How does building up alcohol tolerance work? The more consistently you drink alcohol the more tolerance you build to it, so over a long time it will take more alcohol to get you drunk. Just curious how this works.
In: Biology
Alcohol gets broken down in your body by enzymes produced by your liver. When you drink enough to get drunk, it’s because you’ve taken in alcohol faster than your body can process it.
If you do this regularly, your liver “learns” that it needs more of these enzymes so it produces more, which means you need to consume more alcohol to have it get you drunk.
Alot like any other the drug. Body and brain get used to this new influx of chemicals, and produce neurotransmitters and enzymes accordingly.
It’s why after so long some people get addicted, they created a new “normal” of neurotransmitter levels in the brain that needs to be maintained or else they get sick.
Two things are happening, and I will do my best to explain like you’re five:
1) You have receptors on your brain cells. They are a lock and alcohol is the key. If enough keys fit into enough locks, the brain cells start making you feel drunk. If you drink a lot, your brain cells are like “oh dang so many keys! Let’s make some more locks”. And at that point more locks have to be unlocked to make you feel drunk.
2) As others have said, your liver has enzymes that destroy alcohol (because it’s legit poison). When you drink more, your liver is like “oh shit, more poison! Let’s get better at destroying this poison”. So it makes more enzymes to break down more alcohol.
So long story short, tolerance occurs because it takes more alcohol to get drunk, while it is also being removed the body faster.
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