September 3, 2015 • 49 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to stuff you should know Friendhouse Stuff Works dot 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 machines.
It was could turn into like Morning Zoo type episode. No,
(00:22):
I'm not gonna use it. It's a lame one. It
is pretty lame. Like is it marked? What does it do?
How many different functions does they have? Chuck down two
three four one two three four five, that would be
twenty twenty. Nice job. You just use multiplications, right, But
like I said when I first sat down, it doesn't
even have a fark sound. So how good of a
(00:43):
noise machine could it be? How does it not? It's
got a burp? I mean they make sound machines. They
just have that sound. Well, yeah, it's called a whoopie cushion. Yeah,
I don't know if that's a machine though probably not. Okay, device,
I don't think I said this stuff you should know
in case you hadn't figured it out. Well, someone just
(01:04):
stumbled upon this and they're horrified. They turned it off
a good minute ago. Yeah, and we're gonna 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. Uh, so alcoholism, Chuck turns out,
in researching this, um, we should say, let us shout
(01:26):
out to some previous episodes that really tie into this totally.
We did prohibition. Colin turns out America really loves to drink.
That was one episode we did addiction, Yeah, good one. Uh.
And we did one on rehab yep, another good one. Um. Yeah.
And then if you want to count like beer, yeah,
(01:47):
the booze ones or I think we did one on moonshine,
we did one on and Whiskey Runners. Do we do
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 um. In running
(02:11):
across this though, I was reminded that yes, America loves drinking,
the world does, but not necessarily. I saw a statistic
that blew me away. Sixties six percent of the human
beings over age. I believe fifteen worldwide have not had
a drink in the last twelve months, according to a
(02:34):
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, but like, the majority of
the population of the Earth has not had a drink
in the last twelve months. Interesting. Yeah, I thought that
was interesting too. And of course there's entire countries that
are basically teetotally, yeah, And there are entire countries that
(02:57):
are drunk, right, so, UM 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. UM,
and all of this falls, it turns out, falls under
(03:17):
this umbrella called UM. Alcohol use disorders, binge drinking, alcohol abuse,
and alcoholism three different things they are. Although you could
say that binge drinking is a type of alcohol abuse,
it's a behavioral pattern drinking behavior UM. But yes, alcohol
abuse is not necessarily alcoholism, and neither has binge drinking.
(03:40):
Alcoholism is its own thing. Yeah, alcohol abuse is if
you are drinking, if there's a problem with your drinking. Um,
it's affecting your school, your work, your personal life, your family,
your friends. You could be an alcohol abuser. Um. Alcoholism
is a chronic disease where you are physically dependent on alcohol.
(04:02):
You need to drink, You've 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.
That's alcoholism, right, And you suffer withdrawal symptoms because, like
you said, you've become physically dependent on it. And we'll
talk about how in this episode. But yes, alcohol abuse,
(04:25):
that just means you need to get your your act
together big time. Sure. Alcoholism a chronic disease. Yeah, it
means you need medical help. And and beyond medical help
psychological help, you need treatment. Yeah. You're probably not going
to be able to do it on your own now,
and with alcohol abuse you may need treatment as well.
Everyone's different. Uh yeah, Yeah. I don't think we should
(04:48):
chase people away from seeking treatment alcohol abusers and not
necessarily alcoholics. I think probably if you're a serious abuser
of alcohol, you probably feel like an alcohol like 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,
(05:11):
or you may not. Well, yeah, and it depends. I
think a lot of people think that, um, if they
if they are an abuser of alcohol, that they have
to just stop entirely for the rest of their lives.
Not necessarily. I mean back in nineteen yes, that was
probably the case. These days, there's been a different approach
to managing alcoholism and alcohol abuse to where you definitely
(05:35):
don't have to abstain, although it's still like the model.
And again it depends on the person. Some people can
do that. Um. Some people can drink socially, uh 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, you know. And the key is to find
(05:59):
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. Uh. There
are more than seventeen million Americans who are either alcoholic
or abuse alcohol more men than women, um, apparently ten
(06:19):
percent to three to five. And uh, this says that
if you have fourteen 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 because the National Institutes of Health themselves
define moderate drinking as fourteen drinks a week or less
(06:43):
for a man, in seven drinks a week or less
for a woman. Like, that's moderate drinking in the United
States as far as like a couple of beers a night. Yeah,
that seems about right to me. It does. And if
you're if you are um enraged by this gender disparity, yeah,
let's all just calm down because it has to do
with uh usually body type and metabolism. Yeah, of course.
(07:09):
And it's not like, little lady, do you only get
half the drinks because we're drinking the rest I've done,
We're drinking your share. None some ladies that can drink
me under the table. Sure, but it's the average, that's right. Um.
It is more prevalent among younger folks than older people
as well. Uh, and it will touch many people's lives,
(07:32):
whether or not you or an abuser an alcoholic. Uh.
They say that more than Americans have been exposed to
alcoholism somewhere in their family. Um, I'm surprised it's not
a little more than that. I was surprised by that
statistic too. I wonder, um, this this article is fairly old.
We had to go through an update some of the stats.
But UM, I'm wondering if if that's more or less
(07:54):
these days, because it does seem low. Yeah, I mean
if you're talking about your extended family, because it doesn't
say idiot family, and 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 is
a problem is not just because of what it does
to the individual, but because the effects that has on
people who are raised by alcoholics. Yeah, you're I think
(08:16):
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 um,
there's a lot of programs that are geared towards helping
children of alcoholics cope. Yeah, my grand paternal grandfather was
a nasty drunk. Uh. He died when I was like five,
(08:42):
so I didn't know him very well. But um 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 uh, I don't think my dad. Maybe he drinks
a little bit here and there now, but he pretty
(09:02):
much was just like now, Like, I grew up in
a household withou no alcohol because my mom didn't drink either,
So I wonder what happened to me. I went to college.
That was I was gonna say, I don't have anybody
in my family who with a history like that. Yeah.
I will say this though, and going through the adoption process,
it really makes you take a look at your own
(09:23):
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 and 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
(09:43):
abuse and mental illness and suicide attempts, and it makes
you think, oh, well, it's not like my seed is
anything special, you know. So I thought it was pretty interesting.
Uh does a growing experience. It was a growing experience.
So um, some people, like we said, can drink and
(10:04):
it doesn't become a problem as an abuser or as
an alcoholic. Some people do and they think there are
give me a combination of factors including genetic, physiological, psychological,
and social. Yeah, the genes they haven't. They don't know
the gene. They're pretty sure that there is a genetic link. Yeah.
I thought, surely this article is old enough that if
(10:27):
I just do a search now I'll find well, they
know this gene and this gene are involved. Now I
couldn't find any genes named. The reason why they think
there's a genetic link is thanks to twins 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
(10:47):
a role in for for like an individual whose um
pleasure circuit is like just really highly tuned. Ye, So physiologically,
if you're dope, I mean just goes off the charts
more than someone else's might, then you might be more
at risks. Yeah, you're gonna be like, I want to
do that again, Give me another, give me another beer?
(11:09):
Right whatever or ten? Right? Yeah. Well yeah, and that's
another thing we didn't necessarily point out early on, is
an alcoholic there's no stopping. Like stopping equals like falling
over and blacking out or being arrested or um running
out of um alcohol in the entire house and not
(11:31):
being able to like find their keys to go get more. Uh. Yeah,
I don't know if that's like a daily thing, like
there are alcoholics who drink every night and don't drink
too blackout proportions, um, but that certainly can happen. Uh Psychologically, Um,
if you suffer from depression or if you don't feel
(11:54):
very good about yourself, you have low self esteem, you
probably be more likely to develop alcoholism as a drinker.
