enebriation and side effects

[tcrudisi]

My wife was helped home at 2:30am with help from a friend. She had been out drinking, but only had 1 white russian, 1 beer, and half of a Long Island. She's normally pretty good about being able to handle alcohol.

Not this time. She said the room was spinning and she feels very nauseous. I realize that's typical "drunk" feeling, but she also said it was the worst she's ever felt.

So I was wondering -- is it possible that her drink was spiked by something? Or is it likely that she somehow just got the most drunk I've ever seen her and did it with not much alcohol?

*edit* I realize this isn't a medical forum or anything, but I'm not exactly the "go out and get drunk" type. I have very little experience with it myself so I'm not comfortable dealing with it and a bit worried, obviously.

[Keld Denar]

Different places mix drinks of differing potency. Mixology is an art, not a science. I knew a place called Earls, which was dubbed "a place to go to make bad decisions" because their drinks are notoriously strong. Consuming normal quantities will lead to abnormal results.

I doubt its anything malicious, although if you went to a doctor within a certain amount of time, they could run Toxicology on her.

[shadowxknight]

Did she drink on an empty stomach? That brings your tolerance way down and also turns people into depressed drunks.

[Raiki]

Also, assuming that by Long Island you meant Iced Tea, those generally have between 5-8 shots in them, depending on where they were made/by whom. I don't know anything about your wife, but a mixer, a bear, and 3-4 shots would do me in pretty quickly.

~R~

[tcrudisi]

Did she drink on an empty stomach? That brings your tolerance way down and also turns people into depressed drunks.

I can remember the last thing that we ate, but that was a while back. However, she does tend to make a lot of snacks and sandwiches as our meal times aren't sinked up very well, so it's quite possible that she ate since dinner but before drinking. It's also quite possible that she hasn't eaten anything since dinner, which would make a good 6-8 hour difference between eating and drinking.

I'm sure it's not the drink strength. She would have mixed her own white russian, beer is not mixed, and even half a really strong Long Island (which is unlikely since I know the bar she went to) wouldn't be THAT much... I don't think. Of course, I've never drunk a Long Island, so I can't say that with any real authority.

[THAC0]

Sometimes mixing beer and liquor can produce unwanted side effects.

And sometimes it's just a bad day.

Or sometimes you get drunk enough that you literally don't remember the other two drinks you had.

And sometimes someone spikes your drink.

Bottom line: many possible answers. Drug test is the only way to be sure and most of those are out of your system very quickly.

[thubby]

if she falls asleep and can't be roused, it's a problem. otherwise, meh.

[tcrudisi]

Also, assuming that by Long Island you meant Iced Tea, those generally have between 5-8 shots in them, depending on where they were made/by whom. I don't know anything about your wife, but a mixer, a bear, and 3-4 shots would do me in pretty quickly.

~R~

Well, that might be what I'm missing. Assuming 1 shot each for the white russian and beer, that would be 5-6 shots total... which would do it for most people.

Long Island Ice Teas have that much alcohol? (Yep, I guess they do have a lot: I just looked up the recipe. Wow.)

That might have just solved this mystery. I was thinking 3 drinks would not be nearly enough to get her this way, but I wasn't aware of just how much alcohol those drinks had.

That makes me feel a lot better. At least now I feel more confident that it's drunkenness and not some drug that was put into her drink. Thanks.

[Mando Knight]

Long Island Ice Teas have that much alcohol? (Yep, I guess they do have a lot: I just looked up the recipe. Wow.)

The Long Island Iced Tea is an infamous concoction of alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol that somehow manages to taste like normal iced tea when made properly. My Scots-Irish-German-blooded fencing buddy, who practically runs on beer, felt inebriated after two of them the first time he tried 'em, and that was all he had. Well, not counting the third that he nursed because he ordered it before the effects of the first two hit...

[Winter_Wolf]

It's a solid bet your wife failed a CON check. I have that kind of variable tolerance where one day I can drink down about 6-8 shots worth of vodka in about an hour and be totally fine, and days where a half a beer will make me drunk.

Unless she starts puking up blood or can't be roused from sleep, it's probably nothing.

[The Duke]

Also, assuming that by Long Island you meant Iced Tea, those generally have between 5-8 shots in them, depending on where they were made/by whom. I don't know anything about your wife, but a mixer, 3-4 shots and a bear, would do me in pretty quickly.

~R~

I'm fairly sure a bear would do most people in fairly quick if it tried. :smallwink:

[mucat]

Let us know if she's feeling better in the morning, tcrudisi.
(And google "hangover cures", find a million of them, pick out one she might like and make it for her!)

