Water and alcohol

When I got up this morning I looked at the tagboard (the chat thingy on the left) and saw that someone had taken offense at a couple posts I made about drinking water while drinking alcohol.

First he took offense to comment I made that said “a smart drunk is me”. Obviously this guy:
- Doesn’t have a sense of humor.
- Doesn’t know that this is the language my friends and I use when joking (a [insert something stupid here] is me. Example: a smart drunk is me.)
- Doesn’t know that I rarely drink.

Then he went on this little rant about how water makes it worse when you drink and told me to consult with a doctor.

Well, Mr. Internet Stranger (since you didn’t leave an email address, I need to adress your comments here). Water does indeed help with your alcohol level.

Alcohol will dehydrate you. How? Well, go talk to your doctor. But so that you know what you are going to hear, let me explain things to you as simply as I can. Alcohol lowers the release of vasopressin. Vasopressin is an antidiuretic hormone (reference) that makes sure that the water level in your blood is where it should be. So the more you drink, the less vasopressin in your body, so the more you get dehydrated. Your kidneys can simply not expel the toxins out of your body (through urine) fast enough.

Drinking water during and after drinking alcohol will get that wonderful hormone doing its job once again, getting your kidneys working like they should and restoring the water level in your blood, therefore lowering the effects of alcohol while you drink as well as how you feel in the morning (a hangover is your body reacting to being dehydrated.)

And since what that guy posted was false and pointless, I deleted his messages. Discussion may continue in the comments section of this entry.

Posted by david at 11:29 am | Permalink |

Filed under Personal