After the Storm

Sometimes, one just has to wait for some fresh winds to blow through.  I waited.  The winds came tonight, with a forbidding sky and thunderous weather, graced afterwards by a rainbow.  I'm now ready to write.

I'm thinking about alcohol toxicity.  Alcohol toxicity is a dense and variable subject, as it can involve several forms of toxicity, some of which can occur sooner than others. 

Am I against the judicious imbibing of alcohol, on principle?  No.  In this post I simply hope to raise some questions that one can ask oneself along the way.  I claim no definitive answers on this extremely complex topic.  I do think, however, that it's a topic worthy of much serious consideration for those who are chemically sensitive and those who are at risk of becoming so.

There are those of us who already know that we're chemically sensitive.  We need to be fully aware of what can lurk in a typical social drink.  For those who have had noteworthy chemical exposures of one sort or another but who, as of yet, observe no distinct onset of chemical sensitivity in themselves:  It's still possible that, due to your chemical exposure(s), your reactions to alcoholic beverages may undergo some changes.  As the saying goes, "Forewarned is forearmed."       

Beer has been touted for its Vitamin B content.  Red wine has been touted for its antioxidant properties.

On the negative side, beer and wine can contain additives/allergens and outright toxins:

"Hidden Additives in Beer and Wine" by Drea Knufken - Living Without Magazine June/July 2008

These toxins are a distinct liability for those who are chemically sensitive and allergically reactive (this can accompany chemical sensitivity).

Then, there is another type of alcohol toxicity whereby a person simply imbibes far too much for his own body's tolerance on a given day and actually poisons himself by sheer quantity:

"Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms" (Alcoholism Information)

This is a medical emergency.  It's always possible that such a person might also have had a budding chemical sensitivity or previously unknown allergies.  These things would only add to the nightmarish toxicity of such an occasion.

I wonder, often, if chemical sensitivity, in its "masked" phase, actually draws some (self-defined) alcoholics to drink excessively in the same way that food sensitivities often cause a craving for the sensitivity-inducing food.  If one's chemical sensitivity is also accompanied by food sensitivities and allergies, the craving for alcoholic beverages might be all the more strong.

There are those who have "gone without" alcohol for decades and suddenly take up drinking again, with often disastrous results.  Perhaps this insidious "progression," this apparent worsening of the alcoholism even during long years of abstinence, is at least partly due to the pervasiveness of chemical exposures in our midst -- which, of course, accumulate steadily in our bodies the longer we live.  The increase in the body's absorption of daily "common" chemicals could easily account for the worsened effects of alcohol -- even after years of abstinence -- upon the body and mind.  These chemicals in our midst are stored in our tissues and organs.  This puts increasing burdens upon the liver and kidneys as they attempt to detoxify our bodies.  Add a little alcohol and the results can be increasingly devastating.

My own chemical sensitivity once caused a horrendous internal reaction to a simple glass of white wine within minutes of my finishing it -- as though an angry hand had taken hold of my thoughts and emotions and made them extra, extra strong.  No one could see the reaction on the outside, thankfully.  But on the inside, a nightmare was brewing from which no one could deliver me.  And I was stuck with it raging inside my head.  I was aware enough to know that I had to try to step above it, to manage it, somehow.  Obviously, something totally unforeseen and "alien" to me had occurred.  This I was not expecting.  It hit me like a freight train.  Such a thing had never happened to me before, in the "old" days before I was chemically sensitive. 

As the alcohol left my body over the next few hours, the reaction completely dissipated and I sobbed out the remainder of it through my tears.  From that point on, I only "sipped" tastes of such beverages.  I never want to go through such a frightful experience again.  Was this a reaction to sulfites?  Was there an unknown additive in the wine?  Had the grapes undergone pesticide treatment?  Or was it my body's nearly inept processing of the alcohol, itself?

I will never know.  My liver and kidneys, however, apparently know much more than I do.  I believe it could be a deadly mistake to let their knowledge get too far ahead of mine.  I must at least consider what factors might possibly have gone into such an unfavorable experience with alcohol.  In doing so, I hope to spare another person such an experience -- or worse.

"Forewarned is forearmed."

Wishing you healthy food and drink and safe socializing --

Cheers!

~ Carolyn