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How Alcoholism Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know Friendhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
0:11
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
0:13
Speaker 1: w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry, and Chuck's got a noise machines.
0:19
Speaker 1: It was could turn into like Morning Zoo type episode. No,
0:22
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna use it. It's a lame one. It
0:25
Speaker 1: is pretty lame. Like is it marked? What does it do?
0:28
Speaker 1: How many different functions does they have? Chuck down two
0:31
Speaker 1: three four one two three four five, that would be
0:34
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Nice job. You just use multiplications, right, But
0:39
Speaker 1: like I said when I first sat down, it doesn't
0:41
Speaker 1: even have a fark sound. So how good of a
0:43
Speaker 1: noise machine could it be? How does it not? It's
0:46
Speaker 1: got a burp? I mean they make sound machines. They
0:48
Speaker 1: just have that sound. Well, yeah, it's called a whoopie cushion. Yeah,
0:53
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a machine though probably not. Okay, device,
1:00
Speaker 1: I don't think I said this stuff you should know
1:02
Speaker 1: in case you hadn't figured it out. Well, someone just
1:04
Speaker 1: stumbled upon this and they're horrified. They turned it off
1:07
Speaker 1: a good minute ago. Yeah, and we're gonna talk about
1:10
Speaker 1: alcoholism and there's nothing more fun than that, right, This
1:13
Speaker 1: one should be a laugh riot. Right, Well, you can
1:15
Speaker 1: definitely perk things up with your little noise machine over there.
1:18
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that. Uh, so alcoholism, Chuck turns out,
1:23
Speaker 1: in researching this, um, we should say, let us shout
1:26
Speaker 1: out to some previous episodes that really tie into this totally.
1:30
Speaker 1: We did prohibition. Colin turns out America really loves to drink.
1:35
Speaker 1: That was one episode we did addiction, Yeah, good one. Uh.
1:39
Speaker 1: And we did one on rehab yep, another good one. Um. Yeah.
1:44
Speaker 1: And then if you want to count like beer, yeah,
1:47
Speaker 1: the booze ones or I think we did one on moonshine,
1:50
Speaker 1: we did one on and Whiskey Runners. Do we do
1:55
Speaker 1: one on Whiskey Runners? We ended up doing like two
1:57
Speaker 1: somehow on Whiskey Runners. Yeah? What else? Oh, I'm sure
2:02
Speaker 1: there are others, but I think the ones on addiction
2:05
Speaker 1: and rehab definitely factor in. Indeed so um. In running
2:11
Speaker 1: across this though, I was reminded that yes, America loves drinking,
2:15
Speaker 1: the world does, but not necessarily. I saw a statistic
2:20
Speaker 1: that blew me away. Sixties six percent of the human
2:25
Speaker 1: beings over age. I believe fifteen worldwide have not had
2:30
Speaker 1: a drink in the last twelve months, according to a
2:34
Speaker 1: major survey like World Health Organization Type level survey. I
2:38
Speaker 1: don't remember where I saw it because I saw so
2:40
Speaker 1: many different statistics here there, but like, the majority of
2:45
Speaker 1: the population of the Earth has not had a drink
2:48
Speaker 1: in the last twelve months. Interesting. Yeah, I thought that
2:51
Speaker 1: was interesting too. And of course there's entire countries that
2:53
Speaker 1: are basically teetotally, yeah, And there are entire countries that
2:57
Speaker 1: are drunk, right, so, UM in America is definitely one
3:01
Speaker 1: of them. Right, America loves to drink. We drink very regularly.
3:07
Speaker 1: At other countries, they don't drink necessarily during the week,
3:10
Speaker 1: but they really plow into it on the weekends. UM,
3:15
Speaker 1: and all of this falls, it turns out, falls under
3:17
Speaker 1: this umbrella called UM. Alcohol use disorders, binge drinking, alcohol abuse,
3:24
Speaker 1: and alcoholism three different things they are. Although you could
3:28
Speaker 1: say that binge drinking is a type of alcohol abuse,
3:31
Speaker 1: it's a behavioral pattern drinking behavior UM. But yes, alcohol
3:36
Speaker 1: abuse is not necessarily alcoholism, and neither has binge drinking.
3:40
Speaker 1: Alcoholism is its own thing. Yeah, alcohol abuse is if
3:44
Speaker 1: you are drinking, if there's a problem with your drinking. Um,
3:48
Speaker 1: it's affecting your school, your work, your personal life, your family,
3:51
Speaker 1: your friends. You could be an alcohol abuser. Um. Alcoholism
3:57
Speaker 1: is a chronic disease where you are physically dependent on alcohol.
4:02
Speaker 1: You need to drink, You've got to have that drink.
4:05
Speaker 1: Once you start drinking, you have a hard time stopping.
4:09
Speaker 1: You develop a tolerance for drinking, so you need to
4:11
Speaker 1: drink more. And if you stop drinking, you suffer withdrawal symptoms.
4:15
Speaker 1: That's alcoholism, right, And you suffer withdrawal symptoms because, like
4:19
Speaker 1: you said, you've become physically dependent on it. And we'll
4:22
Speaker 1: talk about how in this episode. But yes, alcohol abuse,
4:25
Speaker 1: that just means you need to get your your act
4:27
Speaker 1: together big time. Sure. Alcoholism a chronic disease. Yeah, it
4:34
Speaker 1: means you need medical help. And and beyond medical help
4:37
Speaker 1: psychological help, you need treatment. Yeah. You're probably not going
4:41
Speaker 1: to be able to do it on your own now,
4:43
Speaker 1: and with alcohol abuse you may need treatment as well.
4:45
Speaker 1: Everyone's different. Uh yeah, Yeah. I don't think we should
4:48
Speaker 1: chase people away from seeking treatment alcohol abusers and not
4:52
Speaker 1: necessarily alcoholics. I think probably if you're a serious abuser
4:56
Speaker 1: of alcohol, you probably feel like an alcohol like in
5:00
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. Yeah. I mean, if you woke
5:02
Speaker 1: up this morning and you don't remember where you were
5:04
Speaker 1: last night for five hours, abuser of alcohol, you may
5:07
Speaker 1: want to you know, check into that a little bit,
5:11
Speaker 1: or you may not. Well, yeah, and it depends. I
5:13
Speaker 1: think a lot of people think that, um, if they
5:17
Speaker 1: if they are an abuser of alcohol, that they have
5:19
Speaker 1: to just stop entirely for the rest of their lives.
5:22
Speaker 1: Not necessarily. I mean back in nineteen yes, that was
5:25
Speaker 1: probably the case. These days, there's been a different approach
5:30
Speaker 1: to managing alcoholism and alcohol abuse to where you definitely
5:35
Speaker 1: don't have to abstain, although it's still like the model.
