that “consideration of conditions within the differential diagnosis beyond environmental exposure” is important for accurate evaluation and management.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), alcohol is “a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance” and has long been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest cancer-risk category alongside tobacco and asbestos. WHO notes that alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including bowel and female breast cancer. It also stresses that “any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer.”
What experts say?
Dr Rajiv Kovil, Head of Diabetology and a weight-loss expert at Zandra Healthcare, explained that alcohol does not truly warm the body, despite the sensation many people experience. According to him, alcohol causes peripheral vasodilation, meaning it increases blood flow to the skin.
As Dr Kovil noted, this process “brings a little bit of warmth from the body’s core to the surface,” creating only a temporary feeling of warmth at the skin level. However, he stresses that this is misleading. “You’re actually increasing the heat loss from your core,” he explained, adding that alcohol “does quite the opposite of keeping you warm.”
He pointed out that alcohol disrupts the body’s natural temperature regulation, which functions “like a thermostat.” Physiologically, alcohol increases heat loss from the skin to the surrounding environment, lowers core body temperature, and “can actually accelerate hypothermia.” Because of this, alcohol consumption is a well-recognised risk factor for cold-related injuries and deaths, particularly in freezing conditions and among vulnerable populations such as people experiencing homelessness.
This story is done in collaboration with First Check, which is the health journalism vertical of DataLEADS.