And then socially, of course, Uh, we talked to I
don't think we've done one just on pure pressure, but
we talked about it a lot. Yeah, and that's a
big reason why kids will uh start drinking and then
factor in what they see around them every day, having
(12:16):
advertisements and TV and movies like whatever, Bill or whatever. Um,
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 by light. Yeah. Man, And then
like these new absolute ads that are's just like these
crazy like eyes wide shut parties and everybody's like it's
(12:36):
just so incredibly rich and glamorous and having like like
they're just so out of control having a great time.
They're 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 fourteen, 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
(12:57):
a few friends or that party will start in my house.
They definitely said to the wrong message, 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 like, you might have
(13:19):
to rethink every campaign we've ever done. Uh, some signs
that you may have be an alcoholic is if you
I 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. Um, that's a big one. Like if
(13:39):
you're telling you know your family like have stopped, have stopped,
and you're mixing the vodka with orange juice in the morning,
You've got like a bad sign. Yeah, very bad signs.
What are you gonna say, you got like booze stashed
around the house. Uh. And then if you're drinking to
forget your problems, which I think that's why a lot
(14:01):
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 blacking out a lot. Then although
alcohol efficts some people differently, I'm not a blackouter. Um,
even though I've had times where I've had way too
(14:23):
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. You might want to
take a look. Yeah, and that's another argument in favor
of genetics. It's people experience things differently, you know. Um,
so we are going to dive into your body, the
(14:43):
body of the alcoholics right after this message, So chuck.
(15:12):
The drink has been taken. Um. And the first thing
that happens when it hits the gut as 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 that. It's not funny. But like you
take an alcohol in your body, and your body immediately
it's like, no, it's not like your body doesn't want
(15:35):
the alcohol, right right. 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 start with,
but your body metabolizes it into an even worse poison. Yeah. Um,
and yeah, it wants to get rid of it immediately,
so which is why you vomit sometimes. That's right. It
is absorbed in the stomach and the other is absorbed
(15:58):
in the small intestine. And depending what you're drinking, it's
going to be absorbed quicker or more slowly. So like
vodka will be absorbed faster than beer because vodka has
a higher alcoholic content. That's right. It's a concentration of
alcohol higher than beer. That's right. When you go, when
(16:20):
your body starts to metabolize it, Um, about ten as
removed in urine and breath by the kidneys and lungs,
and then your liver takes care of the rest. Yeah,
and it takes 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 um.
(16:44):
And as your lungs are or as your liver is
trying to just get rid of all this stuff and
metabolize it and break it down into other parts. Um,
you're you're drinking more and more and more, which can
kill you, Like in a night, it can kill you
can die very easily from consuming too much alcohol in
a single sitting. Yeah, apparently they have that quantified um
(17:06):
is 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're getting drunker and drunker, right, Um, but after you
get to a blood alcohol content of point three five um,
two point five percent, which I guess is like if
(17:31):
you just take any and like a cube excent a
leader of blood point three of that would be alcohol.
That seems like a lot. Well, that's what puts you
in an alcohol induced coma, So I would think it's
a lot. So up to a half of a percent,
you're you're only at risk of a coma. After a
half of a percent, you're facing death. Like Alexander the Great.
(17:56):
Uh oh did he die from alcohol poison? 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 contests, but I don't think those
are ever a good idea. No, you know who else
does it? Ryan Reynolds hates eating contests? Oh really? Yeah?
What did he make a stand? Like? Uh, just a
(18:20):
social media stand? Probably? No. He wrote a essay in
the Huffington Post about how just disgraceful and what a
waste it is. It's just it's such an arrogant thing
to do in eating contest while people are starving. And
then you would love this essay and he put a
picture of his six pack. Abs said, plus, you can't
look like this, bam uh. Let's talk about the brain,
(18:45):
because it definitely affects your brain. 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 gonna end up slurring and stumbling
and losing motor function because it's dumbing you down. Yeah,
your brain is not able to communicate with itself or
(19:09):
the rest of your body the way it's supposed to
because the neuro transmitters are being affected, and two in
particular are being affected. Gabba, our friend that puts us
to sleep, is increased. Gabba release or GABA production is
increased when alcohol is introduced to the body. Right, and
then glutamate actually, which is an excitatory neurotransmitter get you up,
(19:33):
up up, gives you some PEP, is actually reduced when
you drink alcohol. So you go from sleepy to sloppy
because gabas increased and glutamates decreased. Yeah, and this whole
time you go from sleepy to sloppy, but your dopamine
is through the roof so sleepy or slappy you're going,
(19:54):
isn't this great? This is the best thing ever. Speaking
of great, I think you're great. Uh. 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 you need brains? Yeah you can. You
(20:16):
can get them in like a can at the grocery store. Yeah,
you can get You can get them in a fancy
restaurant else, other places that you quick trip, quick trip.
Sure you can get everything a quick trip. And that
was impotted meat. I'm sure there's some impot of meat,
but I think potted meat makes like a brains brand,
(20:37):
a brains brand brains. Yeah, so gross. I used to
work at the Golden Pantry, you know, in Athens, and
we had dudes that would come in there, like you know,
road workers that would get their like pack of salt
teas and potted meat was there lunch. They would get
on the way to work and like a ninety eight
ounce mountain dew that's healthy living, brother, their arm would
(21:01):
just fall off on their way out the door. Yeah.
And a few packs of cigarettes to probably um. So
how specifically their 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 your That's where your executive function is located. That's
(21:21):
where things like maybe I should stop drinking for the
night decisions are located, or um, maybe I shouldn't get
in a fight with that cop um, or maybe I
shouldn't start that fire. Whatever. All of this stuff is
located here in your prefrontal cortex, right, and it becomes
impaired again because your neurotransmitters are reduced, they're being affected,
(21:46):
and your brain is not communicating with itself any longer.
So the boss, the executive function is basically silenced, and
that actually has a one to punch as far as
alcohol consumption is concerned. Not only is your judgment impaired,
meaning you're behavior just takes all sorts of left turns
while you're drunk, right, but also remember we said the
(22:07):
reward pathway is activated by alcohol and your dope means
going crazy. Well, your prefrontal cortex is also responsible for
um judging whether a pleasurable experience has an adaptive um
benefit to it. Yeah, whether it's worth it. The thing is,
when this is impaired, you're that part of your brain
(22:29):
is not able to judge drinking is not worth it.
So it's all totally worth it. So it's all pleasure.
So it has like this this really um, this crazy effect.
I mean, alcohol is so smart. It knows what it's doing. Yeah,
I mean it lowers your inhibitions and that. Uh, if
you're abusing alcohol, that's a bad thing. Um, if you
(22:49):
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 said a glass
of wine, not twelve classes. Why I was speaking of
this is fresh air I've been meaning to listen to
with an author named, um oh, Sarah Hippola or Hippola.
(23:11):
I haven't listened yet, so I don't know how to
say her last name, but she as a recovering alcoholic
and she apparently, it says in the description she got
up and spoke in front of like a crowd of
three hundred um and was so drunk that she had
no recollection of it the next day. Can you imagine that? Man,
that's my worst nightmare. I mean, like going on on stage.
(23:32):
You're like, okay, am I all right, Like I'm relaxed,
but I'm not too relaxed, right, 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 gets smacked around by
alcohol's effect. That's right, the cerebellum. That's your movement and balance.
(23:53):
So that's why you're stumbling around because that is impaired. Uh,
your hypothalamus, simpituitare e um hormone release and automatic brain functions.
So they depressed 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
(24:14):
the same time. So that's a it's very negative. That's
a mixed message alcoholics. You know, like, hey, go talk
to that that girl over there and uh, maybe see
what happens. And then physically you're like, well, nothing's happening.
It's embarrass yourself time. Yeah, Like what you set me
up alcohol. And then there's the medulla. That's right. The
(24:38):
medulla is located at the in the brain stem, so
it's a very um ancient part of the human brain, right,
and it controls things like breathing, body temperature, UM, really
important stuff, automatic stuff, right, And alcohol impairs this the
medulla's function, so you may pass out and stop breathing.
