Stuff You Should Know - How Alcoholism Works

Episode Date: September 3, 2015

In the US, 17 million people are alcoholics. Not merely abusing alcohol, these sufferers become physically dependent on it, forming a chronic disease. Learn about the effects on the body, the brain, and the life of an alcoholic and ways to get help. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

this season on Running the Break with CJ and Alex. Rapper Meek Mill, so obviously huge ties to Philly was at a Sixers game recently and in what seemed like a real-life curb your enthusiasm as an episode, he accidentally tripped a ref sitting courtside as the ref was running back up court. You know what CJ? I gotta say, I feel like that should be a technical foul, one free throw for the opposing team. Yes, if you rep your town and your team as much as you do Meek Mill, that he's a Sixer, right? So the opposing team's got to take free throws or unless, you know, if we're going off of the curb episode, does Meek have the discography of that compares to like

Seinfeld tapes that he could bring to the ref's, you know, hospital bed? Shout out to curb, that was one of the greatest episodes ever. Listen to Running the Break with CJ and Alex on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by FanDuel, make every moment more with FanDuel Sportsbook, an official partner of the NBA. You know, when you're staying at an Airbnb, it might have crossed your mind, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Like maybe you have a spare bedroom where friends or family crash every once in a while, but when it's sitting empty, you could Airbnb it to help pay for some bills or,

I don't know, something more fun. Either way, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, from howstuffworks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry. And Chuck's got a noise machine. So this could turn into like Morning Zoo type episode. No, I'm not going to use it. It's a lame one. It is pretty lame. Like, is it marked? What does it do? How many different functions does it have, Chuck? One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, five. That would be 20. 20. Nice job. You just used multiplication. That's right. But like I said, when I first sat down, it doesn't even have a fart sound. So how good of a noise machine could it be?

How does it not? It's got a burp. I mean, they make sound machines that just have that sound. Well, yeah, it's called a whoopee cushion. Yeah. I don't know if it's a machine, though. Probably not. Okay. A device. I don't think I said this Stuff You Should Know, in case you hadn't figured it out. Well, someone just stumbled upon this and they're horrified. Oh, they turned it off a good minute ago. Yeah. And we're going to talk about alcoholism and there's nothing more fun than that. Right. This one should be a laugh riot. Right. Well, you can definitely perk things up with your little noise machine over there. I wouldn't do that. So alcoholism, Chuck, turns out in researching this, we should say, let us shout out to some

previous episodes that really tie into this. Totally. We did prohibition. Yeah. Colin turns out America really loves to drink. That was one episode. We did addiction. Yeah, good one. And we did one on rehab. Yep. Another good one. Yeah. And then if you want to count like beer. Yeah, the booze ones. Or I think we did one on moonshine. We did one on and whiskey runners. So we did one on whiskey runners. We ended up doing like two somehow on whiskey runners. Yeah. What else? Oh, I'm sure there are others, but I think the ones on addiction and rehab definitely factor in. Indeed. So in running across this though, I was reminded that yes, America loves drinking. Yeah, the world does. But not necessarily. I saw a statistic that blew

me away. What's that? 66% of the human beings over age, I believe 15 worldwide have not had a drink in the last 12 months. According to a major survey like World Health Organization type level survey. I don't remember where I saw it because I saw so many different statistics here there. Yeah. But like the majority of the population of the earth has not had a drink in the last 12 months. Interesting. Yeah, I thought that was interesting too. And of course, there's entire countries that are basically teetotaling. Yeah, and there are entire countries that are drunk. Right. So in America is definitely one of them, right? America loves to drink. We drink very regularly. At other countries, they don't drink necessarily during the week,

but they really plow into it on the weekends. And all of this falls, it turns out falls under this umbrella called alcohol use disorders. Yeah. Binge drinking, alcohol abuse, and alcoholism. Three different things. They are. Yeah. Although you could say that binge drinking is a type of alcohol abuse. Yeah. It's a behavioral pattern for drinking behavior. But yes, alcohol abuse is not necessarily alcoholism and neither is binge drinking. Alcoholism is its own thing. Yeah. Alcohol abuse is if you are drinking, if there's a problem with your drinking. It's affecting your school, your work, your personal life, your family, your friends. You could be an alcohol abuser. Alcoholism is a chronic disease where you are physically dependent on alcohol. You need to drink.

You got to have that drink. Once you start drinking, you have a hard time stopping. You develop a tolerance for drinking, so you need to drink more. And if you stop drinking, you suffer withdrawal symptoms. Yes. That's alcoholism. Right. And you suffer withdrawal symptoms because, like you said, you've become physically dependent on it. We'll talk about how in this episode. But yes, alcohol abuse, that just means you need to get your act together. Big time. Sure. Alcoholism, a chronic disease. Yeah. It means you need medical help and beyond medical help. Psychological help. You need treatment. Yeah. You're probably not going to be able to do it on your own. No. And with alcohol abuse, you may need treatment as well.

