Follow up....Finally!

First, let me apologize for taking so long to blog...Passing this semester was a pretty big deal...just ask my fiance'! 

After reading the interesting findings on coca-cola, a good friend of mine wondered what the effects of Beer on your system would be and if it would be any worse for you.  Well, in this long awaited follow up segment, I’ll try not to go into too much detail, but let me just state a few facts about sitting back and enjoying a nice “brewsky”. 

When you down a can of coke, the initial wave of sugar (an entire days worth remember) is the stressor that your body immediately must deal with.  However, in beer there isn’t nearly as much sugar and so the body’s metabolic reaction is much different.  Its so much different, that alcohol actually has an opposite effect at first making the blood hypoglycemic (lowers blood sugar).  That’s why alcohol consumption for a diabetic can be quite dangerous, especially if they’re on insulin.

A 1-pint Ale has around 30 grams of carbs with approximately 7 calories in every gram of alcohol. When you chug this refreshing Ale your body then goes to work separating the contents of the drink. Though its not the best or most nutritious source, the body can relatively handle the magnesium, selenium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin B that are supplied in beer.  But as we all know, it’s the ethanol that really makes your body start hating life. Lets not forget that ethanol is a chemical irritant and your body looks at it like it’s a toxin. Our cells don’t need alcohol to function properly in some elite way nor do they want it.

Alcohol is digested by the small intestines.  From there the alcohol-laden blood travels to there liver where it’s the only place that an enzyme called “alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme” can start breaking it down so there won’t be as much alcohol floating around in your blood affecting your other organs. It does so in two steps: first by breaking the alcohol down into acetaldehyde; and then breaking the acetaldehyde into acetyl. This chemical breakdown produces hydrogen ions which then have to be picked up and escorted out by vitamin B (B-3 I believe).  I would assume that this is why some beer companies choose to keep vitamin B in their ingredients when others do not. While vitamin B is busy trying to clean up the acid build up in the liver, the more important job it has functioning in glycolysis and ATP (energy for the body) is inhibited.  This would be one of many reason why alcohol is considered a depressant. On top of that, excess acetyl results in fatty acid which over time starts to clog the liver.  Fatty liver is the first stage in the dreaded cirrhosis (death) of the liver which is an irreversible stage. 

I could probably go on and on, but I’ll just mention one other fact.  The two most important items that your brain needs to function properly is Oxygen and glucose.  Alcohol is a major inhibitor of the production of glucose and hence when someone downs a few too many, they become “sloshed”.

So Ryan, my answer to you would be…pick your poison.  I’ve chosen my poison to be a Guiness.  Obviously, our bodies are well equipped to handle a coke or beer every once in a while, but  anything in excess may be borderline dangerous.

Medical Fact #2:  The length of the human blood vessels, if stretched out, is such that it would circle the globe 2 1/2 times.