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CHAPTER 3
HOW ALCOHOL MAKES YOU DRUNK
Pop the cap off that Budweiser and take a long slow drink. Iced cold and refreshing, the beer flows into your mouth and down your throat along with alcohol, the two-carbon chemical sought in an almost infinite variety by nearly every culture on the globe. Before it even reaches your stomach, it enters your bloodstream as you can feel the very first signs of a warm mellowness that you have grown to love. Alcohol is unusual in that it is absorbed right through the mucosae, the lining of your mouth, esophagus and stomach. It is such a small molecule that it doesn’t have to be broken down by any digestive enzymes and thus passes directly through the wall of any portion of the gut. This is in distinct contrast to most foods containing the three major energy sources: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Most of these are large complex molecules that must be broken down into smaller molecular fragments by stomach acid or by digestive enzymes in the mouth or small intestine to be absorbed. Absorption of alcohol begins immediately after that first swallow, and continues until the last two-carbon fragment is absorbed in the small intestine. Unlike many foods and most medications, alcohol is 100% absorbed into the blood stream, quickly and evenly distributed to all organs of the body, muscles, fat, and, of course, the brain.
Since alcohol is so simple chemically, the body assimilates it very quickly. Its small size and simple structure allows it to pass readily through the membrane of every cell in the body. Alcohol functions as a two-carbon sugar, so it is considered to be in the carbohydrate family. It is metabolized preferentially over glucose in the liver; converted to a chemical called acetaldehyde at a fixed rate of one ounce per hour. Acetaldehyde is a toxic, cancer-causing chemical, and it is the toxicity that is responsible for a large portion of the damage alcohol does to the body. The higher the blood alcohol, the higher the acetaldehyde concentration.
Alcohol is a cell poison. At high concentrations it interferes with normal cell metabolism and is toxic to many cells in the body, including the liver, heart, and nervous system.
Although the temporary effect of alcohol may be pleasurable, it has many damaging effects on your body. The ounce and a half of alcohol in that Budweiser will be well-traveled before it is passed into your urine or breathed out in an exhalation. It is illuminating to see where it has been in the interim.
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