Everyone's different. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we should chase people away from seeking treatment if there's alcohol abusers and not necessarily alcoholics. Yeah. I think probably if you're a serious abuser of alcohol, you probably feel like an alcoholic in a lot of ways. Yeah. I mean, if you woke up this morning and you don't remember where you were last night for five hours. Abuser of alcohol. You may want to, you know, check into that a little bit. Or you may not. Well, yeah. And it depends. I think a lot of people think that if they are an abuser of alcohol, that they have to just stop entirely for the rest of their lives. Yeah. Not necessarily. And I mean, back in 1940, yes, that was probably

the case. These days, there's been a different approach to managing alcohol as the main alcohol abuse. So where you definitely don't have to abstain, although that's still like the model. Yeah. And again, it depends on the person. Some people can do that. Some people can drink socially and never have a problem. Some people can have a problem, go back to just drinking socially. And some people need to just, they just can't have it anymore. And they know that. Right. You know. Yeah. And the key is to find out what kind of person you are. You know. Yes. By stopping. That's how you find out. Probably so. You see what happens when you stop. Yeah, exactly. There are more than 17 million Americans who are either alcoholic or abuse alcohol

more men than women. Apparently 10% to 3 to 5%. And this says that if you have 14 or more drinks a week as a man or seven or more drinks per week as a woman, you are at risk for alcoholism. And do you know why? I don't. Because the National Institutes of Health themselves define moderate drinking as 14 drinks a week or less for a man and seven drinks a week or less for a woman. That's moderate drinking in the United States. Yeah. A couple of beers a night. Yeah. That seems about right to me. It does. And if you are enraged by this gender disparity. Yeah. Let's all just calm down. Because it has to do with usually body type and metabolism. Yeah, of course. It's not like a little lady. Right. You only get half the drinks.

Because we're drinking the rest. No offense. We're drinking your share. And some ladies that can drink me under the table. Sure. But it's the average. That's right. It is more prevalent among younger folks 18 to 44 than older people as well. And it will touch many people's lives whether or not you are an abuser and alcoholic. They say that more than 40% of Americans have been exposed to alcoholism somewhere in their family. Yeah. I'm surprised it's not a little more than that. I was surprised by that statistic too. I wonder, this article is fairly old. We had to go through and update some of the stats. Yeah. But I'm wondering if that's more or less these days. Because it does seem low.

Yeah. I mean, if you're talking about your extended family, because it doesn't say immediate family. No. And that's, I mean, that brings up, you know, one of the things, one of the reasons everybody's like, you shouldn't be an alcoholic. Alcoholism as a problem is not just because of what it does to the individual, but because of the effects it has on people who are raised by alcoholics. Yeah. You're, I think, four times more likely to become an alcoholic if one of your parents is an alcoholic. Yeah. You also are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, behavioral problems. And there's a lot of programs that are geared toward helping children of alcoholics cope. Yeah. My grand paternal grandfather was a nasty drunk. Oh, yeah.

He died when I was like five. So I didn't know him very well. But as went with my father, my father like didn't drink. So it can go both ways, you know, you might become an alcoholic or you might be like, no, no, no. That was your dad's dad? Yeah. I'm not touching that stuff. And I don't think my dad, maybe he drinks a little bit here and there now, but he pretty much was just like, no, like I grew up in a household with no alcohol. Yeah. Because my mom didn't drink either. Yeah. So I wonder what happened to me. I went to college. I was going to say, I don't have anybody in my family who, with a history like that. Yeah. I will say this though, in going through the adoption process, it really makes

you take a look at your own lineage and not be super precious about it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because you pick out tolerances of what you will accept in birth parents. Like if they have disease or mental illness or alcoholism or drug abuse in there and you start to think about your own family and extended family, you're like, oh, wait a minute. There's alcoholism and drug abuse and mental illness and suicide attempts. And it makes you think, oh, well, it's not like my seat is anything special. Yeah. So I thought it was pretty interesting. There's a growing experience, huh? It was a growing experience. So some people, like we said, can drink and it doesn't become a problem as an abuser or as an alcoholic. Some people do and they think there are,

can be a combination of factors, including genetic, physiological, psychological and social. And genes, they don't know the gene. Right. They're pretty sure that there is a genetic link. Yeah, I thought surely this article is old enough that if I just do a search now, I'll find, well, they know this gene and this gene are involved. No, I couldn't find any genes named. The reason why they think there's a genetic link is thanks to twin studies. They found that alcoholism is more prevalent among identical twins than among fraternal twins, which suggests that there is a genetic component to it. And they also think that genes play a role in, for like an individual whose pleasure circuit is like just really highly tuned. Yeah. So physiologically, if your dopamine just

goes off the charts, right, more than someone else's might, then it might be more at risk. Yeah. You're going to be like, I want to do that again. Give me another, give me another beer. Right. Whatever. Or 10. Right. Yeah. Well, yeah. And that's another thing we didn't necessarily point out early on is an alcoholic. There's no stopping. Yeah. Like stopping equals like falling over and blacking out or being arrested or running out of alcohol in the entire house and not being able to like find their keys to go get more. Yeah. I don't know if that's like a daily thing. Like there are alcoholics who drink every night and don't drink to blackout proportions. But that certainly can happen. Psychologically, if you suffer from depression or if you