(25:00):
Your body temperature can go hey wire, which can lead
to all sorts of other problems. UM. And your gag
reflex is centered in your medulla, so you could end
up like John Bottom passed out, throwing up and um
choking to death. Yes, that's sad stuff. Uh, we've already
talked a little bit about blackouts. But you can have
(25:20):
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 someone whose body is just not
in brain are not functioning. Yeah, there's actually there's a
(25:40):
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 diamin
or vitamin B. And vitamin B is a very important
vitamin that you need. It's an assent a vitamin, meaning
(26:00):
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. 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
(26:21):
with what's called UM We're Nikki cors Coughs 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 overall. Yeah,
they call it wet brain UH. And there are actually
(26:43):
two different things that are often described together Wernicke's UH
and cephalopit and cephalopathy and Corsicov syndrome, but they often
go hand in hand. And one of the scary things
about this is it's has a very high rate of
UH being not diagnosed. So like I think only of
(27:04):
cases are diagnosed before death, and a lot more after
they're like, oh, it turns out they had wet brain.
Nothing you can do about it now. So that is
certainly also sad as our withdrawal symptoms. If you have
an actual dependence and you're an alcoholic, when you stop
drinking um within a day to three days, probably closer
(27:29):
to a day, UM, you're gonna 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, Okay,
this guy's gonna drink all the time. I don't see
a time when he's ever gonna stop drinking. So I
need to adjust my output of neurotransmitters to change my
(27:51):
brain chemistry completely to account for this, this introduction of alcohol.
Because the body seeks homeostasis, right, this is its way
of adjusting itself to see homeostasis in the presence, the
constant presence of alcohol. Um. And so when you remove
that alcohol, the brains chemistry has been altered over time.
And now you're probably suddenly removing alcohol and you are
(28:14):
going to go through withdrawal symptoms and actually people have
died from acute alcohol withdrawal. Oh, I'm sure where they
They probably should have weaned themselves off rather than just
quit drinking cold turkey, because again, the wholemark of alcoholism
is a physical dependence on it, and that part of
your your physical dependence is your brain chemistry. Yeah, and
(28:35):
there's a lot more more and more people are thinking
that weaning off is a safer approach. Well, I think
that's what happened to Amy Winehouse. Like you just quit
cold turkey and died very quickly. Yeah. Uh. In withdrawal,
you're gonna get this be disoriented. Um, you might have hallucinations, nausea, sweating, seizures,
delirium tremens. The d T s uh actually has the
(28:58):
same effect as a lot of these hallucinations. Sweating. Your
heart rate is gonna be funky. You're gonna be shaking
and shivering. Uh. Just watch Leaving Las Vegas and Aunt
Nicholas Cage if you want to be scared away from booze. Yeah,
that was a tough movie. It was What about when
a Man Loves a Woman? That was a tough one. Yeah.
(29:19):
Days of Wine and Roses. I never saw that classic.
I think it was Jack Lemon was an alcoholic in
that one. Uh twenty eight days, not to be confused,
twenty days later days that's when Sandra Bullock played a
zombie a right, right, just kidding, Uh what else? There's
surely there's more. Oh yeah, it seemed flight. Have you
(29:41):
seen Flight with Denzel Yeah, that was pretty good. But
here's a big time alcohol that was 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 there've been it's been an off covered subject and
it's they're usually very tough to watch. Agreed. So let's
take a break in uh hug each other so we
(30:04):
can get through the rest of this thing and we'll
talk a little bit more about what alcohol does to
your body and things you can do to uh stop. Yes,
all right, So we talked a lot about the health
(30:40):
damage you're going to suffer as an alcoholic. Um in
the brain. Yeah, internally, you're gonna your liver is gonna
take a beating. So your kidneys, your heart, your brain,
your central nervous system, your liver. Actually you can the
first step two bad alcohol damage is alcoholic hep titus,
(31:00):
which is inflammation of the liver, and then you have
about a seventy chance if you have alcoholic hepatitis to
develop full blown cirrhosis. And that is when a little
bit by a little bit, your liver just turns into
scar tissue and it becomes an unusable organ and it
is nasty if you see pictures of like cirrosis damaged livers. Yeah,
(31:24):
because again, your your liver while it's metabolizing alcohol turns
it into acetylale hyde, 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. Your stomach, the lining of
the stomach can just get eaten away, and your intestines
(31:46):
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 um
(32:07):
can result in all a bunch of different alcohol alcoholic
cancers or what they're called. Like you can get him
of the throat of the larynx um. You can 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 as a carcinogen. Uh. If you're over sixty five,
(32:29):
you're in bigger trouble because your body just doesn't metabolize
alcohol as well at that point. Um, And like we said,
men have a little better time metabolizing alcohol than women, right. Um.
I remember that my bar in l A, the drawing room,
there was this old drunk there. I won't say his
(32:50):
name because I found out he's still alive. But it
was just remarkable to me that this guy was alive. Yeah,
I mean he was into a seventies and just dropped
dead drunk every single time I saw him. And I
checked back, and this was in the late nineties, and
then I was in l A last year. I went
(33:11):
to the bar asked if he was still around, and
they said, oh, yeah, he will be here in a
few hours. Wow. I was like, man, how is he alive?
Milk thistle? What's that? It's a like it's a I
think you make a tea out of it or whatever.
It's a very famous um liver cleanser. Interesting. Maybe he's
on the milk thistle. Milk thistle and he's eating a
(33:33):
lot of meat, so he's getting tons of vitamin B.
That's how that guy is alive. Maybe he was a
straight vodka guy, which is always a 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 clearer the alcohol usually the fewer the impurities. Maybe
that's what it is that's keeping him alive, the vodka,
(33:56):
and he didn't mix it with anything. But I mean,
look at like Boris Yell. Some people like he was
old when he died. Yeah, he that knows. It 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 rosation, but alcoholism definitely will. It doesn't
(34:16):
help the gin blossom situation. Um. And then there's fetal
alcohol syndrome, which is the saddest thing you can imagine. Yes,
it sets here that um fete. Fetal alcohol syndrome is
the number one preventable cause of mental impairment. What yeah,
what Wow, it's pretty amazing. So if you're drinking too much,
(34:42):
you should't drink at all when you're pregnant. You some
in Europe there like you can have a glassworm here
as well too, Like apparently you know, it's it's gained
acceptance that like you can you can have something occasionally
or whatever, like wine usually is what they say. Right
But um, and I realized this article is old, but
it's specifically says like the Surgeon General is like, do
(35:04):
not drink while you're pregnant. Well, I think that's the
fallback recommendation is. I think that if it feels like
a tricky thing to say, well, you can maybe drink
this a little bit here and there, I think it's
easier for them to say just don't drink for nine
months and and everybody says it's easy for you to say.
In general, then you have zero chance of any complications
(35:24):
like this, right, well, at least fetal alcoholic syndrome. Yeah,
so that's when your your little baby's brain cells are developing, uh,
informing connections in utero and alcohol explosion there is going
to disrupt that from the get go and lead to um,
you can have a physical problems like your head might
(35:44):
be smaller than normal microce, you might have some facial abnormalities. Uh,
and then later in life you could be in big
trouble as far as cognitive functioning, memory, learning disability. So
it's a it's a pretty rough one. And it's all
because alcohol impedes cellular division during development. Right, So when
(36:08):
the fetus is exposed to alcohol, which easily crosses the
placental barrier um the cellular division, it doesn't go according
to plan. 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 agencies says, like, you don't want to
(36:31):
mess with that really, Yeah, like do your research on
drugs and how they affect the baby and you'd probably
be surprised. Alcohol is worse than unfetal development. Absolutely, yeah,
it's the worst. Um, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty scary.
