The Scoop on Booze

The Scoop on Booze The police officers could hardly believe their eyes. The eighteen- year-old driver they had just pulled over sat there speechless, a wad of white fabric sticking out of his mouth. He had ripped the crotch out of his underwear and stuffed it into his mouth in an apparent attempt to fool the Breathalyzer. A memory of someone saying that cotton is highly absorbent must have stirred in his confused mind, prompting this bizarre reaction. But the Breathalyzer was not fooled. Neither was it fooled by the teenager who started sucking furiously on pennies after the highway patrol stopped him. He must have remembered a bit of the chemistry he had learned in school — the bit about alcohol being oxidized to acetaldehyde by the action of copper. He figured he’d be in the clear, since the Breathalyzer tests for alcohol, and not acetaldehyde. Unfortunately, the young genius didn’t remember accurately. Ethanol, the alcohol in beverages, can indeed be convened to acetaldehyde by copper, but only when the copper is red hot. Then there are those who try to outsmart the police by insisting that they’ve just used mouthwash. But this doesn’t wash either. Sure, mouthwashes contain alcohol, and a false Breathalyzer reading is possible, but only if the test subject rinses out his mouth immediately before giving a breath sample. The police must follow certain guidelines: they have to observe a suspect for several minutes before administering a Breathalyzer test, and alcohol from mouthwash dissipates within a couple of minutes. Is it surprising that People resort to such curious acts when they’ve overindulged? Not really. After all, alcohol certainly affects the brain. And the rest of the body as well. The chemistry involved is absolutely fascinating. Before alcohol can affect the brain, it has to get there. Most of the alcohol we consume is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and the small intestine. But not all of the alcohol makes it through. Some is metabolized in the mucosa that lines the stomach and intestine. Here, enzymes convert ethanol first to acetaldehyde and then to acetic acid, neither of which is inebriating. In men, about thirty percent of a dose of alcohol meets its metabolic end in this fashion, hut there is a definite gender bias here. The female stomach and intestinal lining is only about half as efficient at breaking down ethanol, so more makes it into the circulation. This explains why women may become tipsy more easily Once the alcohol is in the bloodstream, it passes through the liver. The liver is the body’s main detoxicating organ, and it detects alcohol as a potential troublemaker. First, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase snips a couple of hydrogen atoms out of the ethanol molecule, converting it to acetaldehyde. Then aldehyde dehydrogenase transforms this intermediate into acetic acid, which is either excreted or used by the body as a source of energy as it is broken down into carbon dioxide and water. A gram of ethanol can provide about seven calories in this fashion. If a person’s intake of alcohol is sufficiently high, the liver’s detoxicating system becomes overburdened, and some of the alcohol slips through un-metabolized. It can then wreak havoc in the brain. Ethanol does this by interfering with neurotransmitters, the chemicals that brain cells use to communicate with one another. At low alcohol levels, receptors for glutamate are activated, leading to stimulation and a loss of inhibition. This is the “social lubricant” effect of alcohol. But as the concentration of alcohol rises, glutamate receptors actually become less responsive; the drinker begins to slur his or her words, and “cocktail party amnesia” sets in. Other neurotransmitter systems are also affected. Gamma aminobutanoic acid (GABA) is known as an inhibitory neurotransmitter because it prevents nerve cells from firing excessively. Alcohol stimulates GABA activity, which eventually causes sedation and relaxation. And that is only part of a very complex picture. Eventually, the effects wear off as the alcohol is excreted or metabolized as it passes through the liver again. But, as this is happening. the drinker must contend with nausea, headaches, and a flushed face. The culprit here is acetaldehyde, some of which escapes from the liver before being converted to acetic acid. Not everyone experiences these symptoms to the same degree. Many people of Asian origin are severely affected by facial flushing, because nature has dealt them a very slow-acting version of aldehyde dehydrogenase, the enzyme that normally degrades acetaldehyde. Indeed, the same phenomenon lies behind a prescription drug known as disulfiram (Antabuse), which physicians give to alcoholic patients. The drug inactivates aldehyde dehydrogenase, forcing acetaldehyde into the circulation. This should make the drinker so sick that he gives up the booze. Unfortunately, he usually gives up the drug instead. Some of the effects of acetaldehyde can linger till the morning after and contribute to a hangover. Interestingly, scientific researchers have not investigated the hangover business as extensively as one would expect. That’s because solving this problem would trigger a whole new problem. Some are concerned that if the hangover is eliminated, then people will drink more. Still, we do know that there is more to the hangover than just the remnants of acetaldehyde. The metabolism of alcohol in the liver produces some free-radical debris, which is usually taken care of by glutathione, one of the body’s most important antioxidants. When the system is overwhelmed, these free radicals can contribute to the hangover. That is why researchers have had some success in treating hangovers with supplements of N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which serves as a source of cysteine, the critical compound the body needs to generate more glutathione. Eggs also contain cysteine, and that may explain why traditionally people have used them as a hangover treatment. The hangover is actually multifactorial. Dehydration plays an important role, as does hypoglycemia caused by the alcohol- mediated loss of sugar in the urine, But, in all likelihood, the greatest contributor to the hangover is methanol. ‘This alcohol is found in small concentrations in many beverages; it’s a byproduct of fermentation. Methanol is metabolized by the same enzymes as ethanol, hut the products this time are formaldehyde and formic acid, which produce the hangover symptoms. Why does this happen only the morning after? Because the enzymes prefer to work on ethanol instead of methanol. Only when all the ethanol has been metabolized do they switch to methanol. This then explains the “hair of the dog” hangover remedy. A drink in the morning supplies ethanol for the enzymes to act upon so they’ll leave the methanol alone. As the enzymes busily metabolize the ethanol, methanol is excreted in the urine without being convened to formic acid. A Bloody Mary may be the best choice here, because vodka contains very little methanol. Confirmation of the critical role methanol plays in hangovers comes from a study showing that treatment with 4- methylpyrazole, a drug that blocks the breakdown of methanol, can eliminate the symptoms. I must admit to feeling a Little queasy talking about hangover cures. Alcohol can be an extremely destructive beverage. It is probably more damaging to society than all illicit drug combined. Cirrhosis of the liver, strokes, breast cancer, oral cancers, domestic violence, and sexual assault have all been linked to alcohol abuse. In North America, there is an alcohol- related car accident every thirty seconds. And, as if that wasn’t frightening enough, excessive alcohol can shrink the genitals and have feminizing effects on men. ‘The male drinker produces less testosterone, so his sex drive flags. But, for those who want to look on the bright side, less testosterone means less likelihood of baldness of baldness. Henny Youngman, whom some would call a comedian, once remarked that when he read about the evils of drinking he gave up reading. I hope you won’t do the same. There is nothing funny about being drunk. Drunks destroy their own lives and kill others. What can we do? Well, University of Georgia researchers have found that blood alcohol can be reduced significantly by inserting a tube into the rectum and piping in alcohol dehydrogenase and oxygen. Sounds good to me. .

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