Alcoholism Vaccine Makes Alcohol Intolerable To Drinkers 350
Hugh Pickens writes "Ariel Schwartz reports that researchers are working on an alcoholism vaccine that makes alcohol intolerable to anyone who drinks it. The vaccine builds on what happens naturally in certain people — about 20% of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean population — with an alcohol intolerance mutation. Normally, the liver breaks down alcohol into an enzyme that's transformed into the compound acetaldehyde (responsible for that nasty hangover feeling), which in turn is degraded into another enzyme. The acetaldehyde doesn't usually have time to build up before it's broken down. But people with the alcohol intolerance mutation lack the ability to produce that second enzyme; acetaldehyde accumulates, and they feel terrible. Dr. Juan Asenjo and his colleagues have come up with a way to stop the synthesis of that second enzyme via a vaccine, mimicking the mutation that sometimes happens naturally. 'People have this mutation all over the world. It's like how some people can't drink milk,' says Asenjo. Addressing the physiological part of alcohol addiction is just one piece of the battle. Addictive tendencies could very well manifest in other ways; instead of alcohol, perhaps former addicts will move on to cigarettes. Asenjo admits as much: 'Addiction is a psychological disease, a social disease. Obviously this is only the biological part of it.'"
I'll take a shot... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, no alcohol? Shot as in vaccine? Fuck that.
REverse this!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Make another vaccine (or possibly something in pill form), that increases that second enzyme, and makes hangovers less and less painful!!
I never knew what a hangover was till I was in my mid-30's...then BAM....
Now, sure I can still drink quite a bit....not even getting very drunk at times, but man, I pay for it for 2+ days now at times.
If this is what happened to me....I'd pay a TON of money to be able to regenerate that 2nd enzyme production to lower the acetaldehyde (sp?) and lower the hangover pain.
Drinking is fun for those that can handle their booze....if you could get rid of the hangover, it would be great for those that still like to party a bit.
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Agreed! My tolerance is what it used to be but still decent...
That HANGOVERS though... They could kill a person
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PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY!
*Throws money at screen*
That is what they should be trying to do.
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> Make another vaccine (or possibly something in pill form), that increases that second enzyme, and makes hangovers less and less painful!!
Hell, just add it to the drink.
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Yea they need to be working it in reverse, make a vaccine to prevent hangovers.
They wouldn't even need scientific grants, the liquor industry alone would be happy to foot the bill.
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A completely natural vaccine to prevent hangovers already exists. It's called water. After a long night of drinking enough booze that you know you'll end up with a hangover, go to sleep with a glass or bottle of water by your side. Most of the effects--especially the nastier ones--of a hangover are actually the effects of dehydration. You can drastically reduce its effects or even prevent having one completely by drinking enough water throughout the night. Depending on how much you drank and how dehydr
Re:I'll take a shot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just FYI a quick trip to Wiki might educate you on that. Don't assume stuff and pass it off as scientific fact.
It's not been conclusively shown it is dehydration. It is but one of several leading theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover [wikipedia.org]
> Hypoglycemia, dehydration, acetaldehyde intoxication, and glutamine rebound are all theorized causes of hangover symptoms.
You can read more in the cited sources of the article.
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This is about two things: dilution in stomach before it enters the bloodstream, slowing the absorption through stomach until it enters intestines and in blood and volume, less room in stomach for alcohol before stomach starts to tell your brain it's full and you should cut down on consumption.
Same thing is recommended for those on diet. When you are dieting and feel hungry, don't eat. Instead, drink water until you fill your stomach. The feeling of fullness removes (most of the) desire to eat.
Re:I'll take a shot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I'll take a shot... (Score:5, Informative)
As someone who used to have hangovers quite frequently in his younger days, I can assure you that they're more than dehydration. I drank plenty of water and fluids (both before and fact the fact) and still felt like ass the next day.
Re:I'll take a shot... (Score:5, Funny)
I drank plenty of water and fluids (both before and fact the fact)
Last night too, I see.
Re:I'll take a shot... (Score:4, Funny)
Also, fusel oils (very common in brown spirits like whiskey and far more rare in clear spirits like vodka) can make hangovers worse.
The very worse hangover I ever had was when I decided to take a sculpture class in college. One of the advantages was learning to weld, and I discovered that if you had a bad hangover and took a cutting torch, turned on the oxygen and breathed deeply the hangover was gone in less than five minutes.
