Alcohol

Question 1

What percentage of the world population has consumed alcohol?

Answer 1

• Women: 33%
• Men: 50%

Question 2

Is alcohol different than drugs?

Answer 2

• Alcohol and drugs are considered different, but alcohol is a drug
• There is even a different institutions at the NIH
  
  • NIAAA- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
  • NIDA- National Institute on Drug Abuse

Question 3

How was alcohol first created?

Answer 3

• It was likely first “discovered” by accident, as all that is requird is organic material with sugar content left alone in a warm container

Question 4

Why were the conditions for accidental creation to alcohol appropriate?

Answer 4

• all that is requried is organic material with sugar content left alone in a warm container
  
  • When this setup occurs, microscopic yeast cells in the air contact the material, consume it, and release alcohol in the process
  • This basic process can result in wines with alcoholic content between 12 and 15%

Question 5

How are alcoholic drinks created?

Answer 5

• Ethanol is produced by fermentation of sugars by yeasts.
  
  • Yeast transforms 1 molecule sugar into 2 molecules alcohol and 2 CO2
  • CO2 bubbles out, alcohol remains
• Sugars may come from grapes (wine), rice (sake), or grains (beer)

Question 6

What happens at a 15% ethanol level?

Answer 6

When the ethanol level is about 15%, the yeasts die. Thus, a separate process is needed to raise alcoholic content.

Question 7

How can the ethanol level be increased beyond 15%

Answer 7

Distillation can then increase the alcohol concentration to produce whiskey, brandy, rum, etc.

Question 8

How is beer made? How is the process any different?

Answer 8

• Separately, the creation of beer is a more complex process than that of wine, thorugh the process of brewing
  
  • Barley is soaked in water (producing enzyme that can break starches into sugar), dried into barley malt, and crushed into a powder
  • Barley malt is combined with other elements (water, corn, rice) to make mash
  • Water activates enzymes to transform starches into sugars, and the addition of yeast begins the fermentation process.
  • Blossoms of hop plant added for flavor and aroma
  • Generally results in alcohlic content around 4.5%

Question 9

How is liquor made?

Answer 9

• Alcohol has a lower boiling point than water
• Boil fermented alcohol
  
  • The pure alcohol transformed into vapor and collected, creating distilled spirits with higher alcohol content
  • Can take the 40-50% alcohol result and do it again, up to 90% alcohol

Question 10

What is “proof”?

Answer 10

• Alcoholic content at these levels is often in the form of “proof”, which is twice the percentage of the alcoholic content
  
  • 100 proof= 50% alcoholic content

Question 11

What was the first alcoholic drink recored? what about other drinks? first distillation?

Answer 11

• Mead, fermented from honey, was likely the first alcoholic drink, dating back to 8000 B.C.
• Wine-stained pottery has been found in Iran dating back to 5400 B.C.
• Beer came later, with frist official brewery by Egyptian around 3700 B.C.
  
  • Process was closer to baking, resultin in a beer that had low water content and was closer to bread
• First ditillation was at medical school in Salerno, Itally in middle ages
  
  • Known as aqua vitae “water of life” for medical applications, other realized its abuse potential

Question 12

What is the history of gin?

Answer 12

• Dutch perfected the distillation flavoring with juniper berries, creating gin
  
  • Because it was cheap to produce and high in alcohol content, it began to be consumed widely, especially among the poor
    
    • self-medication?
  • Rose to crisis levels in England
  • In 1750 22 times the level of 1685
    
    • High infant mortality (1 of 4 or 5 babies surviving to age of 5)
    • in some areas of the city 1 of 5 homes was a gin shop

Question 13

Alcohol in America:

Who brought it?

Why was it important?

Answer 13

• Pilgrims brought alcohol in the Mayflower
• Taverns became the place to discuss politics, business and mail delivery
• In 1830 there was an average 5 drinks/day
• Whiskey breaks, like coffee breaks, 11AM and 4PM
• Harvard students had their own brewery
• George Washigton had the biggest distillery of his time

Question 14

When did the temperance movement began? consequences?

Answer 14

• Around 1830-> Temperance movement
  
  • Started with moderation, only against distilled
  • Resulted in reduction per capita from 7gallons/year -> 2 gallons/year
• In 1917- 1920 activity results 18th amendment of the Constitution prohibiting
  
  • “manufacture, sale, transportation, and importation” of liquor

Question 15

Prohibiton:

Answer 15

• In 1920, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the “manufacture, sale, transportation, and importation” of liquor
• There were many unintended consequences of prohibition:
  
  • Illegal manufacture of alcohol increased, sometimes in toxic forms.

Question 16

What were the consequences of Prohibition?

Answer 16

• Consumed of distilled spirits increased
• Medicinal tonics contained up to 75% alcohol
• Drinking in speakeasies became a fad
• Increased activity of organized crime mobs that were involved in the sale and distribution of alcohol

Question 17

What about alcohol in the US today?

Answer 17

• Today the use of alcohol is restricted by age and regulated by an increased tax
• Americans drink about 1.5 drinks a day
• A portion of the population is responsible for the majority of consumption
  
  • 30% of the Americans drink 80% of the total
  • 10% account for 50% of the total

Question 18

Alcohol and Nutrition:

Answer 18

• Although alcohol is high in calories, it provides no proteins, vitamins, or minerals necessary for normal diet
• Individuals who chronically consume large quantities of alcohol in lieu of food often suffer form inadequate nutrition, leading to health problems and brain damage.

Question 19

What are the different types of alcohol?

Answer 19

• Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is the form used in bevarages
• Methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) is highly toxic- the liver metabolites include formic acid and formaldehyde; causes blindness, coma, and death.

Question 20

How is alcohol absorbed?

Answer 20

• Ethanol is easily absorbed from the GI tract and diffuses throughout the body, readily entering most tissues, including the brain.
• Many factors inflluence blood levels of ehtanol; thus behavioral effects are described on the basis of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rather than the amount ingested

Question 21

What is BAC?

Answer 21

• BAC is the blood alcohol concentration
• BAC is dependent on the amount of alcohol consumed
• A 12-oz can of beer, one 5-oz glass of wine, a cocktail with 1.5 oz of spirits, or a 12-oz wine cooler, will each raise your BAC by the same amount

Question 22

Alcohol absorption in greated detail?

Answer 22

• Alcohol absorption: alcohol moves by passive diffusion across membranes from higher concentration (the GI tract) to lower concentration (the blood)
• The greater the concentration of alcohol consumed, the more rapid the movement
• Food in the stomach slows absorption

Question 23

How does gender affect alcohol absorption?

Answer 23

• Gender differences not just due to differences in body size
• Alcohol dehydrogenase in gastric fluid is about 60% more active in men than in women, leaving a higher concentration of alcohol that will be absorbed more rapidly in women
• Aspirin inhibits gastic alcohol dehydrogenase in both genders, but to a greater extent in women than in men
• Ethanol moves by passive diffusion from the higher concentration in the blood to all tissues and fluid compartments
• The same amount of alcohol is more concentrated in the averae woman than in the averae man because her fluid volume is much smaller