Alcohol Consumption: A Double-Edged Sword – The poison whose charms we willingly submit

There are not many things which can be taken as defining elements of the human history and civilization, but there are few. Except the first 6 metals used by humans namely Copper (Cu), Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Iron (Fe), Tin (Sn) and Lead (Pb), and water (H₂O) which is the most abundant and consumed liquid on Earth, there is 8th element which is also liquid. This the alcohol (R₃COH) (*R stands for Carbon substituents or hydrogen). Alcohol is exactly a psychoactive drug that has been consumed in drinks for most of human history.

If we refer to refreshing drinks only water remains the number 1 drink , followed by tea and coffee. But alcohol is not a refreshing stuff, it actually has a reverse effect other than refreshing. However if included in the list of most consumed liquids by humans definitely after water, alcohol is the most consumed drink in the history of humanity.

Below I am going to tell you something about this charming liquid which if consumed in small doses can be actually good for your health. Unfortunately there are a lot of people which consume alcohol way more than sufficient and as result this generates other problems. So, what is this thing we name: alcohol?

Alcohols are chemically similar to kerosene: for a start, they burn, as you will have witnessed if you’ve ever ordered a flambé dessert. Usually brandy is used for fancy dishes like that because this spirit has a high percentage of alcohol: it is typically 40% and it is this that burns with a bluish flame on top of your dessert.

Pure alcohol is easy to burn too, and indeed is used as a fuel for cars. Brazil is the primary producer of alcohol made from sugar cane, which it uses as a transport fuel. The country is considered to have one of the most sustainable biofuel economies in the world, with some proportions of alcohol  being used to fuel 94% of Brazilian passenger vehicles. It is made by turning sugar cane into juice, and fermenting that with yeast. This is the same process by which both wine and beer are made: yeast consumes sugar and produces alcohol. But with biofuels the alcohol is then refined into pure alcohol.

Biofuel  isn’t as popular in other parts of the world as it is in Brazil, in part because it requires lots of land to produce alcohol at the scale needed to sustain the transport systems of whole countries. So worldwide, alcohol crops are mostly grown for drinking.

Alcohol is a key component of some of the world´s most popular drinks such as wine, beer and spirits, but it is toxic. It is that toxicity which makes these drinks so intoxicating. The toxins in alcohol suppress the nervous system, causing a loss of cognitive functions, loss of motor functions, and loss of control. It is quite surprising that, despite these serious physiological effects, mild intoxication is so very enjoyable.

In my case it causes me to become less upright, to worry less, to grin; and, at higher doses, to make fun of everyone around me and I tell people either funny or offensive things that in usual situations I never tell. Indeed nothing quite hits the spot like an intoxicating drink at the end of a long week at work. “Drink me”, a bottle of wine says, “and for a while the world won´t be the same”.

Alcohol is a general name for a  family of hydrocarbon molecules similar to petrol and diesel, but with an extra hydrogen and oxygen attached to them. Those extra atoms are called a hydroxyl group (-OH). Different kinds of alcohols come in different molecular sizes: the alcohol we drink has 2 carbon atoms and is called ethanol. It is a polar molecule, which means that there is a separation of a molecule´s electric charge. In the case of alcohols this is caused by the hydroxyl group.

Water molecules also have a hydroxyl group and are also polar. This similarity is why ethanol dissolves in water. When the label on a bottle of alcohol says what the alcohol percentage (%) of the drink is, it´s telling you how much dissolved ethanol you´re about to consume. For instance in the case of the Bourgogne Chardonnay which is one of my favorite french wine, the answer is 13%.

The Methanol and Ethanol – both are alcohols. Methanol has one carbon atom, while ethanol has two. Both are polar molecules containing a hydroxyl group – the OH at the end. Water is also polar, and this similarity allows both methanol and ethanol to mix well with it.

Whereas one side of an alcohol molecule is similar to water, the other side, the hydrocarbon backbone, is similar to the structure of oils and the fatty molecules that coat the cells in your body. It is this similarity that allows ethanol to bypass the defenses of cell membranes and, being small, sneak through the stomach cell wall and enter your bloodstream directly. Approximately 20% of the ethanol you imbibe when you drink wine goes through your stomach wall and directly into your bloodstream, which is why you can feel the effects of alcohol almost immediately after drinking it.

Dogs also get drunk if they drink alcohol, which is  why there is a growing market for non-alcoholic wine designed specifically for pets to consume at festive occasions. Non-alcoholic wine for human consumption is also available although in my experience it bears very little resemblance. What it does do, however, is highlighting quite how much the regular wines rely on alcohol to balance the sweetness and fruitiness of the grape juice. It´s what gives wine its air of sophistication and authority. Alcohol turns grape juice into an adult drink – a poison admittedly, but one to whose charms we willingly submit.

