I recently read a story about a young man who died of an alcohol OD after drinking a half-liter of spirits.
I have drank close to that much before, and I have seen lots of people drink much more than that, and every single one threw up what they had drunk or passed out only to wake up later on. But in this case, the guy passed out and went into a coma before dying.
It made me wonder, how does anyone die of an alcohol OD? I imagine most people would vomit well before their life was at risk. Was the guy in this story just really unlucky? He wasn’t an alcoholic or anything, he was just a guy who went out expecting to have a good time with his friends, and was dead before the night was even over.
In: Biology
Hi there.
simply put, you have two chemicals that either speed your brain and body up, or slow them down. GABA slows it down, glutamate speeds it up. They work together to keep your breathing, heart rate, and all other body functions at rates that are needed for life. (called homeostasis)
Alcohol mimics GABA (which is why it’s called a downer, as GABA slows everything down). Alcohol also blocks glutamate, which makes it hard for it to cancel out the alcohol and GABA in your brain.
Too much alcohol all at once and you have all brakes and no gas, so your breathing stops.
If you drink alcohol excessively for a long long time then the opposite happens, your body makes less GABA and more glutamate. If you suddenly stop drinking then you have all gas and no brakes, and you can have a seizure that won’t stop, which will eventually make you stop breathing because the muscles can’t coordinate.
Edit: the vomit reflex tends to happen too late to stop the absorption of alcohol. Most of it is very rapidly absorbed from the stomach, not the intestines like most food. If you’re too drunk to clear your airway then it can obstruct it and suffocate you.
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