Synthetic alcohol without the downsides? Here's why that's unlikely to work...

GABA Labs, based in London, is one of a few companies working on a synthetic alcohol without the downsides.

According to press stories about it, their synthetic alcohol Alcarelle will still get you tipsy - relaxed, chatty, and happy - without the following negative side effects:

1. Hangovers. Obviously, one of the biggest downsides of drinking is the next day’s hangover that hits ever harder as we age. Synthetic alcohol wouldn’t leave you with a pounding headache, but allow you to wake up clear-headed and energized.

2. Clumsiness. Who hasn’t twisted an ankle misjudging a sidewalk while drunk? People are less physically stable and therefore significantly more injury-prone with the real thing. Alcarelle promises you won’t be clumsier after a drink or two.

3. Stupidity. Being drunk on real alcohol negatively affects your short-term memory and your multi-tasking, planning, and speaking abilities. Alcarelle is supposed to leave you mentally functioning, unlikely to make stupid, risky decisions like its natural counterpart.

On top of that, it’s flavorless, so it can be easily added to any drink.

It sounds incredibly exciting. Let’s be clear: something like this could really help people, if it isn’t as harmful as alcohol itself. The company says they may struggle with regulatory hurdles with getting synthetic alcohol to market. But that’s not the only reason it may struggle, despite an alluring premise.

The problem is that this calming synthetic alcohol is still attempting to affect brain chemistry in some of the same ways alcohol does.

Alcohol causes more production of GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel relaxed. Unfortunately, as you recover from drinking, your brain fights back against alcohol’s calming effects. This can result in heightened anxiety after drinking, or “hangxiety.” Because it uses the same neurotransmitter, synthetic alcohol may still have this effect of increasing anxiety.

On top of that, synthetic alcohol may struggle to compete with zero-alcohol drinks that are all-natural and plant-based.

We’re all learning about the dangers of a diet high in ultra-processed foods for both mental and physical health lately. Testing will need to determine whether synthetic alcohol has any long-term health effects. After all, many people choose to cut back or quit drinking purely on the basis of the long-term health risks: increased risk of heart disease, several forms of cancer, and of course, liver disease.

If you want to cut back or quit drinking alcohol the old-fashioned way, we’d love to help.

Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, an insightful drink tracking system that helps you understand why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. We’ll help you stick to a weekly limit that reduces your health risks from drinking and helps you stay in control. Plus, it’s completely anonymous - even we don’t know who our users are, and we will never ask! Start your journey to long-term health and lower risk - get the app today!

A bottle of wine costs $3,150?

That’s the startling conclusion of a new study written up in the Mirror here.

Of course, that won’t be the sticker price. In general, a respectable bottle of wine costs about the following by country:

• 15 dollars in Australia, Canada and New Zealand (in their respective dollars)

• 7 pounds in the United Kingdom

• 12 dollars in the United States

But the study found that the following additional hidden costs of drinking alcohol were as follows:

1. Memory loss and attention problems (reduced focus, increased reaction time)

2. Insomnia

3. Employability (because of the first two, your ability to get a job, or to do well at a job, can be impaired - research has found that memory loss and attention issues in particular persist well into the day after you drink)

4. Increased risk of depression

5. increased risk of physical violence

These add up over time, making the bottle of wine a good deal more expensive than list price.

If you’re ready to quit or cut back on drinking, try the Drinker’s Helper app!

What is binge drinking, and why shouldn't I do it?

Continuing in our series of important definitions (see previous post about what a drink is), this post explores what binge drinking is.

For a binge drinking definition, we turned to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (also supported by the CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)).

Binge drinking is a much lower level than what you might think is commonly considered heavy drinking - you might not even think you’re drinking too much. Binge drinking is defined as any drinking that brings your B.A.C. to above the US national legal driving limit of .08. That’s only about 4-5 drinks in a 2-hour period. Any night you set out to get drunk, you’re probably binge drinking.

The effects of binge drinking are much worse than drinking in moderation - in fact, of all the costs to society caused by alcohol, binge drinking causes fully 77% of them. Often, people who don’t think they have a problem with alcohol will go days without drinking, but then binge on the weekends, thinking this means they’re in the clear.

Here are some of the most common binge drinking effects:

1. Poor decision-making: Because binge drinking makes you drunk, rather than slightly tipsy, it leads to poorer decisions. If those decisions are related to sex, they can cause sexually transmitted diseases or unintended pregnancies. If those decisions are related to acting on anger, they can lead to violence.

2. Accidents: Again, because binge drinking makes you drunk, rather than slightly tipsy, it leads to extreme physical impairment. If you’re driving, of course, this leads to car accidents, but it can also lead to other types of accidents like falls.

3. Chronic disease: This is the scarier part, especially for those that don’t generally think they have a drinking problem. Binge drinking (over time) can actually lead to chronic diseases like cancers of several kinds, heart or liver disease, high blood pressure or stroke, even if the person doesn’t have an alcohol dependence.

If you’re convinced to quit or cut back, try setting a goal and tracking your drinking in Drinker’s Helper. Download it here today!