So this number I don't think is right anymore. Eight
(36:53):
five billion per year in medical expenses. It's either to okay,
and that's in the United States, and that's crime, lost productivity, accidents,
medical expenses. The economic impact of alcoholis Yeah, that is
close to three billion dollars. That's amazing, all right, So
what can you do? There's a a pot of gold
(37:15):
at the end of this rainbow. There's a For many,
many years, there was, um, your only hope was Alcoholics Anonymous,
not even twelve step programs, specifically Alcoholics Anonymous, which is
founded in either nineteen thirty or nineteen thirty five. Do
you remember, Um, there's some pretty great articles about Alcoholics Anonymous,
(37:36):
and you know it's effectiveness that it's a tributes to
it just it's this, it's its own thing, and it's
helped undoubtedly tons of people. Um. 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
(37:56):
alternatives to a a grew up. Um. 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. Um. Other people like UM, 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
(38:20):
drinker and then if that doesn't work, then yeah, you
probably should abstain for life. UM and some others say,
twelve step programs are great, but you could also do
the same thing with cognitive behavioral therapy UM and so.
But some sort of treatment program that involves like a
change in behavior through either twelve steps, support groups, one
(38:41):
on one counseling. UM. 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 genes and how they interact with drugs, the
(39:02):
more targeted treatment of alcoholism will be. It seems like, yeah,
this article I found in the New York Times, drugs
help tailor alcoholism treatment. That the wish is that one
day they will be able to because everyone's different, like
we were saying, as far as alcoholism goes, Uh, so
you can't have one treatment for such a varied group.
(39:23):
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 it's
like this doesn't work, well, then try this one. That
one's kind of working. We'll add this one in and
it's really gonna make it pop, you know. And right
now I think there are three approved f d A
(39:47):
treatments UM. Two of them now chrekzone and i CAM
pro sate reduced cravings to drink. And then there's anti
views which I've heard of for a little while. And
that's the one that makes you sick when you drink. Yeah,
that's pretty rough, Like only a drug like that could
find its roots in purity in America, you know. UM,
(40:09):
but that mal trek zone. There's a good article about
UM in in the Atlantic called The Irrationality of Alcoholics
Anonymous and the author experiments with mal trek zone and finds,
like amazingly to her astonishment, like it really works. Yeah,
it says in't here um in studies and clinical trials
they found one in seven alcoholics. Uh, it works for
(40:32):
one and seven alcoholics. Those two now track zone and
outcome pro state and with UM mal trek zone, probably
both of them, but definitely with mal trek zone. It
targets your pleasure center when alcohol is present, 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,
(40:56):
it reduces the effect that it has on the olympic system,
so you don't crave it as much or when you do. Right,
and when you do crave it, I think in that
New York Times article you found somebody's somebody who takes
nail trek zonn as saying I still get cravings, but
they're short lived and they're not nearly as intense because
of the nail trek. Right, But again it only works
(41:17):
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, But
now people are embracing it a little bit more as like,
I guess, a lesser of the evils. Yeah, at least
you're not killing your body with alcohol abuse. And one
of the things Chuck that came up when we did
(41:38):
the Addiction podcast um was that alcoholism and all addictions
are chronic disease and relapse are to be expected, as
with any chronic disease. It's you. You go through relapses
and apparently Alcoholics Anonymous did a UM survey in two
thousand seven of like eight thousand of its members in
(41:59):
North America and found that thirty three percent of them
were still abstinate after ten years. So a lot of people. Yeah,
a lot of people relapse, and I bet, I bet
you anything, those are the ones that are still work
in that program regularly. Well, yeah, you have to, like
part of a A is you still go to meetings
(42:21):
UM 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 two thousand eleven 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. Wow. Yeah,
(42:42):
it's like a gift because the author is an alcoholic
and Alcoholics Anonymous attendee and an incredible writer. Just a
great recovered alcoholic or recovering or I don't remember, because
I've probably recovered or recovering. That's why they that tag
sticks with you for life. I think that's one of
(43:04):
the things they teach you is that you should always
consider yourself an alcoholic. Right, you have a disease, but
if you're in recovery, then that's, uh, you're on the
right path. Yeah. And there I was reading an article
about alternatives to alcoholics anonymous, and one of them was
like women on sobriety or something like that. Everything we're
saying like that, we don't agree with that, Like that's
(43:24):
a temporary tag, it's not for life. Um. And the
spokesperson for that organization is saying, like, if I used
to smoke and then I quit after a certain time,
I'm not like, yeah, I'm a smoker for life, like
you 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, in
(43:46):
in 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 yeah. I think it's probably as as varied as
people's reaction to alcohol, Like if that great, if you
need to be free of that eventually great. Well said,
(44:06):
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 UM
can get you help. People are dying to help people
kick alcohol and drugs. They love to do that stuff.
They're crazy. It's like their life's work. So go meet
one of those people. Don't be afraid of them, and
(44:29):
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 fun. Yeah, yeah,
I know. I'm friends with recovering alcoholics and they're great. Yeah,
they love life just the same. Uh if you actually
they're better. They're not just the same because they're not
(44:52):
blacking out and hungover mad all the time. If you
want to know more about alcoholism, you can type that
word in the search part how stuff works dot com.
And since I said search parts, time to a listener mail.
I'm gonna call this letter from from an old Geezer
because he says he's a old geezer. I would never
(45:14):
call it of age that this automatically has seen. Hey guys,
I'm a Geezer, seventy four years old and a regular listener.
I love your show. Listen all of the time when
I'm driving. I'm also a musician and living a smallish
town restricted to Geezers south of Tucson, and I was
just listening to the podcast on auto tune. I share
your hatred of it. No, you didn't say that in
(45:34):
so many words, but it came out loud and clear.
I'm writing, however, about the little snippet you've been about rever.
When I was a senior in high school late nineteen fifties,
I was in a rock and roll band in Tucson
called the Night Beats. 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 on Phoenix where we did the session
(45:56):
could put echo on the voice in nineteen fifty nine,
long before manufactured reverb was widespread. He did it by
placing a speaker and a microphone and an empty water
tank behind the studio. 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 it's pretty smart for es tu soon aren't too bad? Right? Uh.
(46:19):
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 Ronstad,
his little sister and not yet made it big time.
Barbers tried, is she from Arizona? I didn't know that,
Linda Ronstad. Yeah, that explains the Spanish language albums. Yeah
(46:40):
maybe so, h. I hope you find this senior plow
nos Boyano, Well that was that one of the songs.
But yeah, she was on one of the Simpsons episode.
I hope you find this interesting and worth the time
it took to read it. Uh. Sure, it was an
interesting time in my life. Thanks for the great podcast.
And that is from land Hoops. Nice Lance, Thank you
(47:01):
for that. Yeah, man, I love hearing from our listeners
of age. I like hearing from twelve year old and
like seventy plus. Yeah, I mean too. I even like
hearing from uh, two year old, two hundred and three
year old? How about that? Nice? That's I always felt bad,
not always, once I came to understand that people live
(47:22):
beyond um nine two, 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. And I
feel really bad because I know that, and I know
(47:44):
you're in the heat of the podcast. Man, I don't
feel bad. I say all sorts of stuff where I'm like, man,
why did I say that? Or why didn't I address that.
I even thought I said the words 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.
But no, that's what a talk boxes. The tube is
acting as it's a rubber tube that runs from a
(48:04):
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
change his the shape of your mouth and his pop
fix prae that you that's a good song. Pe Frampton's
(48:25):
opening up for us. He's actually playing the same theater
as US, and that oh yeah, yeah, the acoustic to her,
he's playing like the week before the week after US.
I wonder if he'll play all I want to be
as by his thought. Uh, 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
(48:46):
Frampton than that. Oh we know a little more, but
we don't feel like talking about it on social that.
If you want to get in touch with us, though,
you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook, dot com slash stuff
you should know. You can send us any else two
stuff podcasts at how stuff works dot com, and has
always joined us at our home on the web, Stuff
First you Know dot com For more on this and
(49:12):
thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works dot com.
