Think it this way: A bottle of ABSOLUT VODKA (not advertising it though) goes in me easily during the day. Injected it would make 25% of my blood - so it would be impossible. Now you are saying this amount I drink won’t harm me compared to injecting .08 or so. And where you inject it matters even more, because it’s the brain that should be affected - not your throat.
I’m not certain what point you’re trying to make with the above statement.
I am surely not saying what you’re doing or contemplating won’t harm you. And I’m certainly not interested in helping someone who drinks a bottle of distilled spirits a day find a ‘safer’ way to ingest it.
And alcohol has many other target organs besides the brain, no matter what route is taken. It’s a poison, you know.
Would you help those who are not having any problems (yet)?
70% of my patients have substance abuse problems. I give lots of recommendations on what would be best for them to do, what would be less harmful for them to do, how to implement “harm & risk reduction” strategies, and how their convoluted plans to continue drinking or using ‘less dangerously’ are actually not less dangerous and may result in unintended consequences.
But if a person is not having any problems with their alcohol or drug consumption, they generally don’t present to me as a patient with questions on how to change their use patterns.
If they did, I would advise them.
Is the amount of alcohol that is broken down in the gut before it can get into the bloodstream significant? It would seem to my totally layman’s mind that injecting an ounce of pure alcohol would get you drunk faster than drinking two and a half shots of 80-proof liquor, because it hit the bloodstream faster (obviously) but also get you somewhat drunker overall, since some of the alcohol you drank would be broken down to simpler carbohydrates and ultimately glucose before it got to your brain or liver.
Regards,
Shodan
It appears to depend on the rapidity of gastric emptying. If gastric emptying is slow, the alcohol dehydrogenase in the stomach has more time to act on it and break it down. If faster, not so much.
However, I’ve found no data on just how much difference in blood levels one could expect based on this phenomenon.
But alchol breakdown in the stomach just affects efficiency. You’ll need to drink more alcohol to get the same effect on your body. But that effect will be unchanged – for a given level of inebriation in the brain, you’ll have exactly the same side-effects on the liver and other organs.
I’m certainly not disputing that. I think it is clear that the answer to the question of the title is No, for a given amount used or a given level of BAC. Indeed, given the faster and more efficient effect of IV alcohol over swallowed, and the drawbacks of injection vs. swallowing, it would appear that IV alcohol is more dangerous.
Thanks for the info. I believe that is why they tell you to eat something when drinking alcohol, to slow the rate.
Regards,
Shodan