Why don't I get drunk when it's hot and humid?

Factual Questions
1

Well, the title pretty much sums it all up, but here’s why I’m asking: My mother moved from the U.S. to Panama a couple years ago and last year my boyfriend and I visited her around Christmas. This led to a slightly awkward situation where my mom was having a family visit, and my boyfriend was on a tropical vacation, and I was trying to do both. Our first or second night there, Boyfriend and I thought we’d get ourselves a little drunk after Mom went to bed. We hit the town, found a bar we loved, and started tossing them back. No luck - by the end of the night, we still felt stone cold sober. Well, that was odd, but we thought maybe the bar was watering down their drinks. So we tried again the next night, and pretty much every day thereafter while we were in Panama. My mom was fairly convinced we were alcoholics, the way we were drinking, but we never felt a bit of it. (Except for the spectacular night we drank a bottle of champagne on the beach as the tide was coming in and the moon was reflected in the ocean. I think we achieved tipsiness.) Finally, in an act of desperation, we bought a bottle of rum (750 ml) and a 2-liter of Coke and finished them both in a single night. Drunkeness ensued, but we didn’t vomit, black out, have hangovers the next morning, or exhibit any of the other symptoms that we would normally experience after consuming half a bottle of rum each.

Possible explanations that we came up with were: we were drinking almost exclusively cocktails, and the ice melted very quickly in the heat, watering down the drinks to the point of ineffectiveness; we were drinking more water than usual because of the heat, thus watering down ourselves to the point of ineffectiveness :); or something about the heat and/or humidity caused our body to process the alcohol differently, possibly turning it straight into sweat (we were sweating a lot) instead of letting it remain in the blood stream to get us drunk. Neither of us knows what the hell we’re talking about, though, so probably none of these are correct.

Well, this summer has been unusually hot and humid and we’ve noticed the same thing. If we’re drinking someplace that isn’t air conditioned, we simply never feel the effects of alcohol, even under circumstances that would normally leave us tipsy at least. The thermos of booze that I snuck onto the beach a couple weeks ago? Nothing. The six beers we each drank and my stepsister’s cookout? Ditto. Can anybody explain what’s going on?

2

The amount of water melted in the drink won’t affect the amount of alcohol you consume. You still consumed a half bottle of rum regardless. Watering down the drinks means less alcohol going into your body, adding more ice just means that you’re consuming more water with your alcohol.

I don’t have an obvious answer to your question except that mood effects how you react to alcohol. Your body was probably still processing the alcohol at the same rate. I think your body is just getting more efficient at processing alcohol due to increased consumption.

3

I have noticed that when I exercise while supposedly inebriated, afterward I feel more like I do after sober exercise. On the other hand I sort of get a runner’s high from exercising so it sort of evens out :slight_smile:

Was it so hot your body was being taxed as if you were exercising?

4

I suppose it’s possible. My boyfriend and I are both pretty out of shape, and it was an abrupt change of climate. When we went to Panama, we were coming from Boston mid-winter. I think the temperatures in Boston were in the 20-35° F range, whereas in Panama they were in the 85-95° F range with 90+% humidity (it was the end of the rainy season, and rained pretty much every afternoon we were there). Boyfriend felt physically ill for the first day or so we were there, after which our bodies adjusted somewhat and were were simply uncomfortable.

5

Well, anecdotally speaking, whenever I find myself in a high temp high humidity situation and I’m sucking down a libation while sweating my balls off, I “suffer” from the same fate as you and your BF did. No inebriation ensues, at least, not the level I’d be accustomed to drinking the same amount of the same drinks in my home or in an air-conditioned bar.

6

I have also found that if I have a few beers while in the sun like when golfing, the impact is far less (I won’t even feel them) than if I was just relaxing having the same few beers on a Friday night in my air-conditioned house. No explanation either.

7

Personally I find that the effect of alcohol on me is much weaker in hotter, more humid environments. However, to me this is because if I don’t drink anything I still feel pretty drunk in hot, humid environments. I am slower thinking, more clumsy, generally disoriented, and generally in a better mood unless I have to work or somesuch. Perhaps the effects of heat wash out the effects of low level alcohol intoxication?

8

Anecdotal experience here:

Years ago, I used to commute from NYC to the NJ suburbs on what was known as the “Weary Erie”, old cast iron commuter trains with MAYBE a working ceiling fan and MAYBE one or two windows that actually opened. Couple that with them sitting in the hot sun all day before we got to board them in Hoboken, and well, you’d be right in thinking the heat was, uhm, intense.

There was a little liquor store at the station where one could buy single beers, servings of wines, cocktails, etc. On many occasions, I, not being a beer drinker, would buy a couple, sit down in what felt like lovely 110 F degree heat, and just about chugged the beers rather quickly.

Here’s where things seem to not make sense:

As fast as I chugged the beers, I would just be sweating them out. Thinking about it since reading the OP, it would have made sense to me that I would have become more drunk quickly since I’m sweating out the liquid while the alcohol remains in the body in more concentrated form, yet, I remember, as the OP described, not the slightest effect from the alcohol. Granted, it was only 2 beers, but I’m not a beer drinker, not really much of an alcohol drinker, for that matter, and had I ever chugged those beers sitting in a cool air conditioned room, I can almost guarantee I would have felt SOMEthing.

OK, so, that was a long way of saying I’ve had the same experience as the OP, but I still don’t know why, either.