M
Welcome to stuff you should know Friendhouse Stuff Works dot 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 machines.
It was could turn into like Morning Zoo type episode. No,
(00:22):
I'm not gonna use it. It's a lame one. It
is pretty lame. Like is it marked? What does it do?
How many different functions does they have? Chuck down two
three four one two three four five, that would be
twenty twenty. Nice job. You just use multiplications, right, But
like I said when I first sat down, it doesn't
even have a fark sound. So how good of a
(00:43):
noise machine could it be? How does it not? It's
got a burp? I mean they make sound machines. They
just have that sound. Well, yeah, it's called a whoopie cushion. Yeah,
I don't know if that's a machine though probably not. Okay, device,
I don't think I said this stuff you should know
in case you hadn't figured it out. Well, someone just
(01:04):
stumbled upon this and they're horrified. They turned it off
a good minute ago. Yeah, and we're gonna 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. Uh, so alcoholism, Chuck turns out,
in researching this, um, we should say, let us shout
(01:26):
out to some previous episodes that really tie into this totally.
We did prohibition. Colin turns out America really loves to drink.
That was one episode we did addiction, Yeah, good one. Uh.
And we did one on rehab yep, another good one. Um. Yeah.
And then if you want to count like beer, yeah,
(01:47):
the booze ones or I think we did one on moonshine,
we did one on and Whiskey Runners. Do we do
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 um. In running
(02:11):
across this though, I was reminded that yes, America loves drinking,
the world does, but not necessarily. I saw a statistic
that blew me away. Sixties six percent of the human
beings over age. I believe fifteen worldwide have not had
a drink in the last twelve months, according to a
(02:34):
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, but like, the majority of
the population of the Earth has not had a drink
in the last twelve months. Interesting. Yeah, I thought that
was interesting too. And of course there's entire countries that
are basically teetotally, yeah, And there are entire countries that
(02:57):
are drunk, right, so, UM 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. UM,
and all of this falls, it turns out, falls under
(03:17):
this umbrella called UM. Alcohol use disorders, binge drinking, alcohol abuse,
and alcoholism three different things they are. Although you could
say that binge drinking is a type of alcohol abuse,
it's a behavioral pattern drinking behavior UM. But yes, alcohol
abuse is not necessarily alcoholism, and neither has binge drinking.
(03:40):
Alcoholism is its own thing. Yeah, alcohol abuse is if
you are drinking, if there's a problem with your drinking. Um,
it's affecting your school, your work, your personal life, your family,
your friends. You could be an alcohol abuser. Um. Alcoholism
is a chronic disease where you are physically dependent on alcohol.
(04:02):
You need to drink, You've 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.
That's alcoholism, right, And you suffer withdrawal symptoms because, like
you said, you've become physically dependent on it. And we'll
talk about how in this episode. But yes, alcohol abuse,
(04:25):
that just means you need to get your your act
together big time. Sure. Alcoholism a chronic disease. Yeah, it
means you need medical help. And and beyond medical help
psychological help, you need treatment. Yeah. You're probably not going
to be able to do it on your own now,
and with alcohol abuse you may need treatment as well.
Everyone's different. Uh yeah, Yeah. I don't think we should
(04:48):
chase people away from seeking treatment alcohol abusers and not
necessarily alcoholics. I think probably if you're a serious abuser
of alcohol, you probably feel like an alcohol like 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,
(05:11):
or you may not. Well, yeah, and it depends. I
think a lot of people think that, um, if they
if they are an abuser of alcohol, that they have
to just stop entirely for the rest of their lives.
Not necessarily. I mean back in nineteen yes, that was
probably the case. These days, there's been a different approach
to managing alcoholism and alcohol abuse to where you definitely
(05:35):
don't have to abstain, although it's still like the model.
And again it depends on the person. Some people can
do that. Um. Some people can drink socially, uh 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, you know. And the key is to find
(05:59):
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. Uh. There
are more than seventeen million Americans who are either alcoholic
or abuse alcohol more men than women, um, apparently ten
(06:19):
percent to three to five. And uh, this says that
if you have fourteen 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 because the National Institutes of Health themselves
define moderate drinking as fourteen drinks a week or less
(06:43):
for a man, in seven drinks a week or less
for a woman. Like, that's moderate drinking in the United
States as far as like a couple of beers a night. Yeah,
that seems about right to me. It does. And if
you're if you are um enraged by this gender disparity, yeah,
let's all just calm down because it has to do
with uh usually body type and metabolism. Yeah, of course.
(07:09):
And it's not like, little lady, do you only get
half the drinks because we're drinking the rest I've done,
We're drinking your share. None some ladies that can drink
me under the table. Sure, but it's the average, that's right. Um.
It is more prevalent among younger folks than older people
as well. Uh, and it will touch many people's lives,
(07:32):
whether or not you or an abuser an alcoholic. Uh.
They say that more than Americans have been exposed to
alcoholism somewhere in their family. Um, I'm surprised it's not
a little more than that. I was surprised by that
statistic too. I wonder, um, this this article is fairly old.
We had to go through an update some of the stats.
But UM, I'm wondering if if that's more or less
(07:54):
these days, because it does seem low. Yeah, I mean
if you're talking about your extended family, because it doesn't
say idiot family, and 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 is
a problem is not just because of what it does
to the individual, but because the effects that has on
people who are raised by alcoholics. Yeah, you're I think
(08:16):
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 um,
there's a lot of programs that are geared towards helping
children of alcoholics cope. Yeah, my grand paternal grandfather was
a nasty drunk. Uh. He died when I was like five,
(08:42):
so I didn't know him very well. But um 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 uh, I don't think my dad. Maybe he drinks
a little bit here and there now, but he pretty
(09:02):
much was just like now, Like, I grew up in
a household withou no alcohol because my mom didn't drink either,
So I wonder what happened to me. I went to college.
That was I was gonna say, I don't have anybody
in my family who with a history like that. Yeah.
I will say this though, and going through the adoption process,
it really makes you take a look at your own
(09:23):
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 and 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
(09:43):
abuse and mental illness and suicide attempts, and it makes
you think, oh, well, it's not like my seed is
anything special, you know. So I thought it was pretty interesting.
Uh does a growing experience. It was a growing experience.
So um, some people, like we said, can drink and
(10:04):
it doesn't become a problem as an abuser or as
an alcoholic. Some people do and they think there are
give me a combination of factors including genetic, physiological, psychological,
and social. Yeah, the genes they haven't. They don't know
the gene. They're pretty sure that there is a genetic link. Yeah.
I thought, surely this article is old enough that if
(10:27):
I just do a search now I'll find well, they
know this gene and this gene are involved. Now I
couldn't find any genes named. The reason why they think
there's a genetic link is thanks to twins 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
(10:47):
a role in for for like an individual whose um
pleasure circuit is like just really highly tuned. Ye, So physiologically,
if you're dope, I mean just goes off the charts
more than someone else's might, then you might be more
at risks. Yeah, you're gonna be like, I want to
do that again, Give me another, give me another beer?
(11:09):
Right whatever or ten? Right? Yeah. Well yeah, and that's
another thing we didn't necessarily point out early on, is
an alcoholic there's no stopping. Like stopping equals like falling
over and blacking out or being arrested or um running
out of um alcohol in the entire house and not
(11:31):
being able to like find their keys to go get more. Uh. Yeah,
I don't know if that's like a daily thing, like
there are alcoholics who drink every night and don't drink
too blackout proportions, um, but that certainly can happen. Uh Psychologically, Um,
if you suffer from depression or if you don't feel
(11:54):
very good about yourself, you have low self esteem, you
probably be more likely to develop alcoholism as a drinker.