Well, one morning I was so hung over I was still staggering. I went to do my hangover remedy... and you guessed it, I turned the wrong knob. That gave me the mother of all hangovers! The oxygen helped a little after I stopped puking. I felt better after the instructor smoked a joint with me (this was back in the 70s, also known as the "stone" age).
The best hangover remedy won't work any more unless you raise your own chickens, and that's eggnog. Three raw egg yolks in a glass, mixed with milk and a generous amount of sugar and perhaps nutmeg. The yolk of a raw egg contains an enzyme that speeds the breakdown (and come to think of it, might just be an antidote to the vaccine as well). The trouble is that heat, including pasteurization, kills the enzyme. So grocery store eggnog won't work, you need raw yolks, and one of three raw commercial eggs has salmonella. Yeah, no hangover this morning but tomorrow you'll feel worse from the cramps and runs and maybe even be in the hospital.
If you're raising chickens it works well.
Scary idea (Score:2, Interesting)
This is one vaccine some people would want to avoid. Imagine a winelover accidentally getting stuck with one and having their passion ruined for life.
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Worst case it would be ruined for 6 months.
Re:Scary idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Worst case it would be ruined for 6 months.
When you read TFA, is says:
With one dose of the vaccine, the mice’s drinking habits diminish by 50% for 30 days.
That would suggest the effect is far shorter than 6 months, and the vaccine far less effective than most here seem to think.
Chances are, the occasional, small. glass of wine wouldn't even affect most people.
If the effect only lasts for 30 days, (or, giving the benefit of the doubt, 6 months), the true alcoholic would find excuses
to miss that second shot.
As for accidentally getting this shot, don't discount the possibility of a court order, or at the very least, a court
ordered choice, the shot or jail. A shot with this short period of efficacy probably isn't likely to be successful
in either combating alcoholism or preventing drinking, simply because it appears to be so short acting.
In fact, one wonders if it really qualifies as a vaccine. One of the hallmarks of a vaccine according to wiki is: "[an agent that] stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters."
This treatment seems merely to be an agent that suppress the production of a naturally occurring bodily enzyme, but only while the agent is present in quantity sufficient to trigger the suppression. It seems to have no lasting effect.
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Having a lasting effect would be highly inadvisable. This is about suppressing one of the natural defense mechanisms of the body against certain type of toxin. The goal is not to actually disable this defense mechanism permanently, but to cause significant discomfort for the period of alcoholic trying to kick his habit. It's essentially an extra psychological factor that introduces "alcohol makes me sick" illusion to help combat the psychological aspect of dependency. After that, defense mechanism should re
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I seriously doubt there is a widespread problem with anyone getting any vaccines accidentally.
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Re:Scary idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Without vigilance, there might be a widespread problem with people getting these vaccines against their will.
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Without vigilance, there might be a widespread problem with people getting these vaccines against their will.
I could easily see it being court mandated, especially upon a DWI conviction. The effect seems to be short lived (30 days for mice), so unless major improvements in longevity of the effect, it would seem to be no more permanent than a jail sentence, but a lot less costly.
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In other news... (Score:2, Troll)
Stocks in Irish, Scottish, and Russian companies unexpectedly soar.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
You could, you're just too cheap.
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A drunken Scot was on his bicycle pedaling unsteadily home after closing time, with his flask in his back pocket. His tire fell in a rut and he crashed into a wall. Dazed, he sat up and felt a wet trickle running down his thigh. He muttered a prayer, "dear God, I hope that's blood."
Doubtful (Score:2)
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Does anyone really drink alcohol for the taste? Take the effect away and most drinks are a lot like drinking piss with a mediciney aftertaste.
Re:Doubtful (Score:4, Informative)
Actually...yes many of us like the taste.
When I was a little kid and I had my first taste of beer, I LOVED it.
I love the taste of fine wines...great with meals. I love a good, single malt scotch, with maybe a splash of water or a couple ice cubes (ok purists, bite me, I like it chilled a bit).
I like mixed drinks...I like the bitter tastes of a gin and tonic with fresh lime on a hot summer afternoon, I like a real daquiri (not that fucking over fruited strawberry frozen shit)....I like a good mojito.