5:40
Speaker 1: And again it depends on the person. Some people can
5:42
Speaker 1: do that. Um. Some people can drink socially, uh and
5:47
Speaker 1: never have a problem. Some people can have a problem
5:49
Speaker 1: go back to just drinking socially. And some people need
5:53
Speaker 1: to just they just can't have it anymore. And they
5:55
Speaker 1: know that, you know. And the key is to find
5:59
Speaker 1: out what kind of person you are, you know, Yes,
6:03
Speaker 1: by stopping, that's how you find out. Probably, so you
6:07
Speaker 1: see what happens when you stop, Yeah, exactly. Uh. There
6:10
Speaker 1: are more than seventeen million Americans who are either alcoholic
6:15
Speaker 1: or abuse alcohol more men than women, um, apparently ten
6:19
Speaker 1: percent to three to five. And uh, this says that
6:25
Speaker 1: if you have fourteen or more drinks a week as
6:28
Speaker 1: a man, or seven or more drinks per week as
6:30
Speaker 1: a woman, you are at risk for alcoholism. And do
6:34
Speaker 1: you know why because the National Institutes of Health themselves
6:38
Speaker 1: define moderate drinking as fourteen drinks a week or less
6:43
Speaker 1: for a man, in seven drinks a week or less
6:46
Speaker 1: for a woman. Like, that's moderate drinking in the United
6:49
Speaker 1: States as far as like a couple of beers a night. Yeah,
6:53
Speaker 1: that seems about right to me. It does. And if
6:55
Speaker 1: you're if you are um enraged by this gender disparity, yeah,
7:00
Speaker 1: let's all just calm down because it has to do
7:02
Speaker 1: with uh usually body type and metabolism. Yeah, of course.
7:09
Speaker 1: And it's not like, little lady, do you only get
7:13
Speaker 1: half the drinks because we're drinking the rest I've done,
7:16
Speaker 1: We're drinking your share. None some ladies that can drink
7:19
Speaker 1: me under the table. Sure, but it's the average, that's right. Um.
7:23
Speaker 1: It is more prevalent among younger folks than older people
7:27
Speaker 1: as well. Uh, and it will touch many people's lives,
7:32
Speaker 1: whether or not you or an abuser an alcoholic. Uh.
7:35
Speaker 1: They say that more than Americans have been exposed to
7:38
Speaker 1: alcoholism somewhere in their family. Um, I'm surprised it's not
7:42
Speaker 1: a little more than that. I was surprised by that
7:43
Speaker 1: statistic too. I wonder, um, this this article is fairly old.
7:47
Speaker 1: We had to go through an update some of the stats.
7:51
Speaker 1: But UM, I'm wondering if if that's more or less
7:54
Speaker 1: these days, because it does seem low. Yeah, I mean
7:56
Speaker 1: if you're talking about your extended family, because it doesn't
7:59
Speaker 1: say idiot family, and and that's I mean, that brings
8:03
Speaker 1: up you know, one of the things. One of the
8:05
Speaker 1: reasons everybody's like you shouldn't be an alcoholic. Alcoholism is
8:08
Speaker 1: a problem is not just because of what it does
8:10
Speaker 1: to the individual, but because the effects that has on
8:13
Speaker 1: people who are raised by alcoholics. Yeah, you're I think
8:16
Speaker 1: four times more likely to become an alcoholic if one
8:19
Speaker 1: of your parents is an alcoholic. Yeah, you also are
8:22
Speaker 1: more likely to experience anxiety, depression, behavioral problems. And um,
8:28
Speaker 1: there's a lot of programs that are geared towards helping
8:31
Speaker 1: children of alcoholics cope. Yeah, my grand paternal grandfather was
8:36
Speaker 1: a nasty drunk. Uh. He died when I was like five,
8:42
Speaker 1: so I didn't know him very well. But um as
8:46
Speaker 1: went with my father. My father like didn't drink. So
8:50
Speaker 1: it can go both ways. You know, you might become
8:52
Speaker 1: an alcoholic or you might be like, no, no, no,
8:54
Speaker 1: that was your dad's dad. Yeah, I'm not touching that stuff.
8:58
Speaker 1: And uh, I don't think my dad. Maybe he drinks
9:00
Speaker 1: a little bit here and there now, but he pretty
9:02
Speaker 1: much was just like now, Like, I grew up in
9:04
Speaker 1: a household withou no alcohol because my mom didn't drink either,
9:09
Speaker 1: So I wonder what happened to me. I went to college.
9:12
Speaker 1: That was I was gonna say, I don't have anybody
9:15
Speaker 1: in my family who with a history like that. Yeah.
9:19
Speaker 1: I will say this though, and going through the adoption process,
9:21
Speaker 1: it really makes you take a look at your own
9:23
Speaker 1: lineage and not be super precious about it. Oh yeah, yeah,
9:27
Speaker 1: because you pick out tolerances of what you will accept
9:30
Speaker 1: in birth parents, like if they have disease or mental
9:34
Speaker 1: illness or alcoholism or drug abuse and there, and you
9:37
Speaker 1: start to think about your own family and extended family.
9:41
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, wait a minute, there's alcoholism and drug
9:43
Speaker 1: abuse and mental illness and suicide attempts, and it makes
9:47
Speaker 1: you think, oh, well, it's not like my seed is
9:50
Speaker 1: anything special, you know. So I thought it was pretty interesting.
9:55
Speaker 1: Uh does a growing experience. It was a growing experience.
10:00
Speaker 1: So um, some people, like we said, can drink and
10:04
Speaker 1: it doesn't become a problem as an abuser or as
10:07
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. Some people do and they think there are
10:11
Speaker 1: give me a combination of factors including genetic, physiological, psychological,
10:16
Speaker 1: and social. Yeah, the genes they haven't. They don't know
10:19
Speaker 1: the gene. They're pretty sure that there is a genetic link. Yeah.
10:23
Speaker 1: I thought, surely this article is old enough that if
10:27
Speaker 1: I just do a search now I'll find well, they
10:29
Speaker 1: know this gene and this gene are involved. Now I
10:31
Speaker 1: couldn't find any genes named. The reason why they think
10:34
Speaker 1: there's a genetic link is thanks to twins studies. They
10:37
Speaker 1: found that alcoholism is more prevalent among identical twins than
10:41
Speaker 1: among fraternal twins, which suggests that there is a genetic
10:44
Speaker 1: component to it. And they also think that genes play
10:47
Speaker 1: a role in for for like an individual whose um
10:52
Speaker 1: pleasure circuit is like just really highly tuned. Ye, So physiologically,
10:59
Speaker 1: if you're dope, I mean just goes off the charts
11:02
Speaker 1: more than someone else's might, then you might be more
11:04
Speaker 1: at risks. Yeah, you're gonna be like, I want to
11:06
Speaker 1: do that again, Give me another, give me another beer?
11:09
Speaker 1: Right whatever or ten? Right? Yeah. Well yeah, and that's
11:14
Speaker 1: another thing we didn't necessarily point out early on, is
11:18
Speaker 1: an alcoholic there's no stopping. Like stopping equals like falling
11:23
Speaker 1: over and blacking out or being arrested or um running
11:27
Speaker 1: out of um alcohol in the entire house and not
11:31
Speaker 1: being able to like find their keys to go get more. Uh. Yeah,
11:36
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's like a daily thing, like
11:40
Speaker 1: there are alcoholics who drink every night and don't drink
11:43
Speaker 1: too blackout proportions, um, but that certainly can happen. Uh Psychologically, Um,
11:50
Speaker 1: if you suffer from depression or if you don't feel
11:54
Speaker 1: very good about yourself, you have low self esteem, you
11:56
Speaker 1: probably be more likely to develop alcoholism as a drinker.
12:00
Speaker 1: And then socially, of course, Uh, we talked to I
12:03
Speaker 1: don't think we've done one just on pure pressure, but
12:06
Speaker 1: we talked about it a lot. Yeah, and that's a
12:08
Speaker 1: big reason why kids will uh start drinking and then
12:13
Speaker 1: factor in what they see around them every day, having
12:16
Speaker 1: advertisements and TV and movies like whatever, Bill or whatever. Um,
12:21
Speaker 1: I think it's like bud Light, like they put together
12:23
Speaker 1: a whole town that's just like one big party all
12:25
Speaker 1: the time, fueled by by light. Yeah. Man, And then
12:28
Speaker 1: like these new absolute ads that are's just like these
12:32
Speaker 1: crazy like eyes wide shut parties and everybody's like it's
12:36
Speaker 1: just so incredibly rich and glamorous and having like like
12:40
Speaker 1: they're just so out of control having a great time.
