As for the being born with it, it’s a super common thing in east asian populations.
Two main processes that break down alcohol (specifically ethanol): alcohol dehydrogenase which does exactly what it says and removes a hydrogen atom from the end of the chain making it an aldehyde. This molecule, acetaldehyde, is to my understanding what actually causes the drunken effects. I don’t remember if this means it it entirely the drunken effects, or just is far more of one.
What I do remember however is that there is a second enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase (guess what that does) that further processes it down to a carboxylic acid, which is then what is expelled. This is the enzyme that is occasionally found lacking due to a single base pair replacement (so it still folds normally, but is ineffective due to a single animo acid in a critical site messing the whole thing up).
This is the common mutation found in those aforementioned east asian populations. It means you can get absolutely thrashed on a budget.
Fun fact, too: there is something you can take to mitigate these effects if you know you have it, like how there’s lactaid for those that are lactose intolerant (lacking the lactase enzyme). So getting yourself wrecked in this fashion is at least partially a choice.
One more fun fact: this is all from memory of a chemistry course I took some time back, in which I asked the instructor why it was that we only seem able to break down alcohols with two carbons. I don’t much remember why for the longer chains, but as for menthol? It also gets dehydrogenized but that aldehyde with one carbon is formaldehyde. Probably don’t need to expound on why that transition might be worse.
Liver can’t break down alcohol? How do I get that
Well, you could try Disulfram but I’m not sure it’s the effect you’re looking for.
Be born with it, or seriously mess up your liver.
As for the being born with it, it’s a super common thing in east asian populations.
Two main processes that break down alcohol (specifically ethanol): alcohol dehydrogenase which does exactly what it says and removes a hydrogen atom from the end of the chain making it an aldehyde. This molecule, acetaldehyde, is to my understanding what actually causes the drunken effects. I don’t remember if this means it it entirely the drunken effects, or just is far more of one.
What I do remember however is that there is a second enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase (guess what that does) that further processes it down to a carboxylic acid, which is then what is expelled. This is the enzyme that is occasionally found lacking due to a single base pair replacement (so it still folds normally, but is ineffective due to a single animo acid in a critical site messing the whole thing up).
This is the common mutation found in those aforementioned east asian populations. It means you can get absolutely thrashed on a budget.
Fun fact, too: there is something you can take to mitigate these effects if you know you have it, like how there’s lactaid for those that are lactose intolerant (lacking the lactase enzyme). So getting yourself wrecked in this fashion is at least partially a choice.
One more fun fact: this is all from memory of a chemistry course I took some time back, in which I asked the instructor why it was that we only seem able to break down alcohols with two carbons. I don’t much remember why for the longer chains, but as for menthol? It also gets dehydrogenized but that aldehyde with one carbon is formaldehyde. Probably don’t need to expound on why that transition might be worse.
Alcoholism
First you break the liver.
Starve a cold, drown a liver?