don't feel very good about yourself, you have low self-esteem, you probably be more likely to develop alcoholism as a drinker. Yeah. And then socially, of course, we talked to, I don't think we've done one just on peer pressure, but we talked about it a lot. Yeah. And that's a big reason why kids will start drinking and then factor in what they see around them every day and advertisements and TV and movies. Like whatever, Bill or whatever. No. I think it's like Bud Light. Like they put together a whole town that's just like one big party all the time fueled by Bud Light. Yeah, man. And then like these new absolute ads that are just like these crazy like eyes wide shut parties and everybody's like just so incredibly rich and

glamorous and having like, like they're just so out of control, having a great time. They're also clearly like snorting ecstasy or something too. But like it's an absolute ad, you know? So yeah, if you're like 14, you're like, I want to be at that party. As a matter of fact, maybe if I open this bottle of absolute right here and invite a few friends over at that party, we'll start my house. Yeah, it definitely sends the wrong message. Yeah. And I'm surprised that this stuff is allowed and not a little bit more, you know, I guess I can't do anything. There are regulations for alcohol advertisements, but yes, you can't, you can't suggest that alcohol is fun. You might have to rethink every campaign we've ever done.

Some signs that you may have a being alcoholic is if you don't want to eat anymore, you don't really care about food. If you drink alone, that's one of the big ones they say. If you're lying about your drinking or secretly drinking, that's a big one. Like if you're telling, you know, your family like, I've stopped, I've stopped and you're mixing the vodka with orange juice in the morning. Yeah, you've got like a bad sign. Yeah. Very bad sign. What are you going to say? You've got like booze stashed around the house, hiding places. And then if you're drinking to forget your problems, which I think it's why a lot of people drink. If you're unhappy when you're not drinking and super touchy and irritable, or if you're suffering from those blackouts, if you're

blacken out a lot, then although alcohol affects some people differently, I'm not a blackouter. Even though I've had times where I've had way too much to drink, I never really black out. But some people black out pretty easily. So that might be a sign that alcohol affects you differently and you might want to take a look. Yeah, and that's another argument in favor of genetics. People experience things differently. Sure. So we are going to dive into your body, the body of the alcoholic. Gross. Right after this message. Hey friends, when you're staying at an Airbnb, you might be like me wondering, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba, who got the idea

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So Chuck, the drink has been taken and the first thing that happens when it hits the gut is it starts getting absorbed. Well, the first thing that happens is it says, here I am and it starts irritating your stomach lining. Yeah, it's funny that, well it's not funny, but you take in alcohol in your body and your body immediately is like, no, it's not like your body doesn't want the alcohol. It starts trying to get rid of it in every way possible as soon as it enters your body. Yeah, so alcohol is a poison to start with, but your body metabolizes it into an even worse poison. And yeah, it wants to get rid of it immediately, so which is why you vomit sometimes. That's right. 20% of it is absorbed in the stomach and the other 80% is absorbed in the small intestine

and depending what you're drinking, it's going to be absorbed quicker or more slowly. Right. So like vodka will be absorbed faster than beer because vodka has a higher alcohol content. That's right. It's concentration of alcohol is higher than beer. That's right. When you go, when your body starts to metabolize it, about 10% is removed in urine and breath by the kidneys and lungs and then your liver takes care of the rest. Yeah, and it's just like, oh god. It takes a beating in the process. Yeah, because again, it's a toxin. It's also a carcinogen. Did you know that? I found that out researching this. And as your lungs or as your liver is trying to just get rid of all the stuff

and metabolize it and break it down into other parts, you're drinking more and more and more. Yeah, which can kill you. Like in a night, it can kill you. You can die very easily from consuming too much alcohol in a single sitting. Yeah, apparently they have that quantified. As your blood alcohol content or blood alcohol concentration goes up, that's where you drink faster than your liver is able to metabolize it and process the alcohol, which results in you getting drunker and drunker. But after you get to a blood alcohol content of 0.35 to 0.5%, which I guess is like if you just take any like a cubic centimeter of blood, 0.35% of that would be alcohol. That seems like a lot. Well, that's what puts you in an alcohol induced coma. Right. So I would

think it's a lot. So up to a half of a percent, you're only at risk of a coma. After a half of a percent, you're facing death. Yeah. Like Alexander the Great. Oh, did he die from alcohol poisoning? Allegedly he did from a wine drinking contest. That's never a good idea. Food and drinking contest in general. We did one on those on food contest, but I don't think those are ever a good idea. No, you know who else does it? Ryan Reynolds hates eating contest. Oh, really? Yeah. Did he make a stand? Yeah, he did. Like just a social media stand probably. No, he wrote an essay in the Huffington Post about how just disgraceful and what a waste it is. Yeah. So it's such an arrogant thing to do in eating contest while people are starving. I agree. And then you would

