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Alcohol

Alcohol. Ethyl alcohol or ethanol Only caffeine is used more widely Recreational, not therapeutic. Vocabulary of alcohol. < Arabic al kuhl , powder of antimony A series of organic compounds Isopropyl alcohol, methanol, ethanol Fermentation: Sugar + water + yeast ---> ethanol +CO 2

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Alcohol

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  1. Alcohol Ethyl alcohol or ethanol Only caffeine is used more widely Recreational, not therapeutic

  2. Vocabulary of alcohol • < Arabic al kuhl, powder of antimony • A series of organic compounds • Isopropyl alcohol, methanol, ethanol • Fermentation: • Sugar + water + yeast ---> ethanol +CO2 • Distillation: Perhaps discovered in Arabia, first described in detail by the Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus

  3. Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) German saint, teacher of Thomas Aquinas

  4. More vocabulary of alcohol • Fermented beverages: Beer, wine, cider, and mead • Distilled beverages: Brandy, rum, usquebaugh/whiskey/bourbon, schnapps • Fortified beverages: Sherry, port, madeira, muscatel, vermouth, Cisco • Mixed beverages: Gin, vodka, liqueurs

  5. Still more vocabulary • Measuring alcohol content: • The moonshiner’s test • The proof system • Proof spirits • Overproof liquor • Proof numbers • The US system: Percentage by volume • The British system: Percentage by weight

  6. History of alcohol • Multiple people groups, except native North Americans and Pacific Islanders • Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and Israel • Classical Greece • Rome and the Christians • Britain

  7. Gin Lane, a woodcut by English painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764). Hogarth satirized contemporary English life. Note the deplorable conditions and the implied connection to gin.

  8. The picture is different on Beer Street, as Hogarth depicts a scene of prosperity for the masses, a flourishing of the arts and learning in the public square, affection between the genders, and ruination for the pawnbroker.

  9. The gin epidemic in Britain Significant Events By Year Gallons Sold

  10. America and alcohol • British immigrants brought heavy drinking habits to the colonies • Spanish settlers in California brought grapevines: Cortez, Jesuits, Franciscans • Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock perhaps because they ran out of beer: Crew’s supply • Brewing began almost immediately in taverns; commercially at New Amsterdam (1633) and (legally) Charlestown, MA (1637)

  11. More American history • Puritans used alcohol, but put progressive legal and social controls on abuse • Colonial Harvard had its own brewery: Commencements became uproars. • American Revolution brought social changes and problem drinking: business first, the Triangular Trade, and fur trading with Native Americans

  12. The Whiskey Rebellion • Western Expansion • Industrial Revolution • The temperance movement and respectability: Character • The Eighteenth Amendment (1920) and the Volstead Act (1919): Effective? • The Twenty-Third Amendment (1933)

  13. Pharmacokinetics of alcohol • Administration and absorption • Oral • Both water and fat soluble • 80% absorption from upper intestine • Thus, rate limiting factor is stomach emptying • Total absorption is unaffected by food • 90% + access to all body compartments

  14. Pharmacokinetics of alcohol 2 • Metabolism and excretion • 95% of alcohol is metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme • 85% of that metabolism is in the liver • up to 15% is done in the stomach • All women, alcoholic or not, have 50% less stomach alcohol dehydrogenase than men • Women appear to be even more vulnerable than men to intoxication and chronic effects

  15. Pharmacokinetics of alcohol 3 • More on metabolism: • Two-step metabolism: • Alcohol is converted by alcohol dehydrogenase to acetaldehyde • Acetaldehyde is converted by aldehyde dehydrogenase to acetic acid, then to CO2 and water in the Krebs cycle • Zero order metabolism • Disulfiram/Antabuse

  16. Pharmacodynamics of alcohol • Perhaps not unitary • High doses may disrupt membrane functioning (“fluidization”) • Low doses act on synapses, particularly • GABAA-2L subunit: EtOH is an agonist • protein kinase phosphorylation • intracellular mRNA changes • GABA-consequent effects on Ach, NMDA, and DA

  17. Neurotransmitter effects • Inhibits release of Ach: Cognitive impairment • Inhibits NMDA receptors for glutamate • Agonizes DA from VTA to nucleus accumbens, the “reward center.” • This last effect produces the addiction potential for both alcohol and nicotine.

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