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Why can't we use alcohol dehydrogenase to sober up more quickly?

Reading through the questions put forward about the chemistry of alcohol, lead me to ponder what stops us giving ourselves an alcohol dehydrogenase shot after we've been drinking to speed up the process of metabolizing the ethanol in our blood system and thus sober us up more quickly?

Is it a physiological issue, i.e. there are interactions in the body that I don't know of. Or is it an issue of us not being able to synthesise alcohol dehydrogenase? 


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sssss
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It would be a hazardous and expensive process. What would you do ? Inject it intravenously? Or into the liver? Also, some of the most harmful things booze does in the body reslut from the effect of the dehydrogenated product of the alcohol, namely acetaldehyde. In the garden we use it for snail poison (in the slightly polymerised form of metaldehyde, but roughly the same thing. Nasty stuff! If you smell it, you just might want to give up drinking...)

People who don't have much dehydrogenase (a common condition in some oriental genomes) get drunker faster, and remain drunk till they urinate out most of the ethanol. Then they don't get much of a hangover or other toxic effects. Take your pick! Faster consumption and worse hangover, or a weaker head for booze!

Cheers either way,

 

Jon

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  • Asked by vagery
  • on 2010-05-11 15:35:58
  • Member status
  • none

Categories: Human Body.

Tags: alcohol, barscience, ethanol.

 

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