The Vogue of Alcohol Consumption

I came across an article that read that women have overtaken men in alcohol consumption. That might have reactions like an old Punjabi uncle feeling bad for men who don't drink, or maybe men who don't drink enough, while on the flip side, we might as well have feminists celebrating the news. The article also read that this habit is most common among youths between 20-40. Many men and women (also boys and girls) are falling prey to alcohol consumption for a variety of reasons like peer pressure, handling stress, to feel good and most importantly being modern and fashionable. I have no idea how drinking alcohol is considered fashionable or modern. When I say to people that I don't drink, they reply "waste daa nee or naa laik hai tu", meaning "you are useless" in Tamil and Hindi respectively. That has a few implications. See, that age band is when most women are mentally and physically agile enough to bear foetuses and give birth. The consumption of alcohol not only messes with the mom-to-be, but it also affects the child she bears. I will come to that in a second. I am not sure if you have ever noticed, but the number of fertility centres has increased exponentially in the past decade or so. I remember times when I didn't even know what fertility centres were. Now there is one at every corner of every other street. We didn't need them so far. India has been doing good in terms of childbirth and a consistent population. What triggered the need for so many fertility centres all of a sudden?

    Addressing the alcohol thing, men and women process alcohol very differently. When you consume alcohol, some of it gets absorbed directly from your mouth into the bloodstream. That is the principle behind the police using breath analysers to find alcohol consumption that shows up right on top. When it does enter your stomach, not a lot of things happen, and it is almost entirely passed on to the intestine. A staggering amount of absorption takes place in the intestine, owing to the enormous surface area created by the tiny finger-like projections called "villi" or "microvilli" which are a result of a highly folded inner lining of the small intestine. Now, molecules like water, glucose and alcohol get readily absorbed directly into the capillaries. The biology of its working is beyond the scope of this article. It immediately goes into the blood. It takes time for the body to process all the alcohol; mind you, ethanol breakdown is a very complex process that produces substances even more harmful than alcohol itself, which may or may not get completely removed from the body. The processing and breakdown of alcohol predominantly happens in the liver. Among all the enzymes and chemicals involved, there is this specific enzyme, namely Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) which does a lot of hard work in the breakdown process. For some weird reason, which I’m not aware of, men have more of this enzyme in their livers than women. Also, this is found in men’s stomachs but not in women’s stomachs. Men have a more active form of ADH than women have in theirs. So in all, men have more quantity, more quality and more distribution of this enzyme in their body. That makes men more resistant and tolerant to alcohol consumption and poisoning than women. I have heard women saying that they got tipsy after a drink or two, whilst men can stay in all their senses till maybe their third or fourth or by practice, even their fifth drink. Evidently, men process alcohol better than women. That might make a few women sad out there, but I’m not for anybody consuming alcohol. Studies have repeatedly proven that the consumption of alcohol, in amounts, little or large, accumulates damage to the body. Your body doesn’t care if you drink wine or vodka or gin or toddy; according to your body, ethanol is ethanol, and it’s processed the same way, and the same harmful by-products are produced. The consumer is accumulating damage to his/her body. It’s also proven that when a pregnant woman drinks, the foetus also receives a dose of alcohol. Frightening, isn’t it?

    See, the human body is among the best-engineered things alive. Over the millions of years of evolution, the trial and error that nature has done with living organisms are staggering to imagine. Your body knows what it needs. You can find that in pregnant women often. They’ll suddenly crave sweets, or pickles or whatever. That’s because their body knows what it is falling short of, and it’s craving the supplement. The body is more than capable of synthesizing compounds that it might need from the correct raw materials. There was a very interesting find a few years ago, that concluded that upon trigger from extreme pain, the salivary glands produced a chemical that was way more potent than morphine in killing the pain. Your body knows what it needs and how to synthesise it. So anything external might be detrimental to the body. I do not mean to say that alcohol isn’t produced in the body; it very much is. But when, where and how to make it is at the body’s discretion. When introduced from the outside, it wreaks havoc. The consumption of alcohol severely impairs motor control. Besides, it also leads to reduced limb-mind coordination, staggering and stammering of speech reduced thinking capacity, varied heart and breath rates, inordinately uncontrollable emotions, and so much more. It interferes with the neurotransmitters and messes up nerve-muscle communication. It leads to the release of dopamine, which makes one feel good and want more of it. Ironically enough, a person gets used to it and ends up consuming more and more of it for the same level of dopamine release and pleasure. That is how addiction works. Addiction to everything.

    I have a strong message for women. I’m not sure if I have the audacity to say this, but I still do. Dear women, do not try to equal men in all aspects. There are a lot of things that you cannot do and men can. And of course, there are a whole lot of things that men can’t do and women can. That is evolutionary, and do not try to change it in such a short time. Certain things are supposed to be certain ways. If you want to equal men, do that cerebrally. Women are as smart as men; we all know it, we have seen it. Equal them in decision-making, marketing, and academics. Do not try to equal men physically. It’s not evolutionarily favoured. By doing so, you’ll exert a lot of stress on your bodies which might as well be lethal. A lot of things practised in India are scientifically brilliant and have an enormous impact on our everyday lives.

    I request every one of you reading this to stick to your traditions and family practices and not to break away from them in the name of modernisation. Thank you.

    Whatever argument I have put forth is completely from an Indian perspective. Here in India you don't have to drink and smoke to keep you warm. People in cold countries might need that help. 

 (I have authored this with whatever knowledge I already have. If there are technical errors, please point them out, and I’ll update them.)

With love and concern 

Vishaal Harikrishna Kumar