But of course the effect of drinking wine is not necessarily the same on everybody. In my case if I only drink wine for instance in a plane while I am traveling to America in short time I feel a little intoxicated, but because I don´t eat anything for a while, I am about to become more so. Without food to slow down the progress of the alcohol through my stomach, it is making its way to my small intestine. Here it entered my bloodstream, and then encounters my liver. The liver´s job is to get rid of the toxin, but it can only metabolize ethanol at a rate of about a glass of wine per hour (depending on your size).

If you drink faster than this, ethanol will enter your bloodstream at a greater rate than it can be processed, and so will be able to infiltrate your other organs, exerting its powers throughout the rest of your body. The effects of alcohol on the brain, for instance, are not uniform from person to person. They change depending on how much you drink, your mental state, and other details of your physiology. But, basically, alcohols depresses your nervous system, reduces inhibitions and changes your mood.

Alcohol affects other organs, too. It temporarily weakens the heart muscles, causing them to beat less vigorously, and  lowering your blood pressure. When blood circulates to your lungs to pick up oxygen from your breath, some of the alcohol jumps across the membranes along with the carbon dioxide being expelled from your blood. As you breathe out, the alcohol vapour becomes part of your exhalation, which is why you can smell when someone´s been drinking. Testing for the presence of alcohol vapour in someone´s breath is the principle behind the breathalyzer that the police use to test whether someone they suspect of drink-driving is, in fact, intoxicated.

While booze on the breath doesn´t smell great, the other side of ethanol, the  part that´s more similar to oil than it is to water, gives us a considerably more fragrant liquid – perfume. Essential oils distilled from plants like bergamot and orange, or resigns like myrrh, and animal-derived substances like musk, can all be dissolved in alcohol and turned into perfume. When you dab the perfume on your warm skin, the  alcohol evaporates, leaving the oils on your skin to diffuse slowly into the air, shrouding you in the scent of your choosing.

All the perfumes piled high in the departure lounges of airports are full of alcohol. If you were really desperate to get drunk, you could drink them; they´ll have the same effect on you as vodka. But you have to be careful – some of the alcohols used in cheap perfumes contain methanol.

Methanol is the smallest alcohol molecule, with only 1 carbon atom, unlike ethanol, which has 2. Two small difference changes its pharmacological activity dramatically and makes methanol far more poisonous than ethanol. One shot glass of pure methanol can cause permanent blindness; 3 glasses will kill you. This happens because, once the methanol is in your body, your digestive system metabolizes it into formic acid and formaldehyde.

Formic acid attacks nerve cells, especially the optic nerve. If you drink too much of it, the degradation of your optic nerve could leave you blind – this is where the expression “blind drunk” comes from. The formic acid also goes after your kidneys and liver, where it causes permanent damage that can be lethal. Methanol is produced during the fermentation of alcoholic drinks, especially in the production of spirits like vodka and whisky, but it´s removed through the brewing process, so you´ve unlikely to encounter it in commercial spirits.

If you make moonshine, hooch poteen, or any other home-brewed spirits though, you need to be careful. These drinks are typically made by fermenting starch from crops such as corn, wheat or potatoes. This results in a low-alcohol mixture called a mash, which is then connected to some pipework known as a still, heated up, and distilled into a liquor with a high percentage of alcohol. The first liquid that emerges from the still is concentrated methanol – you have to throw it away. Experienced home brewers know this, but people die every year after making moonshine for the first time.

Those in search of cheap alcohol sometimes resort to drinking alcohol-based liquids that are easy to buy like antifreeze, cleaning products and perfumes. This is a very bad idea not just because these liquids taste foul, but also because, since they are not designed to be drunk, the manufacturers don´t always remove the methanol they contain. This can lead to tragic consequences. For instance, in December 2016, 58 people died in Russia by drinking a scented bath oil. It wasn’t the scented chemicals that killed them, but the methanol.

Alcohol is, of course, a relaxant and social lubricant – a drug, yes, but a legally sanctioned one that provides more benefits to society that the  problems it causes – or at least that´s the story we tell ourselves. Getting intoxicated can make people more relaxed, or it can make them more antagonistic. In either case, they also become less able to make clear rational decisions. Which makes you wonder why the dangers of intoxication are not mentioned in the pre-flight safety briefing: surely a drunk person is less safe in an emergency, and less able to make good decisions that affects others?.

But then, that assumes that the briefing is really about safety, which I don´t believe it is. While drinking wine may not increase your safety, it has other uses, one of which was alluded to by the attendant: it is a traditional accompaniment to meals, where, apart from being delicious in itself, it acts as a very effective palate cleanser, making the food itself more enjoyable.