12:43
Speaker 1: They're they're also clearly like snorting ecstasy or something too.
12:47
Speaker 1: But like it's an absolute ad, you know. So yeah,
12:50
Speaker 1: if you're like fourteen, you're like, I want to be
12:52
Speaker 1: at that party. As a matter of fact, maybe if
12:55
Speaker 1: I open this bottle of absolute right here and invite
12:57
Speaker 1: a few friends or that party will start in my house.
13:00
Speaker 1: They definitely said to the wrong message, And I'm surprised
13:04
Speaker 1: that this stuff is allowed and not a little bit more.
13:07
Speaker 1: You know, I guess I can't do anything. There are
13:10
Speaker 1: regulations for alcohol advertisements, but yes, you can't. You can't
13:14
Speaker 1: suggest that alcohol is fun. You like, you might have
13:19
Speaker 1: to rethink every campaign we've ever done. Uh, some signs
13:23
Speaker 1: that you may have be an alcoholic is if you
13:27
Speaker 1: I don't want to eat anymore, you don't really care
13:29
Speaker 1: about food, if you drink alone, that's one of the
13:32
Speaker 1: big ones. They say. If you're lying about your drinking
13:35
Speaker 1: or secretly drinking. Um, that's a big one. Like if
13:39
Speaker 1: you're telling you know your family like have stopped, have stopped,
13:42
Speaker 1: and you're mixing the vodka with orange juice in the morning,
13:46
Speaker 1: You've got like a bad sign. Yeah, very bad signs.
13:49
Speaker 1: What are you gonna say, you got like booze stashed
13:51
Speaker 1: around the house. Uh. And then if you're drinking to
13:57
Speaker 1: forget your problems, which I think that's why a lot
14:01
Speaker 1: of people drink. If you're unhappy when you're not drinking
14:06
Speaker 1: and super touchy and irritable, or if you're suffering from
14:11
Speaker 1: those blackouts, if you're blacking out a lot. Then although
14:15
Speaker 1: alcohol efficts some people differently, I'm not a blackouter. Um,
14:21
Speaker 1: even though I've had times where I've had way too
14:23
Speaker 1: much to drink, I never really black out. But some
14:25
Speaker 1: people black out pretty easily. So that might be a
14:28
Speaker 1: sign that alcohol affects you differently. You might want to
14:30
Speaker 1: take a look. Yeah, and that's another argument in favor
14:33
Speaker 1: of genetics. It's people experience things differently, you know. Um,
14:39
Speaker 1: so we are going to dive into your body, the
14:43
Speaker 1: body of the alcoholics right after this message, So chuck.
15:12
Speaker 1: The drink has been taken. Um. And the first thing
15:16
Speaker 1: that happens when it hits the gut as it starts
15:19
Speaker 1: getting absorbed. Well, the first thing that happens is it
15:21
Speaker 1: says here I am, and it starts irritating your stomach. Lining. Yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: it's funny that that. It's not funny. But like you
15:29
Speaker 1: take an alcohol in your body, and your body immediately
15:32
Speaker 1: it's like, no, it's not like your body doesn't want
15:35
Speaker 1: the alcohol, right right. It starts trying to get rid
15:38
Speaker 1: of it in every way possible as soon as it
15:40
Speaker 1: enters your body. Yeah. So alcohol is a poison start with,
15:44
Speaker 1: but your body metabolizes it into an even worse poison. Yeah. Um,
15:48
Speaker 1: and yeah, it wants to get rid of it immediately,
15:51
Speaker 1: so which is why you vomit sometimes. That's right. It
15:55
Speaker 1: is absorbed in the stomach and the other is absorbed
15:58
Speaker 1: in the small intestine. And depending what you're drinking, it's
16:02
Speaker 1: going to be absorbed quicker or more slowly. So like
16:07
Speaker 1: vodka will be absorbed faster than beer because vodka has
16:11
Speaker 1: a higher alcoholic content. That's right. It's a concentration of
16:15
Speaker 1: alcohol higher than beer. That's right. When you go, when
16:20
Speaker 1: your body starts to metabolize it, Um, about ten as
16:26
Speaker 1: removed in urine and breath by the kidneys and lungs,
16:30
Speaker 1: and then your liver takes care of the rest. Yeah,
16:33
Speaker 1: and it takes takes a beating in the process. Yeah,
16:36
Speaker 1: because again it's a toxin. It's also a carcinogen. Did
16:39
Speaker 1: you know that? I found that out researching this um.
16:44
Speaker 1: And as your lungs are or as your liver is
16:47
Speaker 1: trying to just get rid of all this stuff and
16:49
Speaker 1: metabolize it and break it down into other parts. Um,
16:54
Speaker 1: you're you're drinking more and more and more, which can
16:57
Speaker 1: kill you, Like in a night, it can kill you
17:00
Speaker 1: can die very easily from consuming too much alcohol in
17:03
Speaker 1: a single sitting. Yeah, apparently they have that quantified um
17:06
Speaker 1: is your blood alcohol content or blood alcohol concentration goes up.
17:11
Speaker 1: That's where you drink faster than your liver is able
17:14
Speaker 1: to metabolize it and process the alcohol, which results in
17:18
Speaker 1: you're getting drunker and drunker, right, Um, but after you
17:21
Speaker 1: get to a blood alcohol content of point three five um,
17:25
Speaker 1: two point five percent, which I guess is like if
17:31
Speaker 1: you just take any and like a cube excent a
17:34
Speaker 1: leader of blood point three of that would be alcohol.
17:39
Speaker 1: That seems like a lot. Well, that's what puts you
17:42
Speaker 1: in an alcohol induced coma, So I would think it's
17:45
Speaker 1: a lot. So up to a half of a percent,
17:47
Speaker 1: you're you're only at risk of a coma. After a
17:50
Speaker 1: half of a percent, you're facing death. Like Alexander the Great.
17:56
Speaker 1: Uh oh did he die from alcohol poison? Allegedly he
17:58
Speaker 1: did from a wine drinking contest. That's never a good
18:02
Speaker 1: idea food and drinking contest in general. We did one
18:06
Speaker 1: on those on food contests, but I don't think those
18:09
Speaker 1: are ever a good idea. No, you know who else
18:11
Speaker 1: does it? Ryan Reynolds hates eating contests? Oh really? Yeah?
18:15
Speaker 1: What did he make a stand? Like? Uh, just a
18:20
Speaker 1: social media stand? Probably? No. He wrote a essay in
18:24
Speaker 1: the Huffington Post about how just disgraceful and what a
18:28
Speaker 1: waste it is. It's just it's such an arrogant thing
18:31
Speaker 1: to do in eating contest while people are starving. And
18:35
Speaker 1: then you would love this essay and he put a
18:37
Speaker 1: picture of his six pack. Abs said, plus, you can't
18:40
Speaker 1: look like this, bam uh. Let's talk about the brain,
18:45
Speaker 1: because it definitely affects your brain. Specifically, it is going
18:50
Speaker 1: to alter the levels of your neurotransmitters, and those are
18:54
Speaker 1: what sends those chemical messages all around and your body.