love this essay. And he put a picture of his six pack abs. He said, plus you can't look like this. Bam. Let's talk about the brain because it definitely affects your brain. Yes, it does. Specifically, it is going to alter the levels of your neurotransmitters and those are what sends those chemical messages all around and your body. And that's why you're going to end up slurring and stumbling and losing motor function. Yeah. It's because it's dumbing you down. Yeah. Your brain is not able to communicate with itself or the rest of your body the way it's supposed to because the neurotransmitters are being affected and two in particular are being affected. GABA, our friend that puts us to sleep, is increased. GABA release or GABA production

is increased when alcohol is introduced to the body, right? Yes. And then glutamate, actually, which is an excitatory neurotransmitter, gets you up, up, up, gives you some pep, is actually reduced when you drink alcohol. So you go from sleepy to sloppy because GABA is increased and glutamates decreased. Yeah. And this whole time you go from sleepy to sloppy, but your dopamine is through the roof. Yeah. So sleepy or sloppy, you're going, isn't this great? This is the best thing ever. Speaking of great, I think you're great. And that's all because of dopamine. You know, when I saw this now, I saw glutamate. It makes me wonder if the brain has a new mommy taste to it. Gross. But don't you wonder though? No. You get any brains? Yeah,

you can. You can get them in like a can at the grocery store. Yeah. You can get them in a fancy restaurant. Sure. Where else? Other places that you- Quick trip? Quick trip, sure. You can get everything a quick trip. And that was in potted meat. I'm sure there's some in potted meat, but I think potted meat makes like a brains brand. A brains brand? Yeah. So gross. I used to work at the Golden Pantry in Athens and we had dudes that would come in there like road workers that would get their pack of saltines and potted meat. Right. It was their lunch that they would get on the way to work and like a 98 ounce Mountain Dew. That's healthy living, brother. Their arm would just fall off on their way out the door. Yeah. And a few packs of cigarettes too, probably.

So how specifically, there are regions of the brain that are specifically affected in different ways. I guess we should go over that too. Sure. Like the cerebral cortex. Well, the cerebral cortex, right? That's where your executive function is located. That's where things like, maybe I should stop drinking for the night. Decisions are located. Or maybe I shouldn't get in a fight with that cop. Right. Or maybe I shouldn't start that fire. Whatever. All of this stuff is located here in your prefrontal cortex, right? It becomes impaired. Again, because your neurotransmitters are reduced. They're being affected and your brain's not communicating with itself any longer. So the boss, the executive function is basically silenced. And that actually has a one-two punch

as far as alcohol consumption is concerned. Not only is your judgment impaired, meaning your behavior just takes all sorts of left turns while you're drunk, right? But also, remember we said the reward pathway is activated by alcohol and your dopamine's going crazy? Yeah. Well, your prefrontal cortex is also responsible for judging whether a pleasurable experience has an adaptive benefit to it. Yeah, whether it's worth it. Right. The thing is, when this is impaired, that part of your brain is not able to judge drinking is not worth it. So it's all totally worth it. So it's all pleasure. Yeah. So it has this really crazy effect. Alcohol is so smart. It knows what it's doing. Yeah. I mean, it lowers your inhibitions. And that,

if you're abusing alcohol, that's a bad thing. If you have a glass of wine before you have to, you know, go up on stage, that's a different thing. Oh, well, you're the exception, I guess, huh? That's a glass of wine, not 12 glasses of wine. Oh, speaking of, there's this fresh air I've been meaning to listen to with an author named Sara Hepola. Yeah. Or Hepola. I haven't listened yet. So I don't know how to say her last name, but she is a recovering alcoholic and she apparently, it says in the description, she got up and spoke in front of like a crowd of 300. And was so drunk that she had no recollection of it the next day. Oh, wow. Can you imagine that? Man, that's my worst nightmare. I mean, like going on stage, you're like, okay, am I all right?

Like I'm relaxed, but I'm not too relaxed, right? Yeah. Like being blackout drunk on stage. That's, wow. That is a scary thought. So Chuck, that's just the prefrontal cortex we've been talking about. There's other regions of the brain that get smacked around by alcohols effects. That's right. The cerebellum, that's your movement and balance. So that's why you're stumbling around. Right. Because that is impaired. Your hypothalamus and pituitary hormone release and automatic brain functions. So they depress the nerves and the hypothalamus and they, we're talking about sexual arousal. You might be more aroused, but you might not be able to perform sexually at the same time. Right. So that's a, it's very negative. That's a mixed message. Alcohol. Like, okay, go talk to that girl

over there and maybe see what happens. And then physically you're like, well, nothing's happening. It's embarrass yourself, Chuck. Yeah. Like what? You set me up alcohol. And then there's the medulla. That's right. The medulla is located in the brainstem. So it's a very ancient part of the human brain, right? And it controls things like breathing, body temperature, really important stuff. Automatic stuff. Right. And alcohol impairs this, the medulla's function. So you may pass out and stop breathing. Yeah. Your body temperature can go haywire, which can lead to all sorts of other problems. And your gag reflex is centered in your medulla. So you could end up like John Bonham, pass out, throwing up and, um, joking to death. Yes. Man, that is sad stuff. We already talked

