Alcohol, the Good, Bad and the Ugly

DWI   Driving While Intoxicated

DUI    Driving Under Influence

PCA.  Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol
           (Above the legally allowed)

The PCA level vary from country to country, the lowest probably in France.

100 mg is legally drunk.

China has the lowest tolerance of 20 mg and above 80 mg, 3 year prison sentence.

Cayman Island allows the highest level.

Australia  50mg

EU.             50mg

Breathelizer Test can be accurate up to 50%
It is never above BAC or Blood Alcohol Concentration.

If one do a survey on one's favourite actors and how they end up their life as homeless destitutes, the commoner denominator is alcohol.

Alcohol does not discriminate but is a leveller of one's dignity or otherwise.

Alcohol is the commonest cause of Dementia Worldwide.Earliest manifestation of dementia is loss of memory and inability sustain memory for creative and productive work.

By the way alcohol does not cause visible structural changes in the brain.

Its structural  effects like cirrhosis are seen in the liver.

The name Perera or Pere Ra originated from Distilling of Toddy.

Our Finance Minister under Siri-MAO was double PhD N.M. Pere Ra.

He established the first Coconut Distillery in Ceylon.

V.S.O.A (Very Special Old Arrack) was one of its products.

We did not have adequate food during their time and infants with ZERO blood sugar used to die like flies under their regime. But alcohol supply was plenty and cheap. We used to take ample amount of V.S.O.A on alternate days when we were not On Call. I have never taken alcohol on duty all my working life.

This is similar to Negamboo coming from Nikam Book or barking for no reason.

My contribution is nicampoop or Nikam Pop of political leaders in Ceylon.

One good example is Ra Nil of Blue Toddy.

This name was changed later to NGOs or Nikam Go to developing countries, thanks to CIA - AID combo.

SLPP is Sri-Lanka Pathalya Party (local mafiosi).

Alcohol industry is the oldest (10,000 to now) and the most powerful industry of mankind.

Little bit of alcohol is OK is the myth spearheaded and spread by this powerful industry.

Within the first bypass in the liver it causes (aldehyde is the poison) fatty change which lasts at least 8 hours.

Acetone is the metabolite.

Read the book General Pathology by Walter and Israel (1975) and this book is out of print.

This book came out two years after I was graduated.

But the best account of alcohol was given in Clinical Pharmacology by Lawrence at all.

This book came out in 1961 and is out of print.

General Pathology published in ,1968 by a lady who was famous for proposing symbiosis in early evolution has a good account on effects of alcohol. This is out of print and her name is probably Maguire.

It is said that wife battering without alcohol is like a circus without lions.

More pertinent saying is you take alcohol first and then the alcohol takes you over.

Worse case scenario is that one is not satisfied with the temporary euphoria and one tries more potent stuff called Drugs.

Alcohol inevitably effects the metabolism of other drugs and medicines, one takes.

Medical Term for this is Drug Interactions.

There are roughly six level of alcohol actions.

One does not have the insight into its progression from the first sip of alcohol ingested and that is the tragedy of alcohol .

Level six is death.

Level five is total loss of self control.
Motor vehicle and industrial accidents are the end points.

Level four is temporary euphoria which is transient and the need for frequent Top Ups.

In other words one is addicted.

Level three is loss of control of one's spoken language. Inhibitions are suppressed and this should not be interpreted as stimulation.

The gift of the gab manifestation.

Level two is sense of transient happiness which should not be interpreted as Euphoria.

Euphoria is a type of self delusion which meditators get addicted.
The best example is the state one feels with Ayahuaska inhalations.

One feels Godly or Spiritually aroused.

Level one is that the Alcohol has No Effects.

What it means a certain amount of alcohol has to be ingested for one to show effects of alcohol above level one.

So one has to know only 4 levels.

I want a mathematical guy to take the Gompertz Curve and draw a graph to show effects of alcohol, in the middle portion of the curve.

Flat bottom, ascending middle and flat top.

Three functional derivatives of the equation are;
1. Age
2. Sex
3. Race

I want him to do a meta-analysis of all the countries using  this curve and develop an arbitrary  point scheme and line them up from 1 to 100 (there are over 200 countries).

Each point level may have 1 to 3 countries.

I am going to put Ceylon on the top 10, knowing very well we had the highest consumption and sale of alcohol during our war of attrition.

At this moment I think the order the country stands is as follows.

1. Ukraine first
2. USA second
3. Russia third
4. UK fourth
5. Germany fifth.
6. France has fallen from second to sixth place due to progressive decline in economy.

Details are in my book "Joy of Alcohol" and the name was especially selected to increase my Royalties at Amazon.

Chemistry of Alcohol (Ethanol)

Carbohydrates gives 4 Calories per gram and fat gives 9 Calories per gram and today I figured out absolute alcohol gives 7 Calories per gram.

In other words alcohol has 300 to 50 Calories per 100 ml, wine having the lowest.
If one is consuming 300 ml of 50% alcohol that means one is consuming 350 Calories which a large amount.

The highest concentration of alcohol is 40% and 100 ml at this strength would yield 280 Calories.

Since alcohol directly effects metabolism in the liver one with liver dysfunction (hepatitis) ingesting alcohol would cause death.
This is why one is prohibited fron drinking alcohol for at least 6 months following hepatitis.

Alcohol itself can cause alcoholic hepatitis.

This is where one has to consider genocide by the British of Aboriginal Natives in Australia. Hepatitis was common and alcohol did help to bring down the population of Aborigines.

Ethanol is a simple molecule with a chemistry of one OH radical.

C2H5OH

It is oxidised to aldehyde (ADH) and later to ketones.

The musky smell or odour in the breath is due to ketones.

Basically it is a universal metabolic poison.
I have not discussed its effect on water soluble vitamins.
Thiamine has metabolic effects on brain cells.