And then socially, of course, Uh, we talked to I
don't think we've done one just on pure pressure, but
we talked about it a lot. Yeah, and that's a
big reason why kids will uh start drinking and then
factor in what they see around them every day, having
(12:16):
advertisements and TV and movies like whatever, Bill or whatever. Um,
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 by light. Yeah. Man, And then
like these new absolute ads that are's just like these
crazy like eyes wide shut parties and everybody's like it's
(12:36):
just so incredibly rich and glamorous and having like like
they're just so out of control having a great time.
They're 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 fourteen, 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
(12:57):
a few friends or that party will start in my house.
They definitely said to the wrong message, 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 like, you might have
(13:19):
to rethink every campaign we've ever done. Uh, some signs
that you may have be an alcoholic is if you
I 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. Um, that's a big one. Like if
(13:39):
you're telling you know your family like have stopped, have stopped,
and you're mixing the vodka with orange juice in the morning,
You've got like a bad sign. Yeah, very bad signs.
What are you gonna say, you got like booze stashed
around the house. Uh. And then if you're drinking to
forget your problems, which I think that's why a lot
(14:01):
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 blacking out a lot. Then although
alcohol efficts some people differently, I'm not a blackouter. Um,
even though I've had times where I've had way too
(14:23):
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. You might want to
take a look. Yeah, and that's another argument in favor
of genetics. It's people experience things differently, you know. Um,
so we are going to dive into your body, the
(14:43):
body of the alcoholics right after this message, So chuck.
(15:12):
The drink has been taken. Um. And the first thing
that happens when it hits the gut as 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 that. It's not funny. But like you
take an alcohol in your body, and your body immediately
it's like, no, it's not like your body doesn't want
(15:35):
the alcohol, right right. 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 start with,
but your body metabolizes it into an even worse poison. Yeah. Um,
and yeah, it wants to get rid of it immediately,
so which is why you vomit sometimes. That's right. It
is absorbed in the stomach and the other is absorbed
(15:58):
in the small intestine. And depending what you're drinking, it's
going to be absorbed quicker or more slowly. So like
vodka will be absorbed faster than beer because vodka has
a higher alcoholic content. That's right. It's a concentration of
alcohol higher than beer. That's right. When you go, when
(16:20):
your body starts to metabolize it, Um, about ten as
removed in urine and breath by the kidneys and lungs,
and then your liver takes care of the rest. Yeah,
and it takes 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 um.
(16:44):
And as your lungs are or as your liver is
trying to just get rid of all this stuff and
metabolize it and break it down into other parts. Um,
you're you're drinking more and more and more, which can
kill you, Like in a night, it can kill you
can die very easily from consuming too much alcohol in
a single sitting. Yeah, apparently they have that quantified um
(17:06):
is 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're getting drunker and drunker, right, Um, but after you
get to a blood alcohol content of point three five um,
two point five percent, which I guess is like if
(17:31):
you just take any and like a cube excent a
leader of blood point three of that would be alcohol.
That seems like a lot. Well, that's what puts you
in an alcohol induced coma, So I would think it's
a lot. So up to a half of a percent,
you're you're only at risk of a coma. After a
half of a percent, you're facing death. Like Alexander the Great.
(17:56):
Uh oh did he die from alcohol poison? 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 contests, but I don't think those
are ever a good idea. No, you know who else
does it? Ryan Reynolds hates eating contests? Oh really? Yeah?
What did he make a stand? Like? Uh, just a
(18:20):
social media stand? Probably? No. He wrote a essay in
the Huffington Post about how just disgraceful and what a
waste it is. It's just it's such an arrogant thing
to do in eating contest while people are starving. And
then you would love this essay and he put a
picture of his six pack. Abs said, plus, you can't
look like this, bam uh. Let's talk about the brain,
(18:45):
because it definitely affects your brain. 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 gonna end up slurring and stumbling
and losing motor function because it's dumbing you down. Yeah,
your brain is not able to communicate with itself or
(19:09):
the rest of your body the way it's supposed to
because the neuro transmitters are being affected, and two in
particular are being affected. Gabba, our friend that puts us
to sleep, is increased. Gabba release or GABA production is
increased when alcohol is introduced to the body. Right, and
then glutamate actually, which is an excitatory neurotransmitter get you up,
(19:33):
up up, gives you some PEP, is actually reduced when
you drink alcohol. So you go from sleepy to sloppy
because gabas increased and glutamates decreased. Yeah, and this whole
time you go from sleepy to sloppy, but your dopamine
is through the roof so sleepy or slappy you're going,
(19:54):
isn't this great? This is the best thing ever. Speaking
of great, I think you're great. Uh. 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 you need brains? Yeah you can. You
(20:16):
can get them in like a can at the grocery store. Yeah,
you can get You can get them in a fancy
restaurant else, other places that you quick trip, quick trip.
Sure you can get everything a quick trip. And that
was impotted meat. I'm sure there's some impot of meat,
but I think potted meat makes like a brains brand,
(20:37):
a brains brand brains. Yeah, so gross. I used to
work at the Golden Pantry, you know, in Athens, and
we had dudes that would come in there, like you know,
road workers that would get their like pack of salt
teas and potted meat was there lunch. They would get
on the way to work and like a ninety eight
ounce mountain dew that's healthy living, brother, their arm would
(21:01):
just fall off on their way out the door. Yeah.
And a few packs of cigarettes to probably um. So
how specifically their 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 your That's where your executive function is located. That's
(21:21):
where things like maybe I should stop drinking for the
night decisions are located, or um, maybe I shouldn't get
in a fight with that cop um, or maybe I
shouldn't start that fire. Whatever. All of this stuff is
located here in your prefrontal cortex, right, and it becomes
impaired again because your neurotransmitters are reduced, they're being affected,
(21:46):
and your brain is not communicating with itself any longer.
So the boss, the executive function is basically silenced, and
that actually has a one to punch as far as
alcohol consumption is concerned. Not only is your judgment impaired,
meaning you're behavior just takes all sorts of left turns
while you're drunk, right, but also remember we said the
(22:07):
reward pathway is activated by alcohol and your dope means
going crazy. Well, your prefrontal cortex is also responsible for
um judging whether a pleasurable experience has an adaptive um
benefit to it. Yeah, whether it's worth it. The thing is,
when this is impaired, you're that part of your brain
(22:29):
is not able to judge drinking is not worth it.
So it's all totally worth it. So it's all pleasure.
So it has like this this really um, this crazy effect.
I mean, alcohol is so smart. It knows what it's doing. Yeah,
I mean it lowers your inhibitions and that. Uh, if
you're abusing alcohol, that's a bad thing. Um, if you
(22:49):
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 said a glass
of wine, not twelve classes. Why I was speaking of
this is fresh air I've been meaning to listen to
with an author named, um oh, Sarah Hippola or Hippola.
(23:11):
I haven't listened yet, so I don't know how to
say her last name, but she as a recovering alcoholic
and she apparently, it says in the description she got
up and spoke in front of like a crowd of
three hundred um and was so drunk that she had
no recollection of it the next day. Can you imagine that? Man,
that's my worst nightmare. I mean, like going on on stage.
(23:32):
You're like, okay, am I all right, Like I'm relaxed,
but I'm not too relaxed, right, 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 gets smacked around by
alcohol's effect. That's right, the cerebellum. That's your movement and balance.
(23:53):
So that's why you're stumbling around because that is impaired. Uh,
your hypothalamus, simpituitare e um hormone release and automatic brain functions.
So they depressed 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
(24:14):
the same time. So that's a it's very negative. That's
a mixed message alcoholics. You know, like, hey, go talk
to that that girl over there and uh, maybe see
what happens. And then physically you're like, well, nothing's happening.
It's embarrass yourself time. Yeah, Like what you set me
up alcohol. And then there's the medulla. That's right. The
(24:38):
medulla is located at the in the brain stem, so
it's a very um ancient part of the human brain, right,
and it controls things like breathing, body temperature, UM, really
important stuff, automatic stuff, right, And alcohol impairs this the
medulla's function, so you may pass out and stop breathing.
