What happens to alcohol in the body?
When we are at a party or stressed, most people use alcohol either to boost their mood or to relax a little. The problem is that when we have a drink, we continue with another and so on until we reach a stage known as drunkenness and the next day generates a hangover, but why does this happen?
The human body tolerates an average of 40 gr/day of alcohol in men and 24 gr/day in women. Many times it has been heard that a glass of red wine is not bad and has benefits, but this is about 10g/day with which we obtain vascular benefits but if we exceed that amount, we cause the opposite which is brain and liver damage.
When we ingest alcoholic beverages, we dry our digestive tract, and of the alcohol we drink, 20% is absorbed in the stomach and the remaining 80% in the small intestine. In both ways, the alcohol ends up in the blood and from there, it is distributed to all organs reaching the liver where 90% of it is metabolized from ethanol (toxic substance containing alcohol that we already tolerate due to the evolution and adaptation of our body to be consuming fermented fruits) to acetaldehyde and this then becomes acetate (all these transitions are due to different enzymes that we have in our body), the remaining 10% is eliminated through urine, sweat, and breathing.
The liver metabolizes an average of 1 drink per hour, that is 14 grams of alcohol which is equivalent to 1 glass of beer, 1 glass of wine, or 40 ml of alcohol. When we ingest more than this amount is when our body becomes intoxicated since the enzymes of our organism are saturated and the excess of ethanol and acetaldehyde not degraded stays in our body causing the sensation of drunkenness.
When we begin to have more alcohol in the blood, we have more blood in the skin (reddening of the face), it also alters the vasopressin which is the hormone that regulates the amount of water in the body (we begin to go to the bathroom because the kidney stops absorbing water and we begin to lose a lot of liquid that later causes dehydration that leads to the raw). It also alters the function of neurotransmitters in the brain increasing inhibition, which is why it is considered a central nervous system depressant and it releases more dopamine and endorphins, which make us feel hyperactive, happy, and with a good attitude (this is where addiction arises). The hippocampus also suffers alterations (responsible for memory and brain activity), which is why mental lapses or blackouts occur as short-term memory is affected.
When we exceed the recommended amount of alcohol, we get a hangover the next day due to dehydration caused by the excess. The cause of long hangovers is a chemical component present in alcohol called congeners, which are responsible for the smell and taste of alcoholic beverages. These are produced due to the fermentation that alcohol creates and is the substance that causes the alcohol to stay longer in your bloodstream, which is why hangovers last longer.
This substance is present in different amounts depending on the type of alcohol due to the process of elaboration of these, fermentation, distillation and sugars they contain. Given this, there are types of alcohol that have more congeners such as rum, bourbon, whiskey and red wine. On the contrary, among those that have less are white rum and vodka. This is where the importance of low-category distillates comes in, which normally go through fewer distillation processes and do not have such exhaustive filtration, which causes them to have more impurities in the form of congeners.
There are vodkas that are distilled and filtered causing a smooth texture as well as a delicate flavor, however, the low-quality ones cause a much stronger flavor and irritation (burning throat when drinking it). However, there are beverages such as bourbon or whiskey that are aged in barrels, which inherently have this strong flavor and cause some irritation due to the process they have.
My recommendation is to have a drink every hour (14 grams of alcohol) and always drink a glass of water for each drink to avoid dehydration and choose drinks that have gone through several stages of distillation and filtration as well as clear drinks so that the raw taste is not so long-lasting.
If you have a recommendation or comment about this, let me know below! Remember to share, comment and tag anyone who might find the article useful! 📨 🚀
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnosZJMb57U
https://thecocktailsociety.uk/why-do-cheap-spirits-give-you-a-hangover/