Yes, many of us do enjoy alcohol's flavor in its various forms and mixed with things. The fact that it makes you feel great is definitely a plus.
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I'm with you. I like my scotch on the rocks, and I like to eat the little scotch-flavored ice cubes when I'm done with the drink. I don't care how angry that makes scotch lovers. My wife got me these rocks to chill the drink, but that's not for me.
And a G&T is the definitive summer drink (for me).
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I love the taste of fine wines...great with meals. I love a good, single malt scotch, with maybe a splash of water or a couple ice cubes (ok purists, bite me, I like it chilled a bit).
As a purist who drinks my scotch neat, I say it's more important to know how you enjoy the drink and to enjoy it as such rather than trying to conform to other people's method of enjoyment.
Unless you're mixing Diet Coke with 18 year single malt.
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Yes, many of us do enjoy alcohol's flavor in its various forms and mixed with things. The fact that it makes you feel great is definitely a plus.
I'm all for allowing people to drink. I'm not some prohibitionist.
I'm like the non-annoying vegetarians - I don't like the taste of alcohol, I don't like how it makes me feel, so I don't drink it. But I know there's lots of stuff other people like that I don't, and there's things I like that others don't.
"To each his own". Have fun drinking. If you need a ride, call.
Re:Doubtful (Score:4, Informative)
While the stones are great because they don't add some arbitrary amount of water, I do like a few drops in my scotch to open up the flavors a bit. This is particularly true with overproof scotches.
For a lark, take a shot of water and add a few drops of scotch. I find that i can pick up on many flavors that get lost in the overall intensity of the drink. Also its like homeopathy for drinkers :-)
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While the stones are great because they don't add some arbitrary amount of water, I do like a few drops in my scotch to open up the flavors a bit. This is particularly true with overproof scotches.
For a lark, take a shot of water and add a few drops of scotch. I find that i can pick up on many flavors that get lost in the overall intensity of the drink. Also its like homeopathy for drinkers :-)
Homeopathy would be more like adding a few molecules of scotch per glass of water and then somehow claiming this is stronger than the full strength stuff straight from the bottle.
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I assume they do, why else would you order the expansive brand at a bar over the cheap shit? Especially if being mixed.
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Old joke: when asked if he wanted water in his whisky, the old sot barked "Water?! Fish fuck in water!"
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There is booze that I would only drink if I wanted to get drunk, but there is definitely also booze that I would drink even if it was entirely nonalcoholic. You don't buy good scotch for the booze, you buy good scotch because it's good scotch.
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Does anyone really drink alcohol for the taste? Take the effect away and most drinks are a lot like drinking piss with a mediciney aftertaste.
Some alcoholic drinks are delicious. I happen to really really enjoy the taste of Guinness. Lots of fruity mixed drinks are fantastic. That said, I haven't had either in a while. In related news; it's Friday!
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Dude, stop drinking the cheapest crap you can find.
News flash: It tastes like crap.
Good wine is very tasty. Microbrew beers (assuming you're from the US, considering you equate beer with piss) can be quite good.Tequila that you don't have to crawl on the floor to buy can be fairly smooth and good for flavoring meat. Vodka that doesn't come in a plastic bottle is more likely to have a clean, crisp flavor. I will often have wine/beer with a meal because it makes everything taste better. Of course, that requir
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...like drinking piss with a mediciney aftertaste.
Mmmmmm! American beer!
Re:Doubtful (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Doubtful (Score:4, Informative)
The U.S. has the best beer in the world. Period.
http://www.finedininglovers.com/stories/brussels-beer-challenge-2012/ [finedininglovers.com]
Re:Doubtful (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anyone really drink alcohol for the taste? Take the effect away and most drinks are a lot like drinking piss with a mediciney aftertaste.
I'm with you, man. The worst kind of drink I can think of is a cask-aged Belgian monestary trippel served with an apple, a block of cheese, and a hunk of bread fresh out of some stupid oven. Yuck!
Does anyone really listen to music for the sound? Take the dancing people and the lights away, and most music is just annoying noise.
Does anyone really look at paintings for the visuals? Take the frame and the museum away, and most paintings are just blotches of pigment on canvas.
Does anyone really read books for the stories? Take the paper and binding away, and most books are just a bunch of words in too small a font (which are getting smaller and smaller every year, by the way).