Most of 'em don't work any better than the old reliable "drink lots of fluids and get some rest", but they're pretty entertaining and will take her mind off her misery. :smallsmile:

[Zeb The Troll]

The best hangover medicine I've ever found is Alka Seltzer or one of its generic alternatives. It has the headache medicine in liquid form so it works faster, and the effervescence helps settle the roiling stomach.

[Extra_Crispy]

As Thac0 said, mixing drinks can have some very strange side effects. A friend of mine was able to go up the ladder (start with beer and then go to harder alcohols like wiskeys) but never down. He could drink 4-5 beers and then have 2-3 shots and just start to feel alcohol, but if he went the other way.... It was a very bad night. He would get all the hang over effects after just 2-3 drinks. Others can mix at will, so it might be that.

Also, as was said before, it depends food in the stomach alot. Last time I was drunk, very drunk, it took 2 long island ice teas, 10 red bull and vodkas (made by a friend so they were all very very strong) and then splitting a large bottle of vodka with 1 of my friends while the group of us were playing poker. (that 1 friend and I were the only ones still drinking and the 2 of us finished the bottle) But that was after a good sized dinner AND munching on stuff the whole night.

A few months ago I was almost stumbling around after 2 rum and cokes, I had had nothing to eat since dinner the night before and this was about 4 pm.

There are a lot of factors. I would not put it out of the realm of having her drink spiked BUT that is one of the last possibilities.

[Mystic Muse]

Like others have said. The amount of alcohol in a long island iced tea probably had something to do with it. I know from some AIM buddies that certain alcoholic drinks just plain don't mix. that's probably what happened. that or just a large amount of alcohol with not much to absorb it.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

The mixing beer and liquor thing is complete and utter BS. I've had one, gone to the other, then back to one, with no detrimental affects whatsoever. It's all in moderation. If you don't drink too much of any one, you will most likely end up just fine. Fact of the matter is, there is really no hard evidence to actually support that claim, and most believe it comes from people drinking too much and not knowing it after they've had harder stuff. Mythbusters even tested it out and it was completely and utterly busted.

[THAC0]

The mixing beer and liquor thing is complete and utter BS. I've had one, gone to the other, then back to one, with no detrimental affects whatsoever. It's all in moderation. If you don't drink too much of any one, you will most likely end up just fine. Fact of the matter is, there is really no hard evidence to actually support that claim, and most believe it comes from people drinking too much and not knowing it after they've had harder stuff. Mythbusters even tested it out and it was completely and utterly busted.

The fact that it's not something that affects everyone doesn't mean that it's not something that affects some people. Just as the effects of a shot of booze are different on different people.

[Nefarion Xid]

Psychology almost has more to do with you getting drunk than the ethanol. If you expect to get farshnoshket and have a good time, then that's what you're going to feel. I mean, you can get someone good and drunk off of virgin bloody marys (supposing they don't have much experience with alcohol and you, of course, lie to them about the contents).

You can even get more drunk as a new bar than your favorite watering hole. sitting in your favorite bar, your body and mind start to prepare themselves to handle the alcohol they know is coming. If you're in a new place, you won't be quite so prepared and you'll feel more intoxicated.

Psychopharmacology aside: If you're going to drink a white russian, stick to white russians and water for the rest of the night... don't pour gin and triplesec on top of it. Man, it turns my stomach just to think of a long island after that...

[snoopy13a]

The mixing beer and liquor thing is complete and utter BS. I've had one, gone to the other, then back to one, with no detrimental affects whatsoever. It's all in moderation. If you don't drink too much of any one, you will most likely end up just fine. Fact of the matter is, there is really no hard evidence to actually support that claim, and most believe it comes from people drinking too much and not knowing it after they've had harder stuff. Mythbusters even tested it out and it was completely and utterly busted.

There's a reason the phase: "liquor and then beer, you're in the clear; beer and then liquor, you've never sicker" exists.

It is simply due to the fact that it is quicker to drink liquor and you can lose track of how much you've drank.

For example, suppose I have five shots of vodka and then I drink beer. Since it takes much longer to drink a beer then it does to take a shot and light beer (the beer of choice for many binge drinkers) contains less alcohol then a shot, you normally drink less alcohol overall. So you may drink five shots of vodka and say three or four beers.