a little bit about blackouts, but, uh, you can have that short-term memory loss or it can lead to long-term, uh, memory loss and like onset of dementia, you've heard of, or may have even known people that have been described as pickled from alcohol. And, uh, that's just, you know, that's someone whose body is just not in brain or not functioning. Yeah. There's actually, there's a specific vitamin deficiency that can come from alcohol because, um, prolonged exposure to alcohol or prolonged consumption of alcohol over the years, um, reduces your body's ability to absorb thiamine or vitamin B. Yeah. And vitamin B is a very important vitamin that you need. It's an essential vitamin, meaning that you need to get it elsewhere. Like you need to eat it because your

body is either doesn't produce or it doesn't produce enough. Yeah. So, um, with vitamin B, it helps brain cells, um, turn carbs into energy. Very important. It also helps nerves transmit information, also very important. And when you have a thiamine deficiency, you can end up with what's called, um, Wernicke-Korskopf's syndrome, where basically your brain shrinks, you become confused, disoriented, um, you essentially lose your mind in a lot of ways because your brain is no longer able to function correctly or communicate with itself, not just while you're drunk. Yeah. Overall. Yeah. They call it wet brain. Uh, and they're actually two different things that are often described together. Uh, Wernicke's, uh, encephalopathy, encephalopathy, and Korsakov's syndrome,

but they often go hand in hand. And one of the scary things about this is it has a very high rate of, uh, being not diagnosed. So like, I think only 20% of, uh, cases are diagnosed before death. Oh, wow. And a lot more after they're like, oh, turns out they had wet brain. Yeah. Nothing you can do about it now. So, uh, that is certainly also sad as our, um, withdrawal symptoms, if you have a, an actual dependence, uh, and you're an alcoholic when you stop drinking, um, within a day to three days, probably closer to a day, um, you're going to be experiencing some pretty nasty withdrawal syndromes. Right. And the reason why is because your, your brain becomes dependent on alcohol, right? It basically says, oh, okay,

this guy's going to drink all the time. I don't see a time when he's ever going to stop drinking. So I need to adjust my output of neurotransmitters. Yeah. To change my brain chemistry completely. To account for this, this introduction of alcohol, because the body seeks homeostasis, right? Right. This is its way of adjusting itself to seek homeostasis in the presence, the constant presence of alcohol. Um, and so when you remove that alcohol, the brain's chemistry has been altered. Yeah. Over time. And now you're probably suddenly removing alcohol and you are going to go through withdrawal symptoms. And actually, people have died from, uh, acute alcohol withdrawal. Oh, I'm sure. Where they,

they, they probably should have weaned themselves off rather than just quit drinking cold turkey, because again, the hallmark of alcoholism is a physical dependence on it. Yeah. And that part of your, your physical dependence is your brain chemistry. Yeah. And there's a lot more, uh, more and more people are thinking that weaning off is a safer approach. Well, I think that's what happened to Amy Winehouse. Like she just quit cold turkey and died very quickly. Wow. Yeah. Uh, in withdrawal, you're going to get this be disoriented. Um, you might have hallucinations, nausea, sweating, seizures, delirium, trimmings, the DTs, uh, actually has the same, uh, effect as a lot of these, uh, hallucinations, sweating. Your heart rate is going to be funky. You're

going to be shaking and shivering. Uh, just watch leaving Las Vegas and Nicholas Cage, if you want to be scared away from booze. Yeah. That was a tough movie. It was. What about, uh, when a man loves a woman? That was a tough one. Yeah. Uh, days of wine and roses. Never saw that classic. I think it was, uh, Jack Lemon was an alcoholic in that one. Uh, 28 days, not to be confused with 28 days later. Different movie. 28 days. That's when Sandra Bullock played a zombie. Right. Right. Just kidding. Uh, what else? There's surely there's more. Oh, yeah. I haven't seen flight. Have you seen flight with Denzel? Yeah, that was pretty good. But here's a big time alcohol shot here in Atlanta. Um, yes, he was and, uh, clean and sober, the Michael Keaton

movie. These are all off the top of my head, but they've been, it's been an oft covered subject. And they're usually very tough to watch. Agreed. Uh, so let's take a break and, uh, hug each other so we can get through the rest of this thing. All right. And we'll talk a little bit more about what alcohol does to your body and things you can do to, uh, stop. Yes. Hey friends, when you're staying at an Airbnb, you might be like me wondering, could my place be an Airbnb? And if it could, what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba, who got the idea to Airbnb, the backyard guest house over childhood home. Now the extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it,

but you might have an Airbnb too. Find out what your place could be earning at Airbnb.ca slash host. Just about everything you want to do in life depends on what you know. To earn more, learn more at Houston Community College. HCC has more than 300 programs. You can take courses at transfer to a major university or you can jump into an exciting career field in just two years or less. HCC has cutting edge programs like artificial intelligence and robotics, process technology, cybersecurity, solar technology, business, health sciences, and more. Spring classes are registering now. So frame your future. Visit 8ccs.edu. All right. So we talked a lot about the health damage you're going to suffer as an alcoholic.

