JovialJman - Alcohol (What Does It Do?)

I may or may not be eyeing out that cold glass of whiskey.

From drinking and driving to breaking the seal, we know there are somethings that will happen when we drink but how and why do they happen. Let's talk about that.

There are a lot of people who drink to get a slight buzz, while others never really drink any alcohol. Islam consider the consumption of alcohol sinful, while Jainism forbids it completely. Christianity uses a form of alcohol in their religious practice, (during mass christians take a sip of holy wine which is a representation of the blood of Jesus Christ). Buddhists also tend to try stay away from it as it goes against the fifth of their Five Precepts.

If you have ever gone out with a group of friends in their 50's or younger then you should be familiar with the myth "breaking the seal". The meaning behind that is, when you start drinking alcohol, for this example I shall use beer, you can drink 3 or 4 before needing to go to the restroom to relieve yourself, But as soon as you do, you need to then go to the restroom more and more often, not being able to hold it in. Most of the time this is the case, so the myth was born. Now what would happen if you went earlier on?

Well as it turns out, this is just a myth. But you do go to the restroom more often, how come you may ask, well there is a scientific way to say it, but I shall try my best to put it in a way to explain to your next drunk encounter. There is this hormone called ADH, now this hormone tells your kidney to absorb water and put it into the blood so everything stays hydrated. When eating salt for instance, it absorbs salt, so your body will try and get more water to counteract this, so you will have less pee. Now what alcohol does is it starts inhibiting these hormones from reaching the kidneys effectively, (in other words they are chatting to ADH and getting them to waddle off to the next bar and forgetting about the kidneys.)

This image shows some sciency thing of how alcohol reacts in the body

Now since the Kidneys do not know that they need to absorb water they simply filter it to your bladder, and the more alcohol you drink, the more this will happen. So since you are drinking a lot of liquids and the fact that your body is not absorbing water, you need to pee more and more. But now another consequence of this happening is the dreaded hangover. If you have ever drank too much, you will know how awful you feel the next day, and if you haven't gotten there before, either you haven't been passed out drunk, or you have supermans kidneys.

The reason for this is since you are getting rid of all this water that your body needs, it is starting to dehydrate your body. Now when things do not get what they need, they start acting like a child throwing a tantrum. You begin to feel ill, this is to try get you to stop putting the poison in your body, (yes ... alcohol is a poison), and making you dizzy and lightheaded, this is to save energy. You start becoming thirsty, to try and replenish all this lost water. now if you do not get any of this and choose to sleep it off, in the morning, you feel nauseous and have a headache, these are also symptoms of dehydration.

Some of the things you can do to try and make sure this does not happen is; do not drink too much, but if you are insistent on doing that, then listen up. If you slow your consumption of alcohol your body will be able to deal with it a bit more effectively. Since your stomach has less surface area then your intestines, keeping the alcohol there, slows down the absorption of it as well. One way of doing this is to have a full stomach, there is a valve between your stomach and your intestines, and when your tummy is empty, the alcohol goes right through, so more of it gets absorbed more quickly, but when your stomach is full, that valve stays shut while your stomach dissolves the food.

Something that is know to work is eating something greasy before drinking helps you stay sober longer, this is true since that valve at the bottom of the stomach  will stay shut until the food has been dissolved, and greasy food, in general, take longer to break down then other food. Now all of these things slow down the absorption, and not stop it, so you may be more likely to over do it even more with out realising it, so lets say you still wake up with the infamous hangover, what should you do?

This image shows a lady trying to survive a hangover in a place most do.

Well a general rule of thumb is to drink water, or any liquids that do not have alcohol to replenish that missing water in your body. If you were unfortunate to leave your dinner on the side of the pavement, you should try your best to replenish those missing nutrients as well, so something greasy in the morning may also be a good idea. Stay in bed if you can as this will allow your body to sort itself out, and if you are craving something then you should try and get it as cravings are the bodies way of letting you know what it is missing. Bloody Mary's are some's solution to the hangover as well. 

This image shows one of the variations of the Bloody Mary

The Bloody Mary is a cocktail with many variations but almost all contain tomato juice, vodka, and salt or something salty. Now the liquids help replace the missing water, the salt replaces the missing electrolytes and the Vodka numbs the aches and pains temporarily while you start to replace everything that is missing and causing the hangover. Many people have said that this is the only solution that works, while others say it does not work at all. I am in favour of the former a bit more since it does replace some of the needed missing agents but there are others that help as well.

None the less, after the day is out you should start to feel better, and may face it all again next weekend. Thank you for reading today's post, and if you have any ways to get out of a hangover or remedies for them the morning after, please share them with us along with any drinking stories that you may have, down in the comments below or on Facebook/Twitter. If you know of anyone who likes to learn, or needs a way to get over a hangover, please share this with them as I am sure they will thank you for making them read this post when they have to stare at the bright gleaming screen to find the answer, trust me they will enjoy it, (teehee). If you would like to see more posts as they are published, please like us on our official Facebook page and follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a fantastic day and that future hangovers do not occur, or are in effect for a very small duration in time.

Stay sober my drinking friends.