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- So now it's my pleasure

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to introduce to you 
Dr. Kevin Strang.

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Dr. Strang has 
been at UW-Madison

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for quite a bit of time.

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He and I have 
collaborated several times

6
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in having conversations

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with members of the community

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and with students in my 
class and other classes

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on the topic of the world's 
second most popular drug.

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So, Kevin, if you're 
ready, it's all yours.

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(audience applauds)

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- Thank you, Dr. Shakhashiri.

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So caffeine is number one, 
and when I speak to those 
audiences, they often,

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when I say, "What's 
the most popular?"

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They say, "Cocaine, marijuana,"

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you know, illegal drug 
after illegal drug.

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They don't stop and think 
about a perfectly ordinary

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everyday substance 
like caffeine,

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which people take for a reason.

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It alters their body function.

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It has side effects. 
That's what a drug is.

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Anything we take with the intent 
of altering body function

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but that also has side effects 
because of the redundant plan

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that the human body's built on.

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It's a drug,

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and so I unapologetically 
tell college students,

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"Yes, you are ingesting a drug 
when you're drinking alcohol."

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So this is my general 
scheme for the evening.

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I've got three sort of 
overall things I'm gonna do.

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I'm gonna talk 
about why we drink.

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How does it work at a 
chemical, physiological level?

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I'm gonna then talk about some 
of the neurological effects

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that people are after.

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Why do people medicate 
themselves with alcohol?

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What are they looking for?

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We'll talk about that 
for a while, for the 
main body of the talk.

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And then at the 
very end, I'm gonna

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maybe be slightly controversial, 
maybe intrigue you and suggest

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some really great 
reading having to do

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with a particular 
reason we drink

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and that has to do with 
the cultural, historical,

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the history of alcohol 
in human civilization.

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So that'll be at the very end.

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So that's my general plan.

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So why do people drink?

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And I've polled many 
college audiences and I ask, 
"Why do you reach?"

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And I make 'em really think, 
"Why do you reach for a drink?"

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And it comes down to the 
first five on this list,

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basically are reasons people 
self-medicate with alcohol.

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To get a mood boost, 
it is a euphorigen.

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We'll talk about that. 
It increases social confidence.

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People have this misconception

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that is is an anxiolytic 
drug, it is a relaxant.

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It is not, and I'll show you 
a study that proves it is not.

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Many people you've heard 
of taking a nightcap

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to help you sleep, a very 
common thing in our culture.

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It turns out it's a 
terrible sleep aid,

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and I'll tell you why.

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And then escape from problems.

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So people drink to forget 
things that they want to forget,

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and that may work to an extent,

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but very often, as 
I'll talk about,

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they forget things that they're 
not intending to forget.

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And then the last 
thing, it's not really,

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people aren't self-medicating

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because of their culture 
or history maybe,

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unless they've got 
one of those families,

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I have one of those families,

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but I think it is an 
underlying reason why.

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I mean, here we are in the 
great state of Wisconsin.

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Alcohol is a very 
important topic,

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one of the most important 
public health topics

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on a college campus in a 
state that I think there is,

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which is why I'm so 
passionate about talking

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about this topic to all the 
audiences that I talk to.

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Okay, so at fundamental level,

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I bet most people who drink

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don't really know exactly 
how this drug works.

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It's unique in the drug world.

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When a pharmacologist 
designs a drug

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aimed at a brain protein

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or aimed at your 
kidney or your liver,

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they're often massive molecules

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that are shaped 
very specficially

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to attach to certain 
targets chemically.

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As we'll see, alcohol, 
it's a skeleton key.

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It's a universal key.

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So quickly, all about you,

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you're made of about 
75 trillion cells

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and those cells make up

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the different organ 
systems of your body,

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and each one of those cells

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has some features in 
common and some different

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from cells that are 
in other organs.

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So you've got cells 
in your eyeball

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that when a photon 
of light strikes it,

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a neural signal 
goes to your brain

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and tells you you're 
seeing something.

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You've got cells that are in 
your muscles, for example,

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that can, much like ethanol 
in a combustion engine,

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they can turn chemical 
energy in the food you eat

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into physical force, 
into movement.