In the brain. In the brain. Yeah. Internally, your liver is going to take a beating. So your kidneys, your heart, your brain, your central nervous system, your liver. Actually, you can the first step to bad alcohol damages, alcoholic hepatitis, which is inflammation of the liver. And then you have about a 70% chance if you have alcoholic hepatitis to develop full blown cirrhosis. And that is when little bit by little bit, your liver just turns into scar tissue and becomes an unusable organ. And it is nasty if you see pictures of like cirrhosis damage livers. Yeah. Because again, your liver, while it's metabolizing alcohol, turns it into acetyl halide, which is really toxic. Like alcohol is toxic, but for some reason,

while we process it, we turn it into something even more toxic. And the liver suffers as a result. So your stomach, the lining of the stomach can just get eaten away and your intestines can lead to ulcers. And obviously in the moment, nausea and vomiting, your pancreas could lead to pancreatitis and cancer, like you mentioned. Yeah. Because cancer, alcohol is a carcinogen and exposure over the years by being an alcoholic can result in a bunch of different alcohol, alcoholic cancers are what they're called. Like you can get them of the throat of the larynx and get liver cancer, obviously, just from being exposed to alcohol over and over again. I had no idea you could get cancer from

alcohol. It makes sense, but I just never thought of it as a carcinogen. If you're over 65, you're in bigger trouble because your body just doesn't metabolize alcohol as well at that point. And like we said, men have a little better time metabolizing alcohol than women. I remember at my bar in LA, the drawing room, there was this old drunk there. I won't say his name, because I found out he's still alive. But it was just remarkable to me that this guy was alive. Oh yeah? I mean, he was into his 70s and just dropped dead drunk every single time I saw him. And I checked back, and this was in the late 90s, and then I was in LA last year, went to the bar, asked if he was still around. They said, oh yeah, he'll be here in a few hours.

I was like, man, how is he alive? Milk thistle. What's that? I think you make a tea out of it or whatever. It's a very famous liver cleanser. Interesting. Milk thistle. Maybe he's on the milk thistle. Milk thistle, and he's eating a lot of meat, so he's getting tons of vitamin B. That's how that guy's alive. Maybe. He was a straight vodka guy, which is always kind of a, can be an indication. I think that that helps though. Also, if I remember from one of our other episodes, like the clear, the alcohol usually the fewer the impurities, so maybe that's what it is. That's keeping him alive? Yeah. Vodka. He didn't mix it with anything, so.

But I mean, look at like Boris Yeltsin and people like he was old when he died. Yeah? He had that nose that was like a cantaloupe. The gin blossom, which doesn't necessarily mean you're an alcoholic. People take it for that though. Yeah, I mean, that's rosacea, but alcohol isn't definitely, well, it doesn't help. The gin blossom situation. And then there's fetal alcohol syndrome, which is the saddest thing you can imagine. Yes, it says here that fetal alcohol syndrome is the number one preventable cause of mental impairment. What? Yeah. What? Wow. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. So if you're drinking too much, you shouldn't drink at all when you're pregnant, although some

in Europe, they're like, oh, you can have a glass of wine or a trimester here as well, too. Like apparently, you know, it's gained acceptance that like you can have something occasionally or whatever, like wine usually is what they say. Right. But and I realized this article is old, but it specifically says like the surgeon general is like, do not drink while you're pregnant. Well, I think that's the fallback recommendation. Yeah. I think if it feels like a tricky thing to say, well, you can maybe drink this a little bit here and there. Right. I think it's easier for them to say, just don't drink for nine months. And everybody says it's easy for you to say surgeon general.

Then you have zero chance of any complications like this. Right. Well, at least fetal alcohol syndrome. Yeah. So that's when your little baby's brain cells are developing and forming connections in utero and alcohol exposure in there is going to disrupt that from the get go and lead to you can have a physical problems like your head might be smaller than normal. Microencephaly. Yeah. You might have some facial abnormalities. And then later in life, you could be in big trouble as far as cognitive functioning memory, learning disabilities. So it's a it's a pretty rough one.

And it's all because alcohol impedes cellular division during development. Right. So when the fetus is exposed to alcohol, which easily crosses the placental barrier, the cellular division, it doesn't go according to plan. Yeah. So not good. And again, with adoption, that's one of the things you have to consider. Because most of these birth mothers have some sort of issue with drugs or alcohol. And fetal alcohol syndrome, that's the one that even the agency says like, you don't want to mess with that. Really? Yeah. Like do your research on drugs and how they affect the baby.