18:58
Speaker 1: And that's why you're gonna end up slurring and stumbling
19:01
Speaker 1: and losing motor function because it's dumbing you down. Yeah,
19:05
Speaker 1: your brain is not able to communicate with itself or
19:09
Speaker 1: the rest of your body the way it's supposed to
19:11
Speaker 1: because the neuro transmitters are being affected, and two in
19:14
Speaker 1: particular are being affected. Gabba, our friend that puts us
19:19
Speaker 1: to sleep, is increased. Gabba release or GABA production is
19:23
Speaker 1: increased when alcohol is introduced to the body. Right, and
19:28
Speaker 1: then glutamate actually, which is an excitatory neurotransmitter get you up,
19:33
Speaker 1: up up, gives you some PEP, is actually reduced when
19:38
Speaker 1: you drink alcohol. So you go from sleepy to sloppy
19:43
Speaker 1: because gabas increased and glutamates decreased. Yeah, and this whole
19:47
Speaker 1: time you go from sleepy to sloppy, but your dopamine
19:50
Speaker 1: is through the roof so sleepy or slappy you're going,
19:54
Speaker 1: isn't this great? This is the best thing ever. Speaking
19:58
Speaker 1: of great, I think you're great. Uh. And that's all
20:01
Speaker 1: because of dopamine. You know. When I saw this, now
20:03
Speaker 1: I saw glutamate. It makes me wonder if the brain
20:07
Speaker 1: has a new mommy taste to it. Gross, But don't
20:10
Speaker 1: you wonder though you need brains? Yeah you can. You
20:16
Speaker 1: can get them in like a can at the grocery store. Yeah,
20:19
Speaker 1: you can get You can get them in a fancy
20:21
Speaker 1: restaurant else, other places that you quick trip, quick trip.
20:27
Speaker 1: Sure you can get everything a quick trip. And that
20:30
Speaker 1: was impotted meat. I'm sure there's some impot of meat,
20:34
Speaker 1: but I think potted meat makes like a brains brand,
20:37
Speaker 1: a brains brand brains. Yeah, so gross. I used to
20:42
Speaker 1: work at the Golden Pantry, you know, in Athens, and
20:44
Speaker 1: we had dudes that would come in there, like you know,
20:47
Speaker 1: road workers that would get their like pack of salt
20:49
Speaker 1: teas and potted meat was there lunch. They would get
20:52
Speaker 1: on the way to work and like a ninety eight
20:54
Speaker 1: ounce mountain dew that's healthy living, brother, their arm would
21:01
Speaker 1: just fall off on their way out the door. Yeah.
21:04
Speaker 1: And a few packs of cigarettes to probably um. So
21:08
Speaker 1: how specifically their regions of the brain that are specifically
21:11
Speaker 1: affected in different ways. I guess we should go over
21:13
Speaker 1: that too. Sure, Like the cerebral cortex, Well, the cerebral cortex, right,
21:18
Speaker 1: that's your That's where your executive function is located. That's
21:21
Speaker 1: where things like maybe I should stop drinking for the
21:25
Speaker 1: night decisions are located, or um, maybe I shouldn't get
21:30
Speaker 1: in a fight with that cop um, or maybe I
21:34
Speaker 1: shouldn't start that fire. Whatever. All of this stuff is
21:37
Speaker 1: located here in your prefrontal cortex, right, and it becomes
21:40
Speaker 1: impaired again because your neurotransmitters are reduced, they're being affected,
21:46
Speaker 1: and your brain is not communicating with itself any longer.
21:48
Speaker 1: So the boss, the executive function is basically silenced, and
21:53
Speaker 1: that actually has a one to punch as far as
21:56
Speaker 1: alcohol consumption is concerned. Not only is your judgment impaired,
21:59
Speaker 1: meaning you're behavior just takes all sorts of left turns
22:03
Speaker 1: while you're drunk, right, but also remember we said the
22:07
Speaker 1: reward pathway is activated by alcohol and your dope means
22:10
Speaker 1: going crazy. Well, your prefrontal cortex is also responsible for
22:15
Speaker 1: um judging whether a pleasurable experience has an adaptive um
22:22
Speaker 1: benefit to it. Yeah, whether it's worth it. The thing is,
22:26
Speaker 1: when this is impaired, you're that part of your brain
22:29
Speaker 1: is not able to judge drinking is not worth it.
22:31
Speaker 1: So it's all totally worth it. So it's all pleasure.
22:34
Speaker 1: So it has like this this really um, this crazy effect.
22:38
Speaker 1: I mean, alcohol is so smart. It knows what it's doing. Yeah,
22:42
Speaker 1: I mean it lowers your inhibitions and that. Uh, if
22:46
Speaker 1: you're abusing alcohol, that's a bad thing. Um, if you
22:49
Speaker 1: have a glass of wine before you have to, you know,
22:52
Speaker 1: go up on stage, that's a different thing. Oh, well
22:55
Speaker 1: you're the exception. I guess. Huh that said a glass
22:58
Speaker 1: of wine, not twelve classes. Why I was speaking of
23:02
Speaker 1: this is fresh air I've been meaning to listen to
23:04
Speaker 1: with an author named, um oh, Sarah Hippola or Hippola.
23:11
Speaker 1: I haven't listened yet, so I don't know how to
23:13
Speaker 1: say her last name, but she as a recovering alcoholic
23:16
Speaker 1: and she apparently, it says in the description she got
23:19
Speaker 1: up and spoke in front of like a crowd of
23:21
Speaker 1: three hundred um and was so drunk that she had
23:25
Speaker 1: no recollection of it the next day. Can you imagine that? Man,
23:29
Speaker 1: that's my worst nightmare. I mean, like going on on stage.
23:32
Speaker 1: You're like, okay, am I all right, Like I'm relaxed,
23:34
Speaker 1: but I'm not too relaxed, right, Like being blackout drunk
23:38
Speaker 1: on stage. That's wow, that is a scary thought. So, Chuck,
23:43
Speaker 1: that's just the prefrontal cortex we've been talking about. There's
23:46
Speaker 1: other regions of the brain that gets smacked around by
23:49
Speaker 1: alcohol's effect. That's right, the cerebellum. That's your movement and balance.
23:53
Speaker 1: So that's why you're stumbling around because that is impaired. Uh,
23:58
Speaker 1: your hypothalamus, simpituitare e um hormone release and automatic brain functions.
24:04
Speaker 1: So they depressed the nerves and the hypothalamus and they
24:08
Speaker 1: we're talking about sexual arousal. You might be more aroused,
24:12
Speaker 1: but you might not be able to perform sexually at
24:14
Speaker 1: the same time. So that's a it's very negative. That's
24:18
Speaker 1: a mixed message alcoholics. You know, like, hey, go talk
24:23
Speaker 1: to that that girl over there and uh, maybe see
24:26
Speaker 1: what happens. And then physically you're like, well, nothing's happening.
24:30
Speaker 1: It's embarrass yourself time. Yeah, Like what you set me
24:33
Speaker 1: up alcohol. And then there's the medulla. That's right. The
24:38
Speaker 1: medulla is located at the in the brain stem, so
24:42
Speaker 1: it's a very um ancient part of the human brain, right,
24:45
Speaker 1: and it controls things like breathing, body temperature, UM, really
24:50
Speaker 1: important stuff, automatic stuff, right, And alcohol impairs this the
24:54
Speaker 1: medulla's function, so you may pass out and stop breathing.