Yeah, pretty much all of our senses and all of the "pleasurable" reactions that are brains fool us into thinking we're having are such a load of crap. Kind of makes you wonder: What's the point anyway? I mean, could this sunset even be any more orange? Pffft.
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You're drinking bad hooch then. There are actually GOOD tasting drinks out there, not all of them expensive.
It's also worth noting that tastes change as we age.
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Probably not, but few people drink straight alcohol and even fewer are around to discuss why. Many people, OTOH, drink beverages which happen to contain alcohol for the taste.
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They come to like the taste because they associate it with the feelings that come after.
This would change the feelings that happens after drastically, I think it could be extremely effective.
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Not necessarily. I tasted my first beer, I think at about age 12 or so, and I liked it the very first sip I had, and I had NO idea what the feelings would be...I didn't have enough to get buzzed, but I sure know I liked the taste of beer!
I still do to this day....hell, nowdays, I brew my own!!
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It would discourage the common drinker, but would it discourage the alcoholic?
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Disliking the taste doesn't really equate to "feeling terrible", which is what thus purportedly would do.
This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? This is news?
The EXACT SAME effect can be produced by feeding people shaggy mane mushrooms, (which are perfectly edible) due to the presence of a substance called Coprine.
Coprine acts similarly to a well known medicinal substance called Disulfriram" [wikipedia.org] that has been used to treat alcoholism via this mechanism for nearly 100 years!
So, what you are telling me is that this doctor has essentially re-invented the wheel, and that this is news?
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)
As a medicine, continuing treatment with ant-abuse is voluntary. As a vaccine, it's a life altering event.
I'd be interested to see the first DUI case where a judge says "six months in the workhouse OR the vaccine."
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Well, first of all, get yourself a better lawyer...especially for first offense, you should likely get out of it with maybe probation.
But if it came down to that...I'd take the 6 months.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)
I just said I'd like to see it, not participate! I think it will make for some interesting ethics discussions.
Imagine a drunk driver convicted of vehicular homicide being involuntarily sentenced to receive the vaccine. Is that ethical? Ask the victim's family if it's ethical to release him from prison without the vaccine?
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Sorry, but calling this vaccine is an overstatement. It's like a birth control injection. Good for a relatively short period.
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One lasts a couple of days. The other lasts 6 months.
Slight difference.
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Seriously? This is news?
The EXACT SAME effect can be produced by feeding people shaggy mane mushrooms, (which are perfectly edible) due to the presence of a substance called Coprine.
Coprine acts similarly to a well known medicinal substance called Disulfriram" [wikipedia.org] that has been used to treat alcoholism via this mechanism for nearly 100 years!
So, what you are telling me is that this doctor has essentially re-invented the wheel, and that this is news?
If you read the article you linked (I just did - having not heard of it before) the most important part of this new product is that it's a (permanent?) vaccine rather than a pill. In studies cited by that Wikipedia article, Disulfriram was not effective primarily due to poor compliance by the patient- they stopped taking the pills so they could have a drink (basically). With a vaccine, the patient does not have the ability to stop and have a drink. I think that's a significant and worthwhile improvement
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Not permanent. It wears off after 6 months according to the article.
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I think the major issue with Disulfriram (as even mentioned in wikipedia) is compliance. A vaccine removes that hurdle.
What could possibly go wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
It could put you at a higher risk of developing liver cancer.
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/healthyliving/alcohol/howdoesalcoholcausecancer/how-does-alcohol-cause-cancer [cancerresearchuk.org]
Re:What could possibly go wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Another Options for Those that want to stop (Score:2)
Vaccine? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think they understand what a "vaccine" is. Can we (especially the media) stop throwing that word around for everything? A vaccine immunizes you against a disease, by getting the body to produce antibodies.
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I don't think they understand what a "vaccine" is. Can we (especially the media) stop throwing that word around for everything? A vaccine immunizes you against a disease, by getting the body to produce antibodies.
Why stop there? Real vaccinations are only to prevent smallpox (and come from cows). You're thinking "inoculation".
Re:Vaccine? (Score:4, Informative)
In medical terminology vaccines likely do refer strictly to immunization against virii.
No, vaccines are anything you use to provoke an antibody response against something. This includes viruses, but also bacteria toxins (toxoid vaccines, like the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines), and other things, such as TA-CD ( which produces antibodies against cocaine).