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These are all the things that 
cells are specialized to do,

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but there is a similarity 
among all those cells.

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It comes down to 
they are basically

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a bag of lipid, a lipid 
that has a consistency

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very similar to chris-kal 
oil, but at a molecular scale,

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that's a fairly stiff cell 
membrane or cell wall,

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and so you see the 
double blue band,

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that's a phospholipid 
bilayer membrane,

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and then you've got proteins.

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Proteins are the machines

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that distinguish one body cell's 
ability to do one function

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from another body cell's 
ability to do another function.

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So those photons of 
light are striking

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specific proteins in your eyes

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and you don't have those 
proteins in your muscles,

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which is why you can't 
see with your muscles.

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So those protein machines 
take on all kinds of form.

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They're ion channels, 
they're enzymes,

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they're receptors, 
they're signals.

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Anything your body 
can do, it does

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because of this generic 
membrane hosting the cell

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and then proteins that 
are in the membrane,

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proteins that are inside and out

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that act throughout your body.

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Well, it turns out the 
chemistry of ethanol

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interacts very 
nicely with proteins.

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So the cartoon at the 
upper right there.

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If you don't know,

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a protein is a long 
string of amino acids,

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and, by the way, this fabulous, 
elegant molecule here, DNA,

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that's where your 
genetic heritage lies,

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and what it really 
does is when you go

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to make a muscle cell or a 
brain cell or liver cell,

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the DNA that's in all of your 
cells is exactly the same,

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but what happens is different 
parts of it get expressed,

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get translated into a protein

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that gets put into that 
cell for its function.

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So remember that, all 
proteins are made from DNA,

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all the same DNA is 
in all of your cells,

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but only certain 
ones are expressed.

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So that cartoon of a protein,

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the green blob sticking 
out to the side,

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amino acids have side chains,

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side chains with 
chemical natures,

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and you heard a little bit about 
polar and non-polar bonds here.

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So the blue ones are to identify

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polar side groups that are 
very friendly with water.

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They dissolve well in water.

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They have electrical 
charges, some of them.

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And the green blobs represent 
animo acids that have

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something like a 
hydrocarbon side chain,

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something like 
these carbon-carbon

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with hydrogen chains 
with no oxygens involved.

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So that's a very oily type 
of molecular structure.

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The blue ones 
represent hydrophilic,

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a water-loving 
chemical structure,

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and depending on the 
sequence of amino acids,

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if you take that long string, 
if I dunk it into water,

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what's gonna happen to 
it, it's gonna fold.

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It's gonna fold into a shape.

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You know if you put 
oil and water in a jar

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and you shake it, 
they separate, right?

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That fundamental force 
is one of the huge forces

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that drives the design 
of the human body,

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hydrophobic 
interactions or the fear

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of non-polar 
substances for water.

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So in a watery climate, that's 
what that protein would do.

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It would fold so that 
all those blue blobs,

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the amino acid side chains

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are facing the 
watery bloodstream,

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if that's where we are, 
and the hydrophobic ones,

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the polar side chains 
are gonna be like the oil

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gathering itself 
together inside of a jar,

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and it turns out ethanol, so 
you've seen the structure,

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there's a simple 
representation of ethanol.

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It's an amphipathic molecule.

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It has both the non-polar

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and the carbon chains 
with the hydrogens,

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so that's a very lipid friendly,

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fatty friendly substance,

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and then it's got the O-H 
group at the other end,

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and I'm glad we also 
got the introduction.

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When I say alcohol, I'm 
always talking about ethanol.

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There are many 
alcohols obviously.

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But if you take that little 
tiny generic molecule

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and introduce it 
to a big protein

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that is folded in a certain way

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because of non-polar 
and pole side chains

191
00:07:28,500 --> 00:07:30,366
interacting with each other, 
it'll wedge into a crack

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00:07:30,466 --> 00:07:33,466
and it might twist it open and 
make it function less well.

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It might twist it in another 
way and increase its function.

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It's highly random.