25:00
Speaker 1: Your body temperature can go hey wire, which can lead
25:02
Speaker 1: to all sorts of other problems. UM. And your gag
25:05
Speaker 1: reflex is centered in your medulla, so you could end
25:08
Speaker 1: up like John Bottom passed out, throwing up and um
25:12
Speaker 1: choking to death. Yes, that's sad stuff. Uh, we've already
25:17
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about blackouts. But you can have
25:20
Speaker 1: that short term memory loss or it can lead to
25:22
Speaker 1: long term uh memory loss and like onset of dementia.
25:27
Speaker 1: You've heard of or may have even known people that
25:30
Speaker 1: have been described as pickled from alcohol, and uh that's
25:34
Speaker 1: just you know that someone whose body is just not
25:37
Speaker 1: in brain are not functioning. Yeah, there's actually there's a
25:40
Speaker 1: specific vitamin deficiency that can come from alcohol because UM
25:45
Speaker 1: prolonged exposure to alcohol or prolonged consumption of alcohol over
25:49
Speaker 1: the years, UM reduces your body's ability to absorb diamin
25:53
Speaker 1: or vitamin B. And vitamin B is a very important
25:58
Speaker 1: vitamin that you need. It's an assent a vitamin, meaning
26:00
Speaker 1: that you need to get it elsewhere, like you need
26:02
Speaker 1: to eat it because your body is either doesn't produce
26:05
Speaker 1: or it doesn't produce enough. So UM, with vitamin B
26:09
Speaker 1: it helps brain cells UM turn carbs into energy, very important.
26:14
Speaker 1: It also helps nerves transmit information, also very important. And
26:19
Speaker 1: when you have a thiamine deficiency, you can end up
26:21
Speaker 1: with what's called UM We're Nikki cors Coughs syndrome where
26:25
Speaker 1: basically your brain shrinks, you become confused, disoriented, UM, you
26:29
Speaker 1: essentially lose your mind in a lot of ways because
26:33
Speaker 1: your brain is no longer able to function correctly or
26:36
Speaker 1: communicate with itself, not just while you're drunk overall. Yeah,
26:41
Speaker 1: they call it wet brain UH. And there are actually
26:43
Speaker 1: two different things that are often described together Wernicke's UH
26:47
Speaker 1: and cephalopit and cephalopathy and Corsicov syndrome, but they often
26:53
Speaker 1: go hand in hand. And one of the scary things
26:55
Speaker 1: about this is it's has a very high rate of
26:58
Speaker 1: UH being not diagnosed. So like I think only of
27:04
Speaker 1: cases are diagnosed before death, and a lot more after
27:08
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, it turns out they had wet brain.
27:12
Speaker 1: Nothing you can do about it now. So that is
27:15
Speaker 1: certainly also sad as our withdrawal symptoms. If you have
27:20
Speaker 1: an actual dependence and you're an alcoholic, when you stop
27:24
Speaker 1: drinking um within a day to three days, probably closer
27:29
Speaker 1: to a day, UM, you're gonna be experiencing some pretty
27:33
Speaker 1: nasty withdrawal syndromes, right. And the reason why is because
27:36
Speaker 1: your your brain becomes dependent on alcohol. Right. It basically says, Okay,
27:42
Speaker 1: this guy's gonna drink all the time. I don't see
27:45
Speaker 1: a time when he's ever gonna stop drinking. So I
27:47
Speaker 1: need to adjust my output of neurotransmitters to change my
27:51
Speaker 1: brain chemistry completely to account for this, this introduction of alcohol.
27:56
Speaker 1: Because the body seeks homeostasis, right, this is its way
27:59
Speaker 1: of adjusting itself to see homeostasis in the presence, the
28:03
Speaker 1: constant presence of alcohol. Um. And so when you remove
28:06
Speaker 1: that alcohol, the brains chemistry has been altered over time.
28:11
Speaker 1: And now you're probably suddenly removing alcohol and you are
28:14
Speaker 1: going to go through withdrawal symptoms and actually people have
28:17
Speaker 1: died from acute alcohol withdrawal. Oh, I'm sure where they
28:21
Speaker 1: They probably should have weaned themselves off rather than just
28:24
Speaker 1: quit drinking cold turkey, because again, the wholemark of alcoholism
28:28
Speaker 1: is a physical dependence on it, and that part of
28:32
Speaker 1: your your physical dependence is your brain chemistry. Yeah, and
28:35
Speaker 1: there's a lot more more and more people are thinking
28:37
Speaker 1: that weaning off is a safer approach. Well, I think
28:40
Speaker 1: that's what happened to Amy Winehouse. Like you just quit
28:43
Speaker 1: cold turkey and died very quickly. Yeah. Uh. In withdrawal,
28:48
Speaker 1: you're gonna get this be disoriented. Um, you might have hallucinations, nausea, sweating, seizures,
28:54
Speaker 1: delirium tremens. The d T s uh actually has the
28:58
Speaker 1: same effect as a lot of these hallucinations. Sweating. Your
29:01
Speaker 1: heart rate is gonna be funky. You're gonna be shaking
29:04
Speaker 1: and shivering. Uh. Just watch Leaving Las Vegas and Aunt
29:09
Speaker 1: Nicholas Cage if you want to be scared away from booze. Yeah,
29:13
Speaker 1: that was a tough movie. It was What about when
29:15
Speaker 1: a Man Loves a Woman? That was a tough one. Yeah.
29:19
Speaker 1: Days of Wine and Roses. I never saw that classic.
29:22
Speaker 1: I think it was Jack Lemon was an alcoholic in
29:24
Speaker 1: that one. Uh twenty eight days, not to be confused,
29:28
Speaker 1: twenty days later days that's when Sandra Bullock played a
29:32
Speaker 1: zombie a right, right, just kidding, Uh what else? There's
29:38
Speaker 1: surely there's more. Oh yeah, it seemed flight. Have you
29:41
Speaker 1: seen Flight with Denzel Yeah, that was pretty good. But
29:43
Speaker 1: here's a big time alcohol that was shot here in Atlanta. Um,
29:46
Speaker 1: yes he was and uh clean and sober, the Michael
29:50
Speaker 1: Keaton movie. These are all off the top of my head,
29:52
Speaker 1: but there've been it's been an off covered subject and
29:56
Speaker 1: it's they're usually very tough to watch. Agreed. So let's
30:00
Speaker 1: take a break in uh hug each other so we
30:04
Speaker 1: can get through the rest of this thing and we'll
30:06
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about what alcohol does to
30:08
Speaker 1: your body and things you can do to uh stop. Yes,
30:18
Speaker 1: all right, So we talked a lot about the health
30:40
Speaker 1: damage you're going to suffer as an alcoholic. Um in
30:44
Speaker 1: the brain. Yeah, internally, you're gonna your liver is gonna
30:48
Speaker 1: take a beating. So your kidneys, your heart, your brain,
30:51
Speaker 1: your central nervous system, your liver. Actually you can the
30:55
Speaker 1: first step two bad alcohol damage is alcoholic hep titus,
31:00
Speaker 1: which is inflammation of the liver, and then you have
31:03
Speaker 1: about a seventy chance if you have alcoholic hepatitis to
31:08
Speaker 1: develop full blown cirrhosis. And that is when a little
31:13
Speaker 1: bit by a little bit, your liver just turns into
31:15
Speaker 1: scar tissue and it becomes an unusable organ and it
31:20
Speaker 1: is nasty if you see pictures of like cirrosis damaged livers. Yeah,
31:24
Speaker 1: because again, your your liver while it's metabolizing alcohol turns
31:28
Speaker 1: it into acetylale hyde, which is really toxic. Like alcohol
31:32
Speaker 1: is toxic, but for some reason, while we process it,
31:35
Speaker 1: we turn it into something even more toxic, and the
31:38
Speaker 1: liver suffers as a result. Your stomach, the lining of
31:42
Speaker 1: the stomach can just get eaten away, and your intestines
31:46
Speaker 1: can lead to ulcers and obviously in the moment nausea
31:50
Speaker 1: and vomiting your pancreas could lead to pancreatitis and cancer
31:56
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, Yeah, because cancer. Alcohol is a carcinogen
32:01
Speaker 1: and exposure over the years by being an alcoholic um
32:07
Speaker 1: can result in all a bunch of different alcohol alcoholic
32:11
Speaker 1: cancers or what they're called. Like you can get him
32:13
Speaker 1: of the throat of the larynx um. You can get
32:17
Speaker 1: liver cancer obviously, just from being exposed to alcohol over
32:21
Speaker 1: and over again. I had no idea you could get
32:23
Speaker 1: cancer from alcohol. It makes sense, but I just never
32:26
Speaker 1: thought of as a carcinogen. Uh. If you're over sixty five,
32:29
Speaker 1: you're in bigger trouble because your body just doesn't metabolize
32:33
Speaker 1: alcohol as well at that point. Um, And like we said,
32:38
Speaker 1: men have a little better time metabolizing alcohol than women, right. Um.