Just What the Criminal Justice System Ordered (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just What the Criminal Justice System Ordered (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just What the Criminal Justice System Ordered (Score:4, Insightful)
Typo in summary (Score:3)
which in turn is degraded into another enzyme
Should say
which in turn is degraded by another enzyme
It makes no sense for a product of alcohol degradation to become an enzyme on it's own.
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to become an enzyme on it's own
should say:
to become an enzyme on its own
How about the reverse? (Score:2)
If you came up with something that would basically give you a super-hangover from alcohol, by blocking the breakdown of a chemical responsible for hangovers... it seems to reason you could also figure out how to cause faster breakdown of the same chemical. If it was really mostly responsible for hangovers, it seems like that would make billions of dollars as the first truly reliable hangover preventative. I know I'd buy it (if there weren't other worse side effects).
Meanwhile, I can't imagine many alcoholic
The only people who will be opposed (Score:3, Funny)
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Is there a non fucked up religion?
Hint, read my Sig for my opinion.
Re:Such resentment! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Such resentment! (Score:5, Insightful)
The idea that people are powerless over their addiction is a load of looney-tunes. Demonstrably so. Either you stop drinking and you're not suffering anymore, or you don't, and you remain an alcoholic. Of course a separate problem is whether you're cured as in you can keep drinking occasionally like any other person, or should you abstain forever. That is a separate issue. There are many people who can't in fact drink at all, because the feedback loop in their brain is so strong that once they resume drinking, the slide into alcoholism. But if you're not an alcoholic, but previously were, then duh you have overcome your addiction. You, not his noodly appendage.
Re:Such resentment! (Score:5, Informative)
How much to buy one and prank inject someone? (Score:2)
1) Parents paying to inject their high school kids without asking what the kids think about it.
2) High school and college kids pranking each other by injecting their ex-'friends' with it.
Re:How much to buy one and prank inject someone? (Score:4, Interesting)
easier to dose them with a mushroom pizza, made with shaggy mane mushrooms. Same effect, less permanent.
Mushroom ingestion disrupts enzyme activity for up to 3 weeks.
Hilariously, shaggy mane mushrooms frequently grow on lawns, and are easily identifiable. [wikipedia.org] There is a reasonably good chance you can find them simply growing on the campus quad, if you live in the northern hemisphere.
Sadly, due to the nature of the mushroom, it decomposes rapidly after being picked, so only fresh mushroom could be used for this purpose. In terms of taste and texture, it is similar to crimini, though has a different appearance when sliced. Disguising the mushroom in a saute' will not adversely effect the action of the coprine (active agent present in the mushroom) and will enable one to better deliver the joke mushroom to one's peers.
Horrible summary (Score:5, Informative)
This is one of the most horrible and stupidest summaries I've read in a long time. Enzymes are biochemical catalysts. Ethanol and acetaldehyde are substrates. The substrates get converted into end products with the help of enzymes and energy. Ethanol does not get converted *into* an enzyme known as acetaldehyde. Ethanol gets converted to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, through the loss of one hydrogen atom. In the next step, acetaldehyde gets converted into acetic acid (same thing as in vinegar) by the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase through the loss of another hydrogen atom. Acetaldehyde a lot more toxic than acetic acid. If you block the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (which lacks naturally in a minority of East Asians), there will be an accumulation of excess acetaldehyde, causing very noxious symptoms. This is exactly what drugs like disulfiram ("antabuse") do. What a badly written summary. Both the submitter and the editor need to read some biochemistry or learn to use google before posting rubbish.
Doesn't Anabuse already do this? (Score:2)
Doesn't Anabuse already do this?
Instant Hangover (Score:2)
Won't work (Score:4, Insightful)
I know someone who has this alcohol intolerance. She still drinks, in spite of the rotten feeling afterwords.
In some cases, alcoholism is about social and psychological dependence. Not the buzz from the chemistry. If people drink because they need it to fit in to a crowd, getting sick won't stop that.