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It's like a skeleton key 
that can open any door,

196
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and you have proteins in 
every cell of your body,

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and so ethanol is 
this universal key

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that can affect proteins 
throughout your body,

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and so we're gonna talk 
about the brain today,

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but I think, if you're well 
aware in the popular culture,

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someone who drinks too much, the 
cardiovascular system suffers.

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High blood pressure happens.

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Heart failure happens.

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00:07:59,100 --> 00:08:00,900
Any emergency room 
doctor will tell you

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that in December every year 
there's a rash of people my age

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00:08:04,566 --> 00:08:07,133
and slightly older coming 
into emergency rooms

207
00:08:07,233 --> 00:08:10,033
with heart arrhythmias, 
with even heart attacks

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00:08:10,133 --> 00:08:12,933
because they overindulge in 
alcohol that time of year

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00:08:13,033 --> 00:08:15,166
and then one of the side 
effects of doses of alcohol

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are the arrhythmias 
of the heart.

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00:08:18,566 --> 00:08:20,100
Gastrointestinal system, 
I'm sure you know

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00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:22,333
that long, heavy use 
of alcohol will cause

213
00:08:22,433 --> 00:08:25,333
cirrhosis of the liver, 
it'll destroy the liver.

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00:08:25,433 --> 00:08:28,666
Alcohol in high doses 
contributes to gastric ulcers.

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00:08:28,766 --> 00:08:30,933
And urinary system, you 
might or might not be aware

216
00:08:31,033 --> 00:08:33,233
that if you drink 12 ounces 
of an alcoholic beverage

217
00:08:33,333 --> 00:08:35,233
because you're thirsty, 
which means your body

218
00:08:35,333 --> 00:08:37,133
is crying for more 
liquid volume,

219
00:08:37,233 --> 00:08:38,666
what will happen 
is that 12 ounces

220
00:08:38,766 --> 00:08:41,100
will come out in your urine 
as well as about four ounces

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00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:42,433
of your own body fluid.

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00:08:42,533 --> 00:08:44,400
So that's why people 
wake up in the morning

223
00:08:44,500 --> 00:08:46,400
after a night of 
drinking very dehydrated.

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00:08:46,500 --> 00:08:48,200
Even though they've 
taken in all that liquid

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00:08:48,300 --> 00:08:49,600
the night before, 
they're very dehydrated

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00:08:49,700 --> 00:08:52,833
because alcohol blocks 
the kidney's ability

227
00:08:52,933 --> 00:08:55,133
to concentrate your urine.

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00:08:55,233 --> 00:08:56,800
Reproductive and 
endocrine disorders,

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so very often women 
who are of an age

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where they're trying to conceive

231
00:09:00,733 --> 00:09:02,966
might have difficulty if 
they're regular alcohol users

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00:09:03,066 --> 00:09:06,033
because alcohol will alter 
the shape of proteins

233
00:09:06,133 --> 00:09:09,033
that are hormones that cause 
the female menstrual cycle

234
00:09:09,133 --> 00:09:11,166
to regulate normally, 
and so you can have

235
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menstrual cycle irregularities 
that prevent fertility.

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00:09:13,500 --> 00:09:16,166
I try not to say that 
to my college age crowd

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00:09:16,266 --> 00:09:17,900
because I don't what 
them using alochol

238
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as a form of birth control.

239
00:09:19,433 --> 00:09:20,900
Not suggested.

240
00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:22,233
The reason people 
self-medicate though,

241
00:09:22,333 --> 00:09:23,733
at the lower right, 
is the nervous system,

242
00:09:23,833 --> 00:09:25,300
and so I'm gonna 
talk in more depth

243
00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:26,633
at a cellular molecular level.

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00:09:26,733 --> 00:09:28,800
How does alcohol affect 
the nervous system?

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00:09:28,900 --> 00:09:32,066
So on the left, you see a 
pink neuron, a nerve cell,

246
00:09:32,166 --> 00:09:34,400
and they're actually much 
longer, more dramatic than that,

247
00:09:34,500 --> 00:09:36,866
that's a cartoon, but 
the key feature here

248
00:09:36,966 --> 00:09:40,600
is that that pink neuron, 
you see a few dozen neurons

249
00:09:40,700 --> 00:09:42,833
coming to it and 
making contacts with it

250
00:09:42,933 --> 00:09:44,400
and then it's 
branching four times

251
00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:45,833
and it's contacting 
four other neurons.