Now, suppose I drink five beers and then I go to liquor. Taking shots is quick and easy and I'm already buzzed so I'm not keeping a good track of my alcohol intake. Therefore, I may take a high number of shots or even start drinking from the bottle (this is bad). In this scenario, I may drink five beers and seven or eight (or even more) shots.

Thus, even though one drinks the same if all things are equal, one tends to drink more when they go beer then liquor over liquor then beer. That's simply due to the ease in which a drunk person can do shots and there's a real danger involved.

[Syka]

Yeah, I don't drink but I heard "Long Island" and went "Well, there's yer problem." :smallwink:

They have a lot of alcohol in them, and on top of a beer and a White Russian AND possibly no food...bad idea.

[tcrudisi]

Let us know if she's feeling better in the morning, tcrudisi.
(And google "hangover cures", find a million of them, pick out one she might like and make it for her!)

Most of 'em don't work any better than the old reliable "drink lots of fluids and get some rest", but they're pretty entertaining and will take her mind off her misery. :smallsmile:

Oops -- I'm a bit late, but yeah, she's fine. I've never seen her anywhere near that level before... and I hope I don't see it again. Thanks for the help, guys.


Psychopharmacology aside: If you're going to drink a white russian, stick to white russians and water for the rest of the night... don't pour gin and triplesec on top of it. Man, it turns my stomach just to think of a long island after that...

Haha. Alright -- I'll let her know. That might have been the cause of the "I don't want to die, my stomach hurts so bad, don't let me die" that I kept hearing yesterday.

[Extra_Crispy]

The mixing beer and liquor thing is complete and utter BS. I've had one, gone to the other, then back to one, with no detrimental affects whatsoever. It's all in moderation. If you don't drink too much of any one, you will most likely end up just fine. Fact of the matter is, there is really no hard evidence to actually support that claim, and most believe it comes from people drinking too much and not knowing it after they've had harder stuff. Mythbusters even tested it out and it was completely and utterly busted.

Sorry just because it does not do it for you and mythbusters busted for the people they tested does not mean it is not true. You and the ones mythbusters tested are not everyone. I have seen it effect my friend when he goes from hard alcohol to beer get really messed up. So please dont call something BS untill you can tell me that you tested everyone, EVERYONE, and it does not work on them. We are all different.

Sorry but that is one of my pet pieves (sp?) as I am a nurse and all through school the teachers allways said it was completely impossible to get the flu from recieving the flu show. "Its dead, there is absolutely no way to get the flu" Yet my father ALWAYS got the flu when he got the shot, not even a mild case, he would be down for 2 weeks at least. When he did not get the shot, he has never gotten the flu, colds yes, but not the flu. I lived with proof that you can BUT they kept saying it was impossible and I was mistaken. And before you say "he must have an egg allergy", no he does not, he eats eggs whenever he wants.

Sorry for the rant but i really dislike it when everyone is lumped into one catigory because a selection of people were tested, and they did not have problems, or react certain ways. Everyone is different, even close relatives. My grandmother cant take the flu shot, she gets the flu, just like her son, my dad. But me I get the shot every year and have NO bad reaction to it.

[Zeb The Troll]

The mixing beer and liquor thing is complete and utter BS. I've had one, gone to the other, then back to one, with no detrimental affects whatsoever. It's all in moderation. If you don't drink too much of any one, you will most likely end up just fine. Fact of the matter is, there is really no hard evidence to actually support that claim, and most believe it comes from people drinking too much and not knowing it after they've had harder stuff. Mythbusters even tested it out and it was completely and utterly busted.Mythbusters didn't test in the real world. They tested with an equal amount of alcohol, just in different orders. That glosses over the reasoning for the phrase to begin with, which is, as others have mentioned, that if you start with beer, your inhibitions may be lowered by the time you get to the higher content drinks and consume more of them before realizing you should stop. Whereas if you start with the shots/mixed drinks and move to beer, you're, in effect, slowing down.

[mucat]

Glad she's feeling better, tcrudisi.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Everyone seems to be missing the point that the says really holds no truth to it at all. There is not a single shred of scientific proof that I could find hunting over the last several days that affirms the saying. I did some digging, and it seems to originate from how most metabolize beer slower, and hard liquor/carbonated stuff quicker. Also, it's surmised that when people drink liquor first, they hold back, and then just nurse beer at the end, therefore drinking less alcohol over a longer period, but when you start out drinking beer, many tend to drink more liquor at the end than they should, and get the detrimental affects. Fact of the matter is, that hangovers are caused by dehydration, and it doesn't matter how much switching back and forth you do between beer and liquor. As long as you drink both kinds in moderation, you will more than likely be just fine. And yes, I got sources affirming this, that were doctors, nutritional anthropologists, and nutritionists.