(25:00):
Your body temperature can go hey wire, which can lead
to all sorts of other problems. UM. And your gag
reflex is centered in your medulla, so you could end
up like John Bottom passed out, throwing up and um
choking to death. Yes, that's sad stuff. Uh, we've already
talked a little bit about blackouts. But you can have
(25:20):
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 someone whose body is just not
in brain are not functioning. Yeah, there's actually there's a
(25:40):
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 diamin
or vitamin B. And vitamin B is a very important
vitamin that you need. It's an assent a vitamin, meaning
(26:00):
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. 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
(26:21):
with what's called UM We're Nikki cors Coughs 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 overall. Yeah,
they call it wet brain UH. And there are actually
(26:43):
two different things that are often described together Wernicke's UH
and cephalopit and cephalopathy and Corsicov syndrome, but they often
go hand in hand. And one of the scary things
about this is it's has a very high rate of
UH being not diagnosed. So like I think only of
(27:04):
cases are diagnosed before death, and a lot more after
they're like, oh, it turns out they had wet brain.
Nothing you can do about it now. So that is
certainly also sad as our withdrawal symptoms. If you have
an actual dependence and you're an alcoholic, when you stop
drinking um within a day to three days, probably closer
(27:29):
to a day, UM, you're gonna 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, Okay,
this guy's gonna drink all the time. I don't see
a time when he's ever gonna stop drinking. So I
need to adjust my output of neurotransmitters to change my
(27:51):
brain chemistry completely to account for this, this introduction of alcohol.
Because the body seeks homeostasis, right, this is its way
of adjusting itself to see homeostasis in the presence, the
constant presence of alcohol. Um. And so when you remove
that alcohol, the brains chemistry has been altered over time.
And now you're probably suddenly removing alcohol and you are
(28:14):
going to go through withdrawal symptoms and actually people have
died from acute alcohol withdrawal. Oh, I'm sure where they
They probably should have weaned themselves off rather than just
quit drinking cold turkey, because again, the wholemark of alcoholism
is a physical dependence on it, and that part of
your your physical dependence is your brain chemistry. Yeah, and
(28:35):
there's a lot more more and more people are thinking
that weaning off is a safer approach. Well, I think
that's what happened to Amy Winehouse. Like you just quit
cold turkey and died very quickly. Yeah. Uh. In withdrawal,
you're gonna get this be disoriented. Um, you might have hallucinations, nausea, sweating, seizures,
delirium tremens. The d T s uh actually has the
(28:58):
same effect as a lot of these hallucinations. Sweating. Your
heart rate is gonna be funky. You're gonna be shaking
and shivering. Uh. Just watch Leaving Las Vegas and Aunt
Nicholas Cage if you want to be scared away from booze. Yeah,
that was a tough movie. It was What about when
a Man Loves a Woman? That was a tough one. Yeah.
(29:19):
Days of Wine and Roses. I never saw that classic.
I think it was Jack Lemon was an alcoholic in
that one. Uh twenty eight days, not to be confused,
twenty days later days that's when Sandra Bullock played a
zombie a right, right, just kidding, Uh what else? There's
surely there's more. Oh yeah, it seemed flight. Have you
(29:41):
seen Flight with Denzel Yeah, that was pretty good. But
here's a big time alcohol that was 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 there've been it's been an off covered subject and
it's they're usually very tough to watch. Agreed. So let's
take a break in uh hug each other so we
(30:04):
can get through the rest of this thing and we'll
talk a little bit more about what alcohol does to
your body and things you can do to uh stop. Yes,
all right, So we talked a lot about the health
(30:40):
damage you're going to suffer as an alcoholic. Um in
the brain. Yeah, internally, you're gonna your liver is gonna
take a beating. So your kidneys, your heart, your brain,
your central nervous system, your liver. Actually you can the
first step two bad alcohol damage is alcoholic hep titus,
(31:00):
which is inflammation of the liver, and then you have
about a seventy chance if you have alcoholic hepatitis to
develop full blown cirrhosis. And that is when a little
bit by a little bit, your liver just turns into
scar tissue and it becomes an unusable organ and it
is nasty if you see pictures of like cirrosis damaged livers. Yeah,
(31:24):
because again, your your liver while it's metabolizing alcohol turns
it into acetylale hyde, 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. Your stomach, the lining of
the stomach can just get eaten away, and your intestines
(31:46):
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 um
(32:07):
can result in all a bunch of different alcohol alcoholic
cancers or what they're called. Like you can get him
of the throat of the larynx um. You can 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 as a carcinogen. Uh. If you're over sixty five,
(32:29):
you're in bigger trouble because your body just doesn't metabolize
alcohol as well at that point. Um, And like we said,
men have a little better time metabolizing alcohol than women, right. Um.
I remember that my bar in l A, the drawing room,
there was this old drunk there. I won't say his
(32:50):
name because I found out he's still alive. But it
was just remarkable to me that this guy was alive. Yeah,
I mean he was into a seventies and just dropped
dead drunk every single time I saw him. And I
checked back, and this was in the late nineties, and
then I was in l A last year. I went
(33:11):
to the bar asked if he was still around, and
they said, oh, yeah, he will be here in a
few hours. Wow. I was like, man, how is he alive?
Milk thistle? What's that? It's a like it's a I
think you make a tea out of it or whatever.
It's a very famous um liver cleanser. Interesting. Maybe he's
on the milk thistle. Milk thistle and he's eating a
(33:33):
lot of meat, so he's getting tons of vitamin B.
That's how that guy is alive. Maybe he was a
straight vodka guy, which is always a 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 clearer the alcohol usually the fewer the impurities. Maybe
that's what it is that's keeping him alive, the vodka,
(33:56):
and he didn't mix it with anything. But I mean,
look at like Boris Yell. Some people like he was
old when he died. Yeah, he that knows. It 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 rosation, but alcoholism definitely will. It doesn't
(34:16):
help the gin blossom situation. Um. And then there's fetal
alcohol syndrome, which is the saddest thing you can imagine. Yes,
it sets here that um fete. Fetal alcohol syndrome is
the number one preventable cause of mental impairment. What yeah,
what Wow, it's pretty amazing. So if you're drinking too much,
(34:42):
you should't drink at all when you're pregnant. You some
in Europe there like you can have a glassworm here
as well too, Like apparently you know, it's it's gained
acceptance that like you can you can have something occasionally
or whatever, like wine usually is what they say. Right
But um, and I realized this article is old, but
it's specifically says like the Surgeon General is like, do
(35:04):
not drink while you're pregnant. Well, I think that's the
fallback recommendation is. I think that if it feels like
a tricky thing to say, well, you can maybe drink
this a little bit here and there, I think it's
easier for them to say just don't drink for nine
months and and everybody says it's easy for you to say.
In general, then you have zero chance of any complications
(35:24):
like this, right, well, at least fetal alcoholic syndrome. Yeah,
so that's when your your little baby's brain cells are developing, uh,
informing connections in utero and alcohol explosion there is going
to disrupt that from the get go and lead to um,
you can have a physical problems like your head might
(35:44):
be smaller than normal microce, you might have some facial abnormalities. Uh,
and then later in life you could be in big
trouble as far as cognitive functioning, memory, learning disability. So
it's a it's a pretty rough one. And it's all
because alcohol impedes cellular division during development. Right, So when
(36:08):
the fetus is exposed to alcohol, which easily crosses the
placental barrier um the cellular division, it doesn't go according
to plan. 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 agencies says, like, you don't want to
(36:31):
mess with that really, Yeah, like do your research on
drugs and how they affect the baby and you'd probably
be surprised. Alcohol is worse than unfetal development. Absolutely, yeah,
it's the worst. Um, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty scary.
