A lesser known mechanism for alcohol tolerance

I just want to point out the amazing amount of alcohol you&#x27;d have to ingest in a short time to get to the 1% BAC referenced in this article.<p>Obviously there are lots of variables based on your size and individual physiology, but on average, each drink raises your BAC somewhere around .02%.<p>So, even without accounting for an enlarged liver that processed alcohol more quickly, that driver with a 1% BAC in South Africa must have had around 50 drinks in quick succession, then gotten behind the wheel.<p>Even if you were drinking liquor, that&#x27;s basically downing two bottles of whisky in under an hour.<p>Plenty to kill the average person, but apparently not enough to keep this driver from getting behind the wheel.<p>Wild.

Isn&#x27;t this just a really complicated way of saying that Alcohol is a potassium diuretic and your body is adapting to something flushing your potassium all the time?<p>Not sure if it&#x27;s lesser-known, though. When doing beer judging, we&#x27;re told to load-up on foods with lots of fat and potassium to increase our tolerance (senses start working differently after you&#x27;re toasted, can make judging tough)

For some reason (presumably because I&#x27;m tall or because I have too much body fat (thanks Taco Bell!)), I have an extremely high tolerance to alcohol, despite the fact that I almost never drink. It can take upwards of 600ml of whisky for me to really &quot;feel unsafe to drive&quot; [1], which is part of the reason I don&#x27;t really drink to begin with...If I don&#x27;t have much fun with it, and it&#x27;s not healthy for me, I don&#x27;t really see the point in partaking.<p>[1] Don&#x27;t worry, I&#x27;ve never tested this theory, I don&#x27;t even own a car.

It sounds like BK channels interact with NMDA receptors, which are glutamate receptors. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. My understanding is that inhibiting glutamate is partly what makes alcohol relaxing (the other is it&#x27;s interaction with GABA). Bodies have an amazing way of keeping themselves in equilibrium and when someone is introducing alcohol into their system on a regular basis, I figured that the body regulates this by increasing levels of glutamate (although maybe also via downregulating GABA receptors), so that the person stays awake even with higher doses of alcohol. I do think that this can lead to someone having a higher &quot;tolerance&quot;. I also think that&#x27;s what contributes to what some people call hangxiety, i.e. there&#x27;s still extra glutamate floating around that wouldn&#x27;t otherwise be there.<p>However, an enlarged liver helping someone process alcohol better sounds bizarre to me. I thought a liver being able to process alcohol faster was due to increased enzymes since the body again is trying to balance itself and is dealing with what is being introduced by upping certain enzymes, whereas in a non-drinker, those enzymes wouldn&#x27;t be at elevated levels.

&quot;They can drink a lot of alcohol and still have a relatively low blood alcohol level.&quot;<p>Any sources for this? My understanding is that an enlarged liver does not process more alcohol because the enlargement is typically fatty deposits, cirrhosis, and inflammation. I did find an article that says alcoholic livers can produce a different set of enzymes to metabolize the alcohol. But it says it produces a different buzz, bit nothing about faster processing.

The author seems confused about how BK channels relate to tolerance, here he notes that decreased BK channels lead to increased tolerance: &quot;Exposure to alcohol upregulates microRNA (mir-9), which in turn modifies BK mRNA, selectively destabilizing certain types of BK mRNA.&quot;<p>Then later he seems to be stating that decreased BK channels would lead to decreased tolerance: &quot;The consequence of this would then be that the development of alcohol tolerance could be slowed or halted by preventing the modification of BK channels, like by using RNAi to degrade certain types of BK mRNA.&quot;<p>Perhaps he meant &quot;by using RNAi to degrade mir-9&quot;. Ignoring the above issues, it seems very hand wavy to say &quot;let&#x27;s just get this RNA interfering drug into your brain and target this specific BK RNA&quot;.

Not sure which I fall into - maybe both<p>but I very rarely get a hangover (yes this does encourage&#x2F; allow school night drinking - inc now)<p>I have to drink either red wine or over 8 (uk - 568ml) pints of 5%abv lager to start to get fraction of a hangover the next day (starting at a slight thick head level)<p>incedently for me, eating stuff with sugar and alchol = major acid reflux this took ages to figure out why sometime I was throwing up in the middle of the night (no other symtoms)<p>another thing that is fairly obivious to me now is how proportional the effect is of the amount of food eaten before drinking and the speed of which you get drunk. This can be used to great effect for big drinking days (eg stag do)<p>I could easily drink all day comsuming &gt; 15 (uk - 568ml, 5% abv) pints if I keep a level of food in my stomache

I was reading the article to learn what I can do to increase my alcohol tolerance. I was never much of a drinker, but at some point it started dropping really radically - to where I now have a massive hangover if I have a large glass of wine in a restaurant (a restaurant pour vs. my own) - even over an hour, with water and food, etc. I do sometimes wish I could have two glasses, or try more wine when on a trip, or have a digestif in a great restaurant...but but nope, it&#x27;s out entirely. Asked my doctor, she said, coldly: &quot;uhm, why drink if it makes you feel bad?&quot;

My understanding was that increased alcohol intake raises hormone levels, especially cortisol, which raises blood pressure&#x2F;breathing&#x2F;etc and keeps you from dying. Also note the jitters experienced as the alcohol is metabolized and things swing out of balance in the opposite direction.<p>So it would just be a matter of training your adrenals to recognize and react quickly to the incoming booze, which for some people is almost like a violent allergic reaction to a bee sting, causing them to drink heavily in order to calm down. I don&#x27;t really have any research to back this part up though.

I definitely fall into the latter category, that is I have very little tolerence for alchohol. There are people I have known who can drink huge amounts and still be functional, these people drink steadily and regularly. I gave up completely about two years ago and I strongly recommend this. I was never a big drinker but stopping has had a dramatic effect on my weight and health. It is not that difficult to stop and has dramatic benefits.

I have noticed that with some intentional concentration, I can summon a higher degree of sobriety&#x2F;functionality than I might ordinarily have when under the influence. I always assumed much of that was from the adrenal glands though.

How about: folks who are drunk, just <i>think</i> they have a high tolerance and are functional.

Just drink a lot of water. Try to have a glass of water for every hard drink or a beer. Makes quite a difference