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There is also a Genetic Basis For Nicotine (Score:5, Interesting)
There is also a genetic basis for nicotine tolerance. The mechanism is essentially the same. There is an gene that codes for an enzyme which removes nicotine from the bloodstream. This gene has several different alleles that code for more or less effective versions of the same enzyme. Individuals who have the allele that codes for the most effective enzyme are heavy smokers if they smoke. They smoke a cigarette, receive the desired stimulation, and then the enzyme clears the nicotine. Thus they desire another dose soon afterward. Individuals who produce the least effective version of the enzyme get sick when they smoke. The enzyme fails to clear the toxin in a reasonable time and they feel ill, sometimes vomiting. Individuals producing middling effective versions can be occasional smokers. Read more here [soton.ac.uk].
If researchers can create a treatment for alcohol in this way, they can probably create a smoking treatment as well. It is unlikely, though, that the treatment would alleviate withdrawal symptoms on its own. This approach likely will lead to treatments for other addiction problems also.
If there come sto exist effective treatments for illegal drugs, there will be serious socio-political implications. The rational for the the war on drugs will be completely destroyed. If people can choose effective treatment, then there will be no unwilling chemical dependence. This will decrease crime, health problems, and other negative effects of dangerous drugs. So there will be no basis for illegality. Will that change the politics surrounding drugs? I don't think so.
Hangovers don't stop a lot of drinkers. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not not talking about the "I'm a little queasy, give me an asprin" kind of hangovers, but rather the "shhhh, you're breathing too loud" kind of hangovers.
Sure, there are some people who will stop, but there are too many that won't.
Now if it caused illness fast enough they haven't even finished their beer, then it might have an effect. Of course, those drugs already exist and are in use.
Also, it has been proven, they don't solve alcoholism, but they do help in it's treatment.
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Exactly, this treatment does nothing to address the biological factors that make alcohol addictive. Instead it just makes it even more unhealthy by eliminating our natural ability process the toxins created when alcohol is consumed. Stupid approach.
Where will they go for their high (Score:2)
Except that in most cases are these addicts not just addicted to being high and they happen to choose alcohol because it is free and cheap?
Is it not exceedingly likely that if we inoculated every drunk with this today that in a week 80% of them would be crack addicts or similarly worse off?
Tag: whereisthefuckingpaper (Score:2)
Closest thing I've been able to find thus far is this paper from 2010: Viral vectors for the treatment of alcoholism: Use of metabolic flux analysis for cell cultivation and vector production [uchile.cl]
The article didn't make too much sense at first, as human acetaldhyde dehydrogenases are located either in the cytosol or mitochondria; vaccine-stimulated antibodies would not be expected to be able to block the enzyme's activity. A gene-therapy agent would be able to accomplish the task, however.
That's nothing new. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or (Score:2)
Suicide (or murder if this is forced upon them by the State).
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yes. i was a tad confused about whether the writer actually meant "metabolite" whenever they said "enzyme".
whole thing sounds a bit clockwork orange to me.
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I was also highly confused. Science literacy is important: we live in the 21st century, people. Please don't make basic errors like that! It only feeds misantropy in the rest of us.
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Hmm, if you suffered from it you would probably think differently. Trust me.
Re:Underestimating (Score:4, Interesting)
I have either that mutation or some other factor that makes drinking even a tiny amount of alcohol a horrible experience. I can handle about a teaspoonful of wine or a quarter cup of beer, but any more than that and I feel nauseated and dizzy with a terrible headache and grogginess. It developed about the time I hit 30 and the same thing happened with my mother at around age 35, so I assume that it's a genetic factor that either gets triggered with age or some environmental factor.
I was always a light drinker and never felt emotionally or physiologically dependent upon it, so my experience is NOTHING like an alcoholic's or somebody whose entirely social life is dependent upon drinking, but I gave up drinking immediately once it developed. Didn't matter that I'd just started being able to appreciate the good stuff and really enjoy it, I dropped it completely.
Can't say how it would work for an alcoholic, but I'd imagine it'd be very effective on somebody who is concerned about becoming one.
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You re underestimating what a desire to stop drinking is really like.
I'm saying this as a sober alcoholic.
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People who act obnoxious on alcohol are just people who are crypto-obnoxious. Alcohol only exposes their flaw. I wish employers were allowed to do a violent behavior screening where employees must get drunk, and are observed to see if they get violent. I'd definitely not want to hire anyone who gets violent after drinking. It doesn't take much for them to get violent otherwise as well.
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Presumably the nerve called "not liking people who state incorrect things as fact". That gets on my nerves, too.