And you'd probably be surprised. So alcohol is worse than drugs on fetal development? Absolutely. Wow. Yeah. Wow. It's the worst. Yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty scary. So this number, I don't think is right anymore. 185 billion per year in medical expenses. It's either 225 or 295. Okay. And that's in the United States. And that's crime, lost productivity, accidents, medical expenses. The economic impact of alcohol. Yeah. That is close to $300 billion. That's amazing. All right. So what can you do? There's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

There's a, for many, many years, there was your only hope was alcoholics anonymous, not even 12 step programs, specifically alcoholics anonymous, which was founded in either 1930 or 1935. Do you remember? I don't know. There's some pretty great articles about alcoholics anonymous. And, you know, it's effectiveness that it's tribute to it. Just this, it's its own thing and it's helped undoubtedly tons of people. Oh, yeah. But there's been alternatives that have developed over the years, but it took a while. Supposedly, it wasn't until like the sixties or seventies that alternatives to AA grew up. And some of them say, no, you don't need to believe in a higher power to get over alcoholism. You can find that in

yourself. Other people like, I think one's called moderation management. So you don't have to abstain from life. You can try to just, you know, become a moderate drinker. And then if that doesn't work, then yeah, you probably should abstain for life. And some others say 12 step programs are great, but you could also do the same thing with cognitive behavioral therapy. So, but some sort of treatment program that involves like a change in behavior through either 12 steps, support groups, one on one counseling, that's the gold standard for treating alcoholism. But over the years, especially lately, people have been turning more and more to prescription drugs. They become increasingly promising as well, especially as we start to learn how genes

interact with specific drugs. The more we can learn about a person's genes and how they interact with drugs, the more targeted treatment of alcoholism will be, it seems like. Yeah, this article I found in the New York Times, Drugs Help, Taylor alcoholism treatment, the wish is that one day they will be able to, because everyone's different like we were saying as far as alcoholism goes. So, you can't have one treatment for such a varied group. So, they're hoping one day to be able to tailor drug treatment programs, pharmaceuticals for alcohol treatment the same way they do with depression or anxiety or any mental illness. Right. It's like this doesn't work. We'll then try this one. Yeah, exactly. That one's kind of working. We'll add this one in,

and it's really going to make it pop, you know. And right now, I think there are three approved FDA treatments. Two of them, Naltrexone and Acanprosate reduce cravings to drink, and then there's Antibuse, which I've heard of for a little while, and that's the one that makes you sick when you drink. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty rough. Like, only a drug like that could find its roots in Puritan America, you know. But that Naltrexone, there's a good article about it in the Atlantic called the Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the author experiments with Naltrexone and finds like amazingly, to her astonishment, like it really works. Yeah, it says in here in studies and clinical trials, they found one in seven alcoholics

that works for one in seven alcoholics, those two Naltrexone and Acanprosate. Right. And with Naltrexone, probably both of them, but definitely with Naltrexone, it targets your pleasure center when alcohol is present. Yeah. So it targets your pleasure center, but it's not like you go through life like a hedonic, you know. You can still experience joy and happiness and pleasure, but specifically with alcohol, it reduces the effect that it has on the limbic system, so you don't crave it as much. Yes, that is fun. Right. And when you do crave it, I think in that New York Times article you found somebody who takes Naltrexone as saying, I still get cravings, but they're short-lived and they're not nearly as intense because of

the Naltrexone. Right. But again, it only works for about a seventh of the people who take it. Yeah, and this is a modern thing. Years ago, offering to treat a drug with another drug was scoffed at. Yeah. But now people are embracing it a little bit more as, like, I guess, a lesser of the evils. Yeah. So at least you're not killing your body with alcohol abuse. And one of the things, Chuck, that came up when we did the addiction podcast was that alcoholism in all addictions are a chronic disease and relapses are to be expected. Sure. As with any chronic diseases, you go through relapses. And apparently, Alcoholics Anonymous did a survey in 2007 of, like, 8,000 of its members in North America and found that 33% of them were still

abstinent after 10 years. So a lot of people, yeah, a lot of people relapse. And I bet you anything, those 33% are the ones that are still working that program regularly. Well, yeah, you have to. Like, part of AA is you still go to meetings at least occasionally, years for the rest of your life, basically. Yeah. There's a really good article that came out in Harper's in 2011 called The Drunks Club, The Cult That Cures. Totally worth reading. I posted a PDF of it on our site for this podcast page. It is probably the best article it's ever been written about Alcoholics Anonymous. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's like a gift, because the author is an alcoholic and an Alcoholics Anonymous attendee and an incredible writer. Just a great. Recovered alcoholic or recovering?

