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August 10, 2004
Alcohol...ism - It's All In The Genes
Caution - This is not to be believed as Medical Fact. I am not a Doctor.
Saying that - I was on a tirade - back in May of 2004 - a diatribe of sorts - in a forum where I was trying to help people understand this:
It's All About Genes.
"The Good News Is...Alcoholism is a Disease...
It only took the medical community - a half century - to figure this out.
There is no bad news.
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More importantly - it's all about "Genes"
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I learned this at a very young age - from a Dear departed childhood male friend of mine - and I am saddened by his passing - each and every day - that I survive. He died a few years ago from an aneurism.
Harry was Indonesian...And...He never got drunk on booze. The fucker. :-)
Harry - like many Asians and Orientals from the Far East - do not get drunk on alcohol and do not become alcoholics...
Why?
Well - they are missing a Gene !!!
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Yup - I'll say that once again - just so that I make myself perfectly clear. This race - and other races of this world - are missing a Gene - that we alcoholics have.
Wouldn't you figure - that they would HAVE something that doesn't make them drunks...
No - just the opposite. They are missing the Gene - that makes us alcoholics - an alcoholic...and I'll explain.
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I was born an alcoholic. I spent the first 6 months of my life in the Boston Floating Hospital...never knowing the suckling and loving tender moments that an infant has with its' mother. This was 1951. I was the last child of six in an Irish family - whereby my mother drank during her pregnancy - and I had complications as a result.
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We do not choose to be alcoholics...it's all about Genes.
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At any age - at anytime in life - even a social drinker - even a functioning alcoholic of sorts - one day - turns a corner - and never knows why - they have this never ending craving...
It's all about Genes.
It's about the make up of Genes - once the physiological transition happens. It can be at birth - it can be at 16 years of age - it can be at 32 - it can be at 80 years of age - and even a non-drinker - for decades - can become an alcoholic - because of Genes.
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It is not your fault...
It is nobody's fault...
And there is not a single fucking thing that you can do about it - except - don't put the alcohol - into your blood system.
It is not reversable - just by abstaining...
It's all about the Genes.
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I'm quoting now...and ask me later privately...where I got this from:
Do you know what acetaldehyde is?
Do you know what tetrahydroisoquinoline [THIQ] is?
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Look them up - and then come back here.
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Okay then - here's a part of the story...
"It is known in drinkers - that THIQs displace endorphins and bind with the opiate receptors in the brain. In doing so - they signal the brain to stop producing endorphins. As the natural endophin supply declines, more and more alcohol is needed to produce more THIQs to replace the natural endorphins and bind with opiate receptors to create feelings of well being."
[it is not your fault][it is a physiological craving]
[re: endorphins][we all know what the runners high is]
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The full excerpt:
"Until recently, it was believed that the liver always handles alcohol in the same way. But new research shows that a different scenario occurs among certain alcoholics and children of alcoholics with no drinking experience. Their livers change alcohol into Acetaldehyde at twice the normal rate, while the subsequent conversion of acetaldehyde into acetic acid is abnormally slow and takes twice as long as usual. The accumulation of acetaldehyde damages liver cells, which become abnormally large as they strive to get rid of the accumulated acetaldehyde. The damage affects the liver's ability to absorb and utilize the nutrients needed for good health. To make matters worse, excess acetaldehyde escapes the liver and travels through the bloodstream to the heart, where it can be vary damaging (it interfers with the protein synthesis of the heart muscle). It also reaches the brain, where it blocks proper neurotransmitter action in creating normal feelings, behavior, and memory. The unused natural neurotransmitters begin to build up and combine with acetaldehyde to form potent psychoactive compounds called tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) which are remarkably similar to opiates. THIQs fit in the same receptor sites in the brain as natural pain-killing chemicals called endorphins and such narcotics as morphine and heroin."
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Have you ever heard that quiting smoking for instance - is as hard to do as - if not harder to do - than quiting an addiction to heroin.
It all falls along the same subject.
Bye-the-Bye - the two paragraphs above - I quoted from a book written in...
Would you believe...1992
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If I only knew then...
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I got to take a break...later
Posted by Nealus at August 10, 2004 10:27 PM
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