X post: Inform yourself about alcohol...

There has been a lot of discussion about alcohol today on the rny board so I posted this this am, I thought I would just re post here so people can have the info if needed or wanted.
I just wanted to put this information out there for people to have the information, if they were not already aware of it, to make their own educated decisions from. After all this discussion about alcohol this morning I just thought it was necessary. A couple of months ago this was actually the topic of my hospitals support group meeting there was a new study done that shows the further out from gastric by-pass surgery in particular the quicker and longer you will become intoxicated after drinking very little amounts of alcohol it has to do with an adaptive process our bodies do where the intestine attached to the distal end of the pouch actually thickens over time to try and "capture" more nutrients. This is where the alcohol is also absorbed so the thickening facilitates this. This is the link for the article if anyone would like to read it, it is from the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS Feb 2011. http://www.journalacs.org/article/s1072-7515(10)01090-2/fulltext

From my own personal experience I feel it is true!  I am over 10 years out and alcohol affects me much differently than it did when I was only a couple years out. 

Depending on many things....how much we ate during the day...if you took a gas X or anything like that....the alcohol seems to have more of an adverse effect on us (it  seems to be stronger or more potent).....we can actually "black out"....Not pass out but black out....you are functioning normal to everyone around you...(but tipsy) however in the morning you can't remember what happened up until a certain point....it is a very scary thing to happen. I have talked to many people who are as far out as me and some were told by other people what they were doing during this "black out" period and they didn't remember any of it.

So, be very cautious if you do decide to drink....this happens suddenly...it could even be after 1 or 2 drinks.....don't put yourself in a situation where you could hurt yourself or others.

Ginger