I don't remember. Because that's probably recovered. I think or recovering. That's why that tag sticks with you for life. I think that's one of the things they teach you is that you should always consider yourself an alcoholic. Right. You have the disease, but if you're in recovery, then you're on the right path. Yeah. And I was reading an article about alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous, and one of them was women on sobriety or something like that, I believe. We're saying, we don't agree with that. That's a temporary tag. It's not for life. And the spokesperson for that organization is saying, if I used to smoke and then I quit, after a certain time, I'm not like, yeah, I'm a smoker. For life, you used to smoke or you just

don't even, it's not even a thing. It's not a label you have to carry around for the rest of your life. I see the value in both, to be honest, and the reward of being able to say, I'm not an alcoholic anymore. Right. Or the recognition that you used to be, and you need to remember that every day or else. Yeah. I think it's probably as varied as people's reaction to alcoholic, if you need that. Absolutely. Great. If you need to be free of that eventually. Great. Yep. Well said. If you are an alcoholic, go get help. Like you probably don't have to go any further than your favorite search engine to find a lot of resources that can get you help. Oh yeah. People are dying to help people kick alcohol and drugs. They love to do that stuff. They're crazy for it.

It's like their life's work. Yeah. So go meet one of those people. Don't be afraid of them. Yeah. And don't be afraid of your life after because you can lead a rich, fulfilling existence. Yeah. I think that keeps a lot of people from wanting to kick it because they're like, well, what am I going to do? I'm not going to have any fun. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I'm friends with recovering alcoholists. Yeah. And they're great. Yeah. They love life. Just the same. If you... Actually, they're better. They're not just the same because they're not blacking out and hungover. Right. Yeah. Mad all the time. If you want to know more about alcoholism, you can type that word in the search bar at HouseTheForks.com. And since I said search bar,

it's time to listen to your mail. I'm going to call this a letter from an old geezer. Okay. Because he says he's an old geezer. I would never call a person of age that. It's automatically assumed that. Hey, guys, I'm a geezer. 74 years old and a regular listener. I love your show. I listen all the time when I'm driving. I'm also a musician and live in a smallish town restricted to geezers, south of Tucson. And I was just listening to the podcast on autotune. I share your hatred of it. No, you didn't say that in so many words, but it came out loud and clear. I'm writing, however, about the little snippet you've been about Reaver. When I was a senior in high school, late 1950s, I was in a rock and roll band in Tucson

called The Night Beats. Nice. We cut three records for a record company named Zoom Records that was started and run by two of our school friends. The guy who ran the recording studio in Phoenix, where we did the session, could put echo on the voice in 1959 long before manufactured reverb was widespread. He did it by placing a speaker and a microphone and an empty water tank behind the studio. Oh, he piped in the sound through the speaker and picked it up on the mic to get an actual physical echo or reverb sound for the vocal. That's pretty smart for a 1950s Tucson. Not too bad. He even was able to move the mic in and out to change the reverb time for the desired effect. One more interesting fact is that our singer was Pete Ronstadt, his little sister

had not yet made the big time. Barbara Streisand. Is she from Arizona? I didn't know that. Linda Ronstadt? Yeah. That explains the Spanish language albums. Yeah, maybe so. I hope you find this. What is it? Senior Plow, Noes Bueno. Was that one of the songs? Yeah, she was on one of the Simpsons episodes. Really? Yeah. I hope you find this interesting and worth the time it took to read it. It sure was an interesting time in my life. Thanks for the great podcast and that is from Lance Hoops. Nice, Lance. Thank you for that. Yeah, man. I love hearing from our listeners of age. I like hearing from 12 year olds and like 70 plus. Yeah, me too. I even like hearing from 2 year olds to 103 year olds. How about that? Nice. That's what I always felt bad, not always.

Once I came to understand that people lived beyond 92, that that Christmas song excluded a lot of people. Oh, sure. Yeah. Oh, and you know, we should point out too, I was going to read a full mail on it, but the Pete Frampton effect. Yeah. It's not a vocoder, it's a talk box. Whatever. And I feel really bad because I know that. Oh, you're in the heat of the podcast, man. Don't feel bad. I say all sorts of stuff where I'm like, why did I say that or why didn't I address that? I even thought I said the word talk box and I just thought you knew something I didn't about a different name for it or something I should have spoken up. No, no, no. That's a talk box. The tube is acting as it's a rubber tube that runs from a speaker and the sound is going through that tube into your

mouth. And so you're basically playing a guitar through a tiny little tube. Yeah. And you're able to make changes with the shape of your mouth. And it's a talk box. Nice. Pete Frampton's opening up for us. He's actually playing the same theater as us in Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the acoustic tour. He's playing like, I think the week before the week after us. Man, I wonder if he'll play all I want to be is by your side. If you want to know more about Pete Frampton and want to get in touch with us, actually, we don't know anything more about Pete Frampton than that. Well, we know a little more, but we don't feel like talking about it on social. If you want to get in touch with us, though, you can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should

know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com and as always join us at our home on the web, stuff you should know, dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Have you been telling yourself it's time to dramatically change your life? Well, here's how you can do that. Register today for spring classes at Houston Community College. Get a degree or certificate in a field you love. There's more than 300 to choose from or finish the core curriculum and get ready to transfer to a four-year college or university. HCC has everything you need to frame your future. Keep the promise you made yourself. Go to hccs.edu and enroll for spring classes now. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way

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