[Pyrian]

Everyone seems to be missing the point that the says really holds no truth to it at all. There is not a single shred of scientific proof that I could find hunting over the last several days that affirms the saying.So, you're saying absence of evidence constitutes proof of absence?


Also, it's surmised that when people drink liquor first, they hold back, and then just nurse beer at the end, therefore drinking less alcohol over a longer period, but when you start out drinking beer, many tend to drink more liquor at the end than they should, and get the detrimental affects.And if that's true (and I'm not saying it is) that would mean you were wrong. :smallconfused:

[Keld Denar]

But thats a psychotoxicogical effect rather than a physiotoxicological effect.

One thing I did read in Men's Health a while back was a study done on Red Bull + alchoholic drinks that was interesting. It went something along the lines of two groups of individuals were given Red Bull + 1 shot mixed drinks while the control group were just given the 1 shot. After 3 drinks and a time (I don't remember, was about 10-15 min), BAC was measured. Those with the Red Bull drinks were noticably higher than those without. After another 15 or so minutes, BAC was measured again, and this time it had more or less leveled out between control and variable groups. I don't have any info on their sample population or whatnot but it is kinda a cool experiment. IIRC, they suspected that it had something to do with the sugar increasing absorption of the alcohol. Might be interesting (and fun) to repeat the experiement with a low carb Red Bull as a 3rd variable group.

[THAC0]

But thats a psychotoxicogical effect rather than a physiotoxicological effect.


But the saying doesn't specify that it must be a physiotoxicologial effect. :smallconfused:

[snoopy13a]

But thats a psychotoxicogical effect rather than a physiotoxicological effect.

One thing I did read in Men's Health a while back was a study done on Red Bull + alchoholic drinks that was interesting. It went something along the lines of two groups of individuals were given Red Bull + 1 shot mixed drinks while the control group were just given the 1 shot. After 3 drinks and a time (I don't remember, was about 10-15 min), BAC was measured. Those with the Red Bull drinks were noticably higher than those without. After another 15 or so minutes, BAC was measured again, and this time it had more or less leveled out between control and variable groups. I don't have any info on their sample population or whatnot but it is kinda a cool experiment. IIRC, they suspected that it had something to do with the sugar increasing absorption of the alcohol. Might be interesting (and fun) to repeat the experiement with a low carb Red Bull as a 3rd variable group.

I believe that carbonation increases the uptake of alcohol into the bloodstream.

Did you say the control only had a shot (and not a mixed drink like a Rum and Coke)?

A good experiment to see if sugar increases absorption would be to compare a Rum and Coke made from Classic Coke with one made from Diet Coke.

To compare carbonation, one could use a Rum and Coke made with normal coke and one made with coke that had gone flat.

[Dracomortis]

I'm fairly sure a bear would do most people in fairly quick if it tried. :smallwink:

I heard Vladimir Putin once downed five bears in ten minutes and didn't even flinch.

[Extra_Crispy]

Everyone seems to be missing the point that the says really holds no truth to it at all. There is not a single shred of scientific proof that I could find hunting over the last several days that affirms the saying. I did some digging, and it seems to originate from how most metabolize beer slower, and hard liquor/carbonated stuff quicker. Also, it's surmised that when people drink liquor first, they hold back, and then just nurse beer at the end, therefore drinking less alcohol over a longer period, but when you start out drinking beer, many tend to drink more liquor at the end than they should, and get the detrimental affects. Fact of the matter is, that hangovers are caused by dehydration, and it doesn't matter how much switching back and forth you do between beer and liquor. As long as you drink both kinds in moderation, you will more than likely be just fine. And yes, I got sources affirming this, that were doctors, nutritional anthropologists, and nutritionists.

And for the vast majority you are 100% right, I only know 1 guy that it affects. Now weather it is a quicker drunk, I did not say that, It probably is not which would make you right in what you just said. I said that if my friend starts with hard alcohols and goes to beer he get "all the hang over effects". Maybe it is something to do with him but he would quickly start being dizzy, achey, and other "hang over" effects. Sorry for the missunderstanding and sorry if I missunderstood your first post and what you were trying to say. I was not trying to say he got drunk faster just got the effects of the drunk, the hang-over, faster.

[Superglucose]

Best hangover cure I've found: prevent it by drinking water. Works for me every time.

[Pyrian]

You know what works for me? Not getting drunk. :smallbiggrin: