IMMUNE to ALCOHOL, how can this be?

[Sharo321]

Hello, I would like to know can someone be IMMUNE to alcohol? I know a lady that can drink more than 12 ozs. of EVERCLEAR GRAIN ALCOHOL in a drink mixed w/suger and a soda, and she actually seems to act normal, she show's no evidence of being drunk, how can this be? I am her friend, and I told her I'm aksing and it doesn't bother her, but it does me.
How long or much of this can a body endure, and again, how can she ( she has drank for many years) drink ALCOHOL any type, all over 100 % potent, and NOT act or feel drunk? I hope you can shed some light on this, also she was just diagnoised w/ diabetes, I bet drinking made that happen, the suger...Please respond.

[henzpa]

I hope you didn't pick up. I really hope that you have found yourself without alcohol and want to stay there.

[CleverK]

The short answer to your question is Yes. And no, I'm not a doctor. But I am a person who has never been so much as tipsy in my entire life, no matter how much alcohol I consumed. And when I was young and unaware of this issue, I consumed plenty. I guzzled cheap booze a plenty in my mispent youth, and not only did I never experience anything in the proximity of being drunk, I also never had any other obvious ill-effects from drinking, like a hangover.

My father, as I'm told, was the same way - he died at 26 so didn't have much time to explore this matter. But I am a forty year old woman, and while I've since given up on drinking - what would be the point - I can tell you with absolute surety that to drink enough alcohol to cause me to feel even the slightest bit drunk, I would end up drinking so much that I threw it up in advance of getting tipsy.

Incidentally, I have also have Type 2 Diabetes in remission, there is evidence of Hypochondroplasia on my father's side of the family, and I have recently discovered evidence of MC1R mutation in our family, potentially, though that's primarily on my mother's side of the family. Basically I'm a bit of a genetic mess.

I've known I was this way for years, and I start doing internet searches for alcohol immunity every couple of years, hoping that I'll see someone really studying this issue. This time around I got to thinking that, since Bishop on NCIS has come out with the same abnormality, maybe there's some buzz going on about it.

It may be true that some stage of alcoholism involves insane tolerance, but it's also true that some people (apparently a very small percentage) are born with it.

[JGOODMAN]

I'm so glad I found your post.  I just hit the high tolerance stage not so long ago.  I can easily say I'm an alcoholic, however - not a problem drinker (yet).  I noticed something was funny when I was drinking large amounts in a relatively short period of time - and I wouldn't slur, loose coordination - anything - except for maybe the first hour or so of the day being a little slow.

I'm just about 48 hours clean - one of the reasons is because I was sitting on my front porch simply thinking "hey - this is going to take a toll on my life, and I'm not even enjoying it" - the reality struck - and at that moment, I was done.

It took a long time to look at the truth, and that was probably one lesson that I learned by going to and volunteering at addiction meetings - even while I was still drinking.  

Regardless, I'm so thankful that you wrote about the stages of alcoholism - because that was coming right around the corner and I think your post will serve as proper motivation to stick the change.

Thank you!!!

[Nighthawk61]

There is a calm before the storm. One stage of alcoholism is that the person can drink huge amounts of alcohol (high tolerance), and then the next stage (from a month to many years down the road) is that she cannot drink one or two beers without blacking out and urinating on herself, etc. It's all part of the progression. Many think that they don't have a problem because of the stage that they are in, but that stage is always subject to changes. Rock bottom is just around the next corner for your friend. Hopefully she can reason to herself that now is the time to quit, before she finds herself blacked out, doing hit and runs, killing someone in a car accident, or maybe being raped in a pool of her own vomit and blood. Right now your friend is playing Russian Roulette with her life, and I hope that you can get her to see, that it's inevitably going to get pretty vulgar pretty promptly from this point forward.

I don't think it would hurt to go to an AA meeting and picking up your friend The Big Book, and maybe a few other publications that she can peruse through, for easy reading and a fuller understanding of this disease.

She is going to have to quit drinking now that she has diabetes because of the high sugar content. This is a fact. The books will help her to understand how hard this is going to be, and that there is support, (from you), from others. She needn't feel alone!!

You are a great friend. Keep up the good work!! You're an angel!! You might want to check out Al -Anon for yourself. Maybe one or two meetings will come in handy in the next days and weeks, to help and not enable her in times to come.

My thoughts and prayers are with you both. Hugs Liz