32:44
Speaker 1: I remember that my bar in l A, the drawing room,
32:48
Speaker 1: there was this old drunk there. I won't say his
32:50
Speaker 1: name because I found out he's still alive. But it
32:54
Speaker 1: was just remarkable to me that this guy was alive. Yeah,
32:57
Speaker 1: I mean he was into a seventies and just dropped
33:02
Speaker 1: dead drunk every single time I saw him. And I
33:05
Speaker 1: checked back, and this was in the late nineties, and
33:08
Speaker 1: then I was in l A last year. I went
33:11
Speaker 1: to the bar asked if he was still around, and
33:13
Speaker 1: they said, oh, yeah, he will be here in a
33:15
Speaker 1: few hours. Wow. I was like, man, how is he alive?
33:18
Speaker 1: Milk thistle? What's that? It's a like it's a I
33:23
Speaker 1: think you make a tea out of it or whatever.
33:24
Speaker 1: It's a very famous um liver cleanser. Interesting. Maybe he's
33:30
Speaker 1: on the milk thistle. Milk thistle and he's eating a
33:33
Speaker 1: lot of meat, so he's getting tons of vitamin B.
33:35
Speaker 1: That's how that guy is alive. Maybe he was a
33:38
Speaker 1: straight vodka guy, which is always a kind of a
33:42
Speaker 1: can be an indication. I think that that helps though. Also,
33:45
Speaker 1: if I remember from one of our other episodes, like
33:48
Speaker 1: the clearer the alcohol usually the fewer the impurities. Maybe
33:52
Speaker 1: that's what it is that's keeping him alive, the vodka,
33:56
Speaker 1: and he didn't mix it with anything. But I mean,
33:59
Speaker 1: look at like Boris Yell. Some people like he was
34:00
Speaker 1: old when he died. Yeah, he that knows. It was
34:04
Speaker 1: like a cantaloupe the gin blossom, which doesn't necessarily mean
34:09
Speaker 1: you're an alcoholic. People take it for that though. Yeah,
34:12
Speaker 1: I mean that's rosation, but alcoholism definitely will. It doesn't
34:16
Speaker 1: help the gin blossom situation. Um. And then there's fetal
34:21
Speaker 1: alcohol syndrome, which is the saddest thing you can imagine. Yes,
34:26
Speaker 1: it sets here that um fete. Fetal alcohol syndrome is
34:30
Speaker 1: the number one preventable cause of mental impairment. What yeah,
34:35
Speaker 1: what Wow, it's pretty amazing. So if you're drinking too much,
34:42
Speaker 1: you should't drink at all when you're pregnant. You some
34:45
Speaker 1: in Europe there like you can have a glassworm here
34:48
Speaker 1: as well too, Like apparently you know, it's it's gained
34:51
Speaker 1: acceptance that like you can you can have something occasionally
34:55
Speaker 1: or whatever, like wine usually is what they say. Right
34:58
Speaker 1: But um, and I realized this article is old, but
35:01
Speaker 1: it's specifically says like the Surgeon General is like, do
35:04
Speaker 1: not drink while you're pregnant. Well, I think that's the
35:06
Speaker 1: fallback recommendation is. I think that if it feels like
35:11
Speaker 1: a tricky thing to say, well, you can maybe drink
35:13
Speaker 1: this a little bit here and there, I think it's
35:15
Speaker 1: easier for them to say just don't drink for nine
35:17
Speaker 1: months and and everybody says it's easy for you to say.
35:21
Speaker 1: In general, then you have zero chance of any complications
35:24
Speaker 1: like this, right, well, at least fetal alcoholic syndrome. Yeah,
35:28
Speaker 1: so that's when your your little baby's brain cells are developing, uh,
35:32
Speaker 1: informing connections in utero and alcohol explosion there is going
35:36
Speaker 1: to disrupt that from the get go and lead to um,
35:42
Speaker 1: you can have a physical problems like your head might
35:44
Speaker 1: be smaller than normal microce, you might have some facial abnormalities. Uh,
35:52
Speaker 1: and then later in life you could be in big
35:54
Speaker 1: trouble as far as cognitive functioning, memory, learning disability. So
36:01
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty rough one. And it's all
36:03
Speaker 1: because alcohol impedes cellular division during development. Right, So when
36:08
Speaker 1: the fetus is exposed to alcohol, which easily crosses the
36:11
Speaker 1: placental barrier um the cellular division, it doesn't go according
36:16
Speaker 1: to plan. So not good. And again with adoption, that's
36:19
Speaker 1: one of the things you have to consider because most
36:21
Speaker 1: of these birth mothers have some sort of issue with
36:24
Speaker 1: drugs or alcohol and fetal alcohol syndrome that's the one
36:27
Speaker 1: that even the agencies says, like, you don't want to
36:31
Speaker 1: mess with that really, Yeah, like do your research on
36:34
Speaker 1: drugs and how they affect the baby and you'd probably
36:37
Speaker 1: be surprised. Alcohol is worse than unfetal development. Absolutely, yeah,
36:43
Speaker 1: it's the worst. Um, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty scary.
36:49
Speaker 1: So this number I don't think is right anymore. Eight
36:53
Speaker 1: five billion per year in medical expenses. It's either to okay,
36:59
Speaker 1: and that's in the United States, and that's crime, lost productivity, accidents,
37:03
Speaker 1: medical expenses. The economic impact of alcoholis Yeah, that is
37:07
Speaker 1: close to three billion dollars. That's amazing, all right, So
37:12
Speaker 1: what can you do? There's a a pot of gold
37:15
Speaker 1: at the end of this rainbow. There's a For many,
37:18
Speaker 1: many years, there was, um, your only hope was Alcoholics Anonymous,
37:24
Speaker 1: not even twelve step programs, specifically Alcoholics Anonymous, which is
37:28
Speaker 1: founded in either nineteen thirty or nineteen thirty five. Do
37:30
Speaker 1: you remember, Um, there's some pretty great articles about Alcoholics Anonymous,
37:36
Speaker 1: and you know it's effectiveness that it's a tributes to
37:42
Speaker 1: it just it's this, it's its own thing, and it's
37:44
Speaker 1: helped undoubtedly tons of people. Um. But there's been alternatives
37:50
Speaker 1: that have developed over the years, but it took a while.
