Talk:Alcohol tolerance

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Does metabolism affect alcohol tolerance? Some guy 09:08, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but the logic here is not making complete sense to me. I think there really needs to be a citation for that "study" that reports equal BAC among alcoholics with varying levels of response. The page suggests that individuals who are chronic alcoholics are less susceptible to the effects of alcohol at a given blood concentration than regular people because of increased alcohol dehydrogenase. Alcohol dehydrogenase is an enzyme which oxidizes and neutralizes ethanol. If chronic alcoholics have increased alcohol dehydrogenase production, it would require MORE alcohol to effectively raise their BAC vs. normal individuals, but once it reaches a certain level the effects should be equal among any individual. That is to say, increased alcohol dehydrogenase would enable a person to consume more alcohol without raising their BAC as much as a non-alcoholic with a similar body mass index. Increased enzyme concentration may increase speed of alcohol degradation and therefore its blood concentration during a given time, but it does nothing to alter the effects of the ethanol on the brain and nervous system once it reaches a certain concentration in the blood. This is a liver enzyme after all, not a neurotransmitter or something. I think there may have been a misinterpretation of the study, but it is impossible for me to tell because it is not cited.--Wingsfan6047 23:49, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] same BAC values

That was what I was thinking, but according to about.com the effects at same BAC values can be much lower for people accustomed to alcohol. This is called Functional Tolerance:

"Humans and animals develop tolerance when their brain functions adapt to compensate for the disruption caused by alcohol in both their behavior and their bodily functions. This adaptation is called functional tolerance (2). Chronic heavy drinkers display functional tolerance when they show few obvious signs of intoxication even at high blood alcohol concentrations (BAC's), which in others would be incapacitating or even fatal (3)."

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa28.htm

145.97.201.67 00:05, 19 October 2007 (UTC)