So this number I don't think is right anymore. Eight
(36:53):
five billion per year in medical expenses. It's either to okay,
and that's in the United States, and that's crime, lost productivity, accidents,
medical expenses. The economic impact of alcoholis Yeah, that is
close to three billion dollars. That's amazing, all right, So
what can you do? There's a a pot of gold
(37:15):
at the end of this rainbow. There's a For many,
many years, there was, um, your only hope was Alcoholics Anonymous,
not even twelve step programs, specifically Alcoholics Anonymous, which is
founded in either nineteen thirty or nineteen thirty five. Do
you remember, Um, there's some pretty great articles about Alcoholics Anonymous,
(37:36):
and you know it's effectiveness that it's a tributes to
it just it's this, it's its own thing, and it's
helped undoubtedly tons of people. Um. 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
(37:56):
alternatives to a a grew up. Um. 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. Um. Other people like UM, 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
(38:20):
drinker and then if that doesn't work, then yeah, you
probably should abstain for life. UM and some others say,
twelve step programs are great, but you could also do
the same thing with cognitive behavioral therapy UM and so.
But some sort of treatment program that involves like a
change in behavior through either twelve steps, support groups, one
(38:41):
on one counseling. UM. 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 genes and how they interact with drugs, the
(39:02):
more targeted treatment of alcoholism will be. It seems like, yeah,
this article I found in the New York Times, drugs
help tailor alcoholism treatment. That the wish is that one
day they will be able to because everyone's different, like
we were saying, as far as alcoholism goes, Uh, so
you can't have one treatment for such a varied group.
(39:23):
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 it's
like this doesn't work, well, then try this one. That
one's kind of working. We'll add this one in and
it's really gonna make it pop, you know. And right
now I think there are three approved f d A
(39:47):
treatments UM. Two of them now chrekzone and i CAM
pro sate reduced cravings to drink. And then there's anti
views which I've heard of for a little while. And
that's the one that makes you sick when you drink. Yeah,
that's pretty rough, Like only a drug like that could
find its roots in purity in America, you know. UM,
(40:09):
but that mal trek zone. There's a good article about
UM in in the Atlantic called The Irrationality of Alcoholics
Anonymous and the author experiments with mal trek zone and finds,
like amazingly to her astonishment, like it really works. Yeah,
it says in't here um in studies and clinical trials
they found one in seven alcoholics. Uh, it works for
(40:32):
one and seven alcoholics. Those two now track zone and
outcome pro state and with UM mal trek zone, probably
both of them, but definitely with mal trek zone. It
targets your pleasure center when alcohol is present, 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,
(40:56):
it reduces the effect that it has on the olympic system,
so you don't crave it as much or when you do. Right,
and when you do crave it, I think in that
New York Times article you found somebody's somebody who takes
nail trek zonn as saying I still get cravings, but
they're short lived and they're not nearly as intense because
of the nail trek. Right, But again it only works
(41:17):
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, But
now people are embracing it a little bit more as like,
I guess, a lesser of the evils. Yeah, at least
you're not killing your body with alcohol abuse. And one
of the things Chuck that came up when we did
(41:38):
the Addiction podcast um was that alcoholism and all addictions
are chronic disease and relapse are to be expected, as
with any chronic disease. It's you. You go through relapses
and apparently Alcoholics Anonymous did a UM survey in two
thousand seven of like eight thousand of its members in
(41:59):
North America and found that thirty three percent of them
were still abstinate after ten years. So a lot of people. Yeah,
a lot of people relapse, and I bet, I bet
you anything, those are the ones that are still work
in that program regularly. Well, yeah, you have to, like
part of a A is you still go to meetings
(42:21):
UM 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 two thousand eleven 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. Wow. Yeah,
(42:42):
it's like a gift because the author is an alcoholic
and Alcoholics Anonymous attendee and an incredible writer. Just a
great recovered alcoholic or recovering or I don't remember, because
I've probably recovered or recovering. That's why they that tag
sticks with you for life. I think that's one of
(43:04):
the things they teach you is that you should always
consider yourself an alcoholic. Right, you have a disease, but
if you're in recovery, then that's, uh, you're on the
right path. Yeah. And there I was reading an article
about alternatives to alcoholics anonymous, and one of them was
like women on sobriety or something like that. Everything we're
saying like that, we don't agree with that, Like that's
(43:24):
a temporary tag, it's not for life. Um. And the
spokesperson for that organization is saying, like, if I used
to smoke and then I quit after a certain time,
I'm not like, yeah, I'm a smoker for life, like
you 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, in
(43:46):
in 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 yeah. I think it's probably as as varied as
people's reaction to alcohol, Like if that great, if you
need to be free of that eventually great. Well said,
(44:06):
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 UM
can get you help. People are dying to help people
kick alcohol and drugs. They love to do that stuff.
They're crazy. It's like their life's work. So go meet
one of those people. Don't be afraid of them, and
(44:29):
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 fun. Yeah, yeah,
I know. I'm friends with recovering alcoholics and they're great. Yeah,
they love life just the same. Uh if you actually
they're better. They're not just the same because they're not
(44:52):
blacking out and hungover mad all the time. If you
want to know more about alcoholism, you can type that
word in the search part how stuff works dot com.
And since I said search parts, time to a listener mail.
I'm gonna call this letter from from an old Geezer
because he says he's a old geezer. I would never
(45:14):
call it of age that this automatically has seen. Hey guys,
I'm a Geezer, seventy four years old and a regular listener.
I love your show. Listen all of the time when
I'm driving. I'm also a musician and living a smallish
town restricted to Geezers south of Tucson, and I was
just listening to the podcast on auto tune. I share
your hatred of it. No, you didn't say that in
(45:34):
so many words, but it came out loud and clear.
I'm writing, however, about the little snippet you've been about rever.
When I was a senior in high school late nineteen fifties,
I was in a rock and roll band in Tucson
called the Night Beats. 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 on Phoenix where we did the session
(45:56):
could put echo on the voice in nineteen fifty nine,
long before manufactured reverb was widespread. He did it by
placing a speaker and a microphone and an empty water
tank behind the studio. 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 it's pretty smart for es tu soon aren't too bad? Right? Uh.
(46:19):
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 Ronstad,
his little sister and not yet made it big time.
Barbers tried, is she from Arizona? I didn't know that,
Linda Ronstad. Yeah, that explains the Spanish language albums. Yeah
(46:40):
maybe so, h. I hope you find this senior plow
nos Boyano, Well that was that one of the songs.
But yeah, she was on one of the Simpsons episode.
I hope you find this interesting and worth the time
it took to read it. Uh. Sure, it was an
interesting time in my life. Thanks for the great podcast.
And that is from land Hoops. Nice Lance, Thank you
(47:01):
for that. Yeah, man, I love hearing from our listeners
of age. I like hearing from twelve year old and
like seventy plus. Yeah, I mean too. I even like
hearing from uh, two year old, two hundred and three
year old? How about that? Nice? That's I always felt bad,
not always, once I came to understand that people live
(47:22):
beyond um nine two, 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. And I
feel really bad because I know that, and I know
(47:44):
you're in the heat of the podcast. Man, I don't
feel bad. I say all sorts of stuff where I'm like, man,
why did I say that? Or why didn't I address that.
I even thought I said the words 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.
But no, that's what a talk boxes. The tube is
acting as it's a rubber tube that runs from a
(48:04):
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
change his the shape of your mouth and his pop
fix prae that you that's a good song. Pe Frampton's
(48:25):
opening up for us. He's actually playing the same theater
as US, and that oh yeah, yeah, the acoustic to her,
he's playing like the week before the week after US.
I wonder if he'll play all I want to be
as by his thought. Uh, 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
(48:46):
Frampton than that. Oh we know a little more, but
we don't feel like talking about it on social that.
If you want to get in touch with us, though,
you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook, dot com slash stuff
you should know. You can send us any else two
stuff podcasts at how stuff works dot com, and has
always joined us at our home on the web, Stuff
First you Know dot com For more on this and
(49:12):
thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works dot com.
M
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