37:53
Speaker 1: Supposedly it wasn't until like the sixties or seventies that
37:56
Speaker 1: alternatives to a a grew up. Um. And some of
38:00
Speaker 1: them say, no, you don't need to believe in a
38:03
Speaker 1: higher power to get over alcoholism. You can find that
38:08
Speaker 1: in yourself. Um. Other people like UM, I think one's
38:12
Speaker 1: called moderation management. So you don't have to abstain from life.
38:16
Speaker 1: You can try to just you know, become a moderate
38:20
Speaker 1: drinker and then if that doesn't work, then yeah, you
38:22
Speaker 1: probably should abstain for life. UM and some others say,
38:28
Speaker 1: twelve step programs are great, but you could also do
38:30
Speaker 1: the same thing with cognitive behavioral therapy UM and so.
38:34
Speaker 1: But some sort of treatment program that involves like a
38:37
Speaker 1: change in behavior through either twelve steps, support groups, one
38:41
Speaker 1: on one counseling. UM. That's the gold standard for treating alcoholism.
38:46
Speaker 1: But over the years, especially lately, people have been turning
38:49
Speaker 1: more and more to prescription drugs. They become increasingly promising
38:53
Speaker 1: as well, especially as we start to learn how genes
38:56
Speaker 1: interact with specific drugs. The more we can learn about
38:59
Speaker 1: a person genes and how they interact with drugs, the
39:02
Speaker 1: more targeted treatment of alcoholism will be. It seems like, yeah,
39:05
Speaker 1: this article I found in the New York Times, drugs
39:08
Speaker 1: help tailor alcoholism treatment. That the wish is that one
39:12
Speaker 1: day they will be able to because everyone's different, like
39:15
Speaker 1: we were saying, as far as alcoholism goes, Uh, so
39:19
Speaker 1: you can't have one treatment for such a varied group.
39:23
Speaker 1: So they're hoping one day to be able to tailor
39:25
Speaker 1: drug treatment programs pharmaceuticals for alcohol treatment the same way
39:29
Speaker 1: they do with depression or anxiety or any mental it's
39:34
Speaker 1: like this doesn't work, well, then try this one. That
39:37
Speaker 1: one's kind of working. We'll add this one in and
39:39
Speaker 1: it's really gonna make it pop, you know. And right
39:43
Speaker 1: now I think there are three approved f d A
39:47
Speaker 1: treatments UM. Two of them now chrekzone and i CAM
39:53
Speaker 1: pro sate reduced cravings to drink. And then there's anti
39:57
Speaker 1: views which I've heard of for a little while. And
39:58
Speaker 1: that's the one that makes you sick when you drink. Yeah,
40:02
Speaker 1: that's pretty rough, Like only a drug like that could
40:05
Speaker 1: find its roots in purity in America, you know. UM,
40:09
Speaker 1: but that mal trek zone. There's a good article about
40:11
Speaker 1: UM in in the Atlantic called The Irrationality of Alcoholics
40:16
Speaker 1: Anonymous and the author experiments with mal trek zone and finds,
40:20
Speaker 1: like amazingly to her astonishment, like it really works. Yeah,
40:24
Speaker 1: it says in't here um in studies and clinical trials
40:27
Speaker 1: they found one in seven alcoholics. Uh, it works for
40:32
Speaker 1: one and seven alcoholics. Those two now track zone and
40:35
Speaker 1: outcome pro state and with UM mal trek zone, probably
40:39
Speaker 1: both of them, but definitely with mal trek zone. It
40:42
Speaker 1: targets your pleasure center when alcohol is present, so it
40:47
Speaker 1: targets your pleasure center. But it's not like you go
40:49
Speaker 1: through life like a hedonic. You know, you can still
40:51
Speaker 1: experience joy and happiness and pleasure, but specifically with alcohol,
40:56
Speaker 1: it reduces the effect that it has on the olympic system,
41:00
Speaker 1: so you don't crave it as much or when you do. Right,
41:04
Speaker 1: and when you do crave it, I think in that
41:05
Speaker 1: New York Times article you found somebody's somebody who takes
41:08
Speaker 1: nail trek zonn as saying I still get cravings, but
41:11
Speaker 1: they're short lived and they're not nearly as intense because
41:14
Speaker 1: of the nail trek. Right, But again it only works
41:17
Speaker 1: for about a seventh of the people who take it. Yeah,
41:19
Speaker 1: and this is a modern thing. Years ago, offering to
41:24
Speaker 1: treat a drug with another drug was scoffed at, But
41:28
Speaker 1: now people are embracing it a little bit more as like,
41:32
Speaker 1: I guess, a lesser of the evils. Yeah, at least
41:34
Speaker 1: you're not killing your body with alcohol abuse. And one
41:36
Speaker 1: of the things Chuck that came up when we did
41:38
Speaker 1: the Addiction podcast um was that alcoholism and all addictions
41:44
Speaker 1: are chronic disease and relapse are to be expected, as
41:49
Speaker 1: with any chronic disease. It's you. You go through relapses
41:52
Speaker 1: and apparently Alcoholics Anonymous did a UM survey in two
41:56
Speaker 1: thousand seven of like eight thousand of its members in
41:59
Speaker 1: North America and found that thirty three percent of them
42:02
Speaker 1: were still abstinate after ten years. So a lot of people. Yeah,
42:07
Speaker 1: a lot of people relapse, and I bet, I bet
42:11
Speaker 1: you anything, those are the ones that are still work
42:15
Speaker 1: in that program regularly. Well, yeah, you have to, like
42:18
Speaker 1: part of a A is you still go to meetings
42:21
Speaker 1: UM at least occasionally years for the rest of your life. Basically. Yeah.
42:26
Speaker 1: There's a really good article that came out in Harper's
42:28
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven called The Drunks Club The Cult
42:30
Speaker 1: that Cures Totally worth reading. I posted a PDF of
42:34
Speaker 1: it on our site for this podcast page. It is
42:38
Speaker 1: probably the best article it's ever been written about alcoholics Anonymous. Wow. Yeah,
42:42
Speaker 1: it's like a gift because the author is an alcoholic
42:47
Speaker 1: and Alcoholics Anonymous attendee and an incredible writer. Just a
42:53
Speaker 1: great recovered alcoholic or recovering or I don't remember, because
42:56
Speaker 1: I've probably recovered or recovering. That's why they that tag
43:02
Speaker 1: sticks with you for life. I think that's one of
43:04
Speaker 1: the things they teach you is that you should always
43:06
Speaker 1: consider yourself an alcoholic. Right, you have a disease, but
43:10
Speaker 1: if you're in recovery, then that's, uh, you're on the
43:13
Speaker 1: right path. Yeah. And there I was reading an article
43:15
Speaker 1: about alternatives to alcoholics anonymous, and one of them was
43:18
Speaker 1: like women on sobriety or something like that. Everything we're
43:21
Speaker 1: saying like that, we don't agree with that, Like that's
43:24
Speaker 1: a temporary tag, it's not for life. Um. And the
43:28
Speaker 1: spokesperson for that organization is saying, like, if I used
43:31
Speaker 1: to smoke and then I quit after a certain time,
43:34
Speaker 1: I'm not like, yeah, I'm a smoker for life, like
43:37
Speaker 1: you you used to smoke, or you just don't even
43:39
Speaker 1: it's not even a thing. It's not a label you
43:41
Speaker 1: have to carry around for the rest of your life.
43:43
Speaker 1: I see the value in both, to be honest, in
43:46
Speaker 1: in the reward of being able to say I'm not
43:48
Speaker 1: an alcoholic anymore, right, or the recognition that you used
43:52
Speaker 1: to be and you need to remember that every day
43:55
Speaker 1: or yeah. I think it's probably as as varied as
43:58
Speaker 1: people's reaction to alcohol, Like if that great, if you
44:02
Speaker 1: need to be free of that eventually great. Well said,
44:06
Speaker 1: if you are an alcoholic, go get help. Like you
44:09
Speaker 1: probably don't have to go any further than your favorite
44:12
Speaker 1: search engine to find a lot of resources that UM
44:16
Speaker 1: can get you help. People are dying to help people
44:20
Speaker 1: kick alcohol and drugs. They love to do that stuff.
44:23
Speaker 1: They're crazy. It's like their life's work. So go meet
44:26
Speaker 1: one of those people. Don't be afraid of them, and
44:29
Speaker 1: don't be afraid of your life after, because you can
44:31
Speaker 1: lead a rich, fulfilling existence. Yeah. I think that keeps
44:34
Speaker 1: a lot of people from wanting to kick it fun. Yeah, yeah,
44:39
Speaker 1: I know. I'm friends with recovering alcoholics and they're great. Yeah,
44:44
Speaker 1: they love life just the same. Uh if you actually
44:48
Speaker 1: they're better. They're not just the same because they're not
44:52
Speaker 1: blacking out and hungover mad all the time. If you
44:57
Speaker 1: want to know more about alcoholism, you can type that
45:00
Speaker 1: word in the search part how stuff works dot com.
45:02
Speaker 1: And since I said search parts, time to a listener mail.
45:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this letter from from an old Geezer
45:12
Speaker 1: because he says he's a old geezer. I would never
45:14
Speaker 1: call it of age that this automatically has seen. Hey guys,
45:18
Speaker 1: I'm a Geezer, seventy four years old and a regular listener.
45:22
Speaker 1: I love your show. Listen all of the time when
45:23
Speaker 1: I'm driving. I'm also a musician and living a smallish
45:26
Speaker 1: town restricted to Geezers south of Tucson, and I was
45:29
Speaker 1: just listening to the podcast on auto tune. I share
45:32
Speaker 1: your hatred of it. No, you didn't say that in
45:34
Speaker 1: so many words, but it came out loud and clear.
45:36
Speaker 1: I'm writing, however, about the little snippet you've been about rever.
45:40
Speaker 1: When I was a senior in high school late nineteen fifties,
45:43
Speaker 1: I was in a rock and roll band in Tucson
45:45
Speaker 1: called the Night Beats. We cut three records for a
45:48
Speaker 1: record company named Zoom Records that was started and run
45:51
Speaker 1: by two of our school friends. The guy who ran
45:54
Speaker 1: the recording studio on Phoenix where we did the session
45:56
Speaker 1: could put echo on the voice in nineteen fifty nine,
45:58
Speaker 1: long before manufactured reverb was widespread. He did it by
46:03
Speaker 1: placing a speaker and a microphone and an empty water
46:06
Speaker 1: tank behind the studio. He piped in the sound through
46:10
Speaker 1: the speaker and picked it up on the mic to
46:11
Speaker 1: get an actual physical echo or reverb sound for the
46:14
Speaker 1: vocal it's pretty smart for es tu soon aren't too bad? Right? Uh.
46:19
Speaker 1: He even was able to move the mic in and
46:21
Speaker 1: out to change the reverb time for the desired effect.
46:24
Speaker 1: One more interesting fact is that our singer was Pete Ronstad,
46:28
Speaker 1: his little sister and not yet made it big time.
46:31
Speaker 1: Barbers tried, is she from Arizona? I didn't know that,
46:36
Speaker 1: Linda Ronstad. Yeah, that explains the Spanish language albums. Yeah
46:40
Speaker 1: maybe so, h. I hope you find this senior plow
46:45
Speaker 1: nos Boyano, Well that was that one of the songs.
46:47
Speaker 1: But yeah, she was on one of the Simpsons episode.
46:52
Speaker 1: I hope you find this interesting and worth the time
46:53
Speaker 1: it took to read it. Uh. Sure, it was an
46:55
Speaker 1: interesting time in my life. Thanks for the great podcast.
46:59
Speaker 1: And that is from land Hoops. Nice Lance, Thank you
47:01
Speaker 1: for that. Yeah, man, I love hearing from our listeners
47:05
Speaker 1: of age. I like hearing from twelve year old and
47:09
Speaker 1: like seventy plus. Yeah, I mean too. I even like
47:11
Speaker 1: hearing from uh, two year old, two hundred and three
47:15
Speaker 1: year old? How about that? Nice? That's I always felt bad,
47:19
Speaker 1: not always, once I came to understand that people live
47:22
Speaker 1: beyond um nine two, that that Christmas song excluded a
47:27
Speaker 1: lot of people. Oh sure, yeah, oh, and you know
47:31
Speaker 1: we should point out too. I was going to read
47:33
Speaker 1: a full mail on it, but the Pete Frampton effect. Yeah,
47:37
Speaker 1: it's not a vocoder. It's a talk box. And I
47:41
Speaker 1: feel really bad because I know that, and I know
47:44
Speaker 1: you're in the heat of the podcast. Man, I don't
47:45
Speaker 1: feel bad. I say all sorts of stuff where I'm like, man,
47:48
Speaker 1: why did I say that? Or why didn't I address that.
47:50
Speaker 1: I even thought I said the words talk box, and
47:52
Speaker 1: I just thought you knew something I didn't about a
47:54
Speaker 1: different name for it, or something I should have spoken up.
47:56
Speaker 1: But no, that's what a talk boxes. The tube is
48:00
Speaker 1: acting as it's a rubber tube that runs from a
48:04
Speaker 1: speaker and the sound is going through that tube into
48:07
Speaker 1: your mouth. And so you're basically playing a guitar through
48:11
Speaker 1: a tiny little tube. Yeah, and you're able to make
48:16
Speaker 1: change his the shape of your mouth and his pop
48:19
Speaker 1: fix prae that you that's a good song. Pe Frampton's
48:25
Speaker 1: opening up for us. He's actually playing the same theater
48:27
Speaker 1: as US, and that oh yeah, yeah, the acoustic to her,
48:32
Speaker 1: he's playing like the week before the week after US.
48:35
Speaker 1: I wonder if he'll play all I want to be
48:37
Speaker 1: as by his thought. Uh, if you want to know
48:42
Speaker 1: more about Pete Frampton and want to get in touch
48:44
Speaker 1: with us, actually we don't know anything more about Pete
48:46
Speaker 1: Frampton than that. Oh we know a little more, but
48:49
Speaker 1: we don't feel like talking about it on social that.
48:52
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, though,
48:53
Speaker 1: you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
48:56
Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook, dot com slash stuff
48:58
Speaker 1: you should know. You can send us any else two
49:00
Speaker 1: stuff podcasts at how stuff works dot com, and has
49:02
Speaker 1: always joined us at our home on the web, Stuff
49:04
Speaker 1: First you Know dot com For more on this and
49:12
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works dot com.
49:20
Speaker 1: M