I, V, M. I have very profound question this week now in which we are going to answer for our audiences which is why do we get drunk? Fascinating. Do you have any answers which doesn't have to do with science?
Okay, I'm going to give this philosophical spin. So there are two reasons. One is called the mechanistic cause and one is called the teleological cause. So the teleological cause is like, you know, why are you here?
The mechanistic causes, you know, you walk down from the realization you came, walked up, that's why you're here. And the teleological cause is, you know, there's a big celestial power and he created the universe and then he decided to put Chuck into it and then Chuck grew up into a boy and one day by chance he met this fascinating hand-sh I guess you're talking about the mechanistic and other teleological. I'm actually not quite sure. The ideological is boss, you know, come to Bana.
Yeah, so yeah, the first thing. Yeah, what do you say? So it all starts now in with a fascinating chemical called ethanol. Ethanol as we know it, of course, is C2H5OH.
And trust me, that ending is just perfect because many times the next day we just wake up and say, oh, which makes me think that it should more accurately be C2H5. Holy shit, what do I just do? Or C2H5? I can't believe I just called by X.
Or C2H5 shit, did I just text that to my boss? Somebody help me with my knock-re-profile. But yes, ethanol is a chemical of many, many talents. As I figured, I was doing research for it.
Firstly, right of the bat, it's a toxin. Yeah, so it's a toxin. But let's start with it. Let's start at the very basic.
Why do we get hammered when we intake of the blushful hypochrene? Yeah, the true, the blushful hypochrene. It's water soluble. So all alcohol, whether right from single molds all the way down to the swill, that is Kingfisher, be it craft or...?
I think it's hipster now to say that Kingfisher is well. It's OK. I think for old times sake, we should still say we like Kingfisher. But in any case, all alcohol, no matter where you get it from, how is brewed, or what you call it, or how much you paid for it, or how much wate you paid for it, or which shady method in Gujarat you managed to get it from.
All of them, without exception, contains this thing called ethanol in varying quantities. Now ethanol is water soluble, which means that it enters the blood stream easily and goes and it's very easy for it to get to the liver and the brain. As an aside, ethanol is also fat soluble, which pretty much means that it's like, it can basically go wherever it wants, even though the residents have absolutely no idea where it's there. Basically, the ethanol is the Guru Nath myya pan of chemicals.
So when you drink ethanol enters your stomach, goes into the small intestine from there, goes the blood stream and from there goes the brain. And from there is where it starts doing funny things to you. Ethanol attaches itself to something called glutamine receptors. And everyone hearing this podcast, I want you to remember those two words next time you go drinking.
Repeat after me glutamine receptors. Glutamine receptors. Yes. You're screwing up your glutamine receptors with every drop.
Now this ethanol thing is a clingy bugger. The clingy bugger is in. It doesn't just make you clingy. It's very clingy itself.
So see, ethanol receptors are things that actually receive signals from other parts of the brain. Glutamine receptors. Yeah. What do I say?
Yeah. So it's, you know, they control signals from other parts of you. You go here, you go there. That's sort of like the central, you know, they control the flow of information and stuff like that.
Now what happens when this, when ethanol comes in, it's like clings on to this thing and basically makes it inefficient. It slows it down. It's like almost clinging to its foot, not letting it go and say, Papa, you stay, don't go over to work today. That sort of thing.
And so basically the efficacy of these receptors is affected. It's like, suppose you're listening to like high quality speakers and you suddenly just put a huge dump cloth over them and you're complaining why things are sounding muddy is something like that. So basically your brain gets added a little bit. Ethanol also has another, ethanol also does something else.
There's another type of receptors called the GABA receptors, okay, which has nothing to do with commentators from that, but it's been a cricket stadium. So GABA stands for something which I won't get into right now. These receptors actually they help maintain balance by normalizing or slowing down brain function so that things don't get too hyper. So ethanol has a reverse effect on these.
So they actually, ethanol actually makes GABA receptors more active so that your overall brain function again becomes very, very down. So it's a depressant because it, the active thing, it sort of addles it up and the passive thing is sort of makes it more active. So net, net, your brain becomes, your brain becomes added from two different directions. So your speech starts becoming blurry and you start making poor decisions like trying to sing like a rolling stone at the karaoke bar and things like that.
So you do silly things when you're drunk right now, right? What's the most drunk thing that you've done? I once in a fit of passion decided to sing an ode to the neuron in college, right? So we had a girl's hostel, we had two hundred guys and forty girls but this was way back in the 80s.
1200 to 40. So I got hold of a guitar, I can't play a guitar, I don't know how to play it. I removed my shirt and I went and decided to sing some song, Jim Morrison stuff, something like that. I had no clue.
And there's a whole bunch of people who were egging me on. So I thought it was like a concert. I'm very saying, egging you on, you're saying, increasing or not pelting you with? No, they're saying a boss about a time good idea.
So after some time... Oh, you're so low, is it? I was supposed to do, like they're supposed to back up like line, you know? They're supposed to go chorus, kick legs and all that kind of thing.
You're all right away man and I'm there, I'm singing and chokita, what right? And I'm saying, you know, me and all these people are all over. You and what are me? And you know, being alcohol impaired, I mean, I'm a tremendous athlete and all that.
I did the 100, 100 meter in the 22nd round. So in addition to all these many talents that ethanol has, it also spikes up the endorphin and dopamine levels, which just makes you want to crave the thing all the more. Now in addition to this, how does one get hungover ethanol along with this wide list of talents is what about. It's fantastic at making you dehydrated.
It's one of its very... It's super power. Super power is actually. So the exact cause of a hangover is not understood, but there's a whole lot of things.
As a tile to hide accumulation happens, the immune system gets changes, glucose metabolism happens, apparently your sugar levels drop really low. Dehydration, a whole lot of big words on Wikipedia really. And of course, there's leak deprivation and things like that as well. At this point, of course, we should definitely mention a no-stock about hangovers can be completed without mentioning the original Jeeves.
And it all started on that one day when Bertie hired him in the first ever Jeeves story. He does Jeeves takes charge. I think that was. And do you remember what the recipe was for that?
It was and raw egg and a shot of band-y. No, red pepper actually. And according to Jeeves, what are the function of the boosters? To give it the color.
So that's about it. Oh, there's one more woodhouse connection. In one of the woodhouse... But also, I mean, Bertie was always drunk in any case.
So there's this epic line. Let me see if I can collect it. It is said by those who know these things that there are six kinds of hangovers. The atomic, the cement mixer, the sewing machine, the comet, the something else, and the gremlin boogie.
And his manners suggested he had them all. So folks, that's about it. That's how you get drunk. That's the science behind it.
So think about this and think about what you're doing to your glutamate receptors. Next time you go to a drink. So in sum, we are talking about something supremely dangerous that easily enters your body, goes directly to your brain, makes you say stupid things, make you do stupid things, do stupid things, and throws your sense of judgment totally off entirely. But hey, why are we talking about religion?
That's about alcohol. That's about it folks. See you next time. Stay tuned.
Have a great week. Bye-bye.