252
00:09:45,933 --> 00:09:48,033
Well, in your brain 
and spinal cord,

253
00:09:48,133 --> 00:09:50,066
a neuron might branch thousands

254
00:09:50,166 --> 00:09:52,866
to tens of thousands of 
times, and so in your brain,

255
00:09:52,966 --> 00:09:54,566
you have maybe a 
hundred billion neurons

256
00:09:54,666 --> 00:09:57,566
but that isn't what makes 
you talented or intelligent

257
00:09:57,666 --> 00:09:59,000
or that's not why you have

258
00:09:59,100 --> 00:10:01,500
all the wonderful 
memories that you have.

259
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:03,600
Your brain really 
functions on the synapses.

260
00:10:03,700 --> 00:10:06,033
Where those neurons touch each 
other there's a small gap,

261
00:10:06,133 --> 00:10:08,533
at the right, you see a 
bigger cartoon of the gap,

262
00:10:08,633 --> 00:10:10,100
called a synapse, 
and that synapse

263
00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:12,566
is a place where a 
chemical signal is sent

264
00:10:12,666 --> 00:10:14,400
from one nerve cell to the next

265
00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:17,033
either telling it, "Hey, 
you should fire a signal,"

266
00:10:17,133 --> 00:10:19,233
or telling it, "Don't 
fire a signal,"

267
00:10:19,333 --> 00:10:21,233
and when you branch a 
hundred billion neurons

268
00:10:21,333 --> 00:10:25,000
and interconnect them and 
any neuron in that set,

269
00:10:25,100 --> 00:10:28,100
in that network, every second 
of every day of your life,

270
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,300
there are thousands of 
neurons telling that neuron,

271
00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,166
"You should fire, 
you shouldn't fire,"

272
00:10:32,266 --> 00:10:33,666
and it has to make a decision.

273
00:10:33,766 --> 00:10:36,500
It's basically a 
processor that based on

274
00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:39,600
the total number of inputs, 
if more say, "Fire," it fires,

275
00:10:39,700 --> 00:10:41,733
and then its message gets 
passed along the chain.

276
00:10:41,833 --> 00:10:43,566
In those connections, 
in those chains

277
00:10:43,666 --> 00:10:45,100
is where all your memories are.

278
00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:47,566
If you learn something new 
about chemistry tonight,

279
00:10:47,666 --> 00:10:49,166
the reason you will 
remember it tomorrow

280
00:10:49,266 --> 00:10:51,300
is that your brain is 
physically different.

281
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,166
The synapses between 
neurons are stronger,

282
00:10:54,266 --> 00:10:56,233
there are more of them, 
they're different.

283
00:10:56,333 --> 00:10:58,366
So very profound, the 
interconnection between neurons,

284
00:10:58,466 --> 00:11:00,300
that everything you 
learn, everything you are,

285
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:02,700
everything you can do, 
is in those synapses.

286
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:04,466
Well, if you look at 
the synapse close,

287
00:11:04,566 --> 00:11:06,433
you see a bunch of 
little oval circles.

288
00:11:06,533 --> 00:11:09,633
That's cartoons of proteins, 
proteins that are ion channels,

289
00:11:09,733 --> 00:11:11,833
proteins involved in 
releasing that chemical

290
00:11:11,933 --> 00:11:14,933
called the neurotransmitter 
when a signal comes down.

291
00:11:15,033 --> 00:11:16,700
So those proteins are abundant,

292
00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:18,533
and it turns out 
they're very sensitive

293
00:11:18,633 --> 00:11:21,766
to alcohol's effects 
to alter their shape.

294
00:11:21,866 --> 00:11:23,466
In some people, 
they're up regulated.

295
00:11:23,566 --> 00:11:25,433
Sometimes they're 
down regulated.

296
00:11:25,533 --> 00:11:27,833
Within a person and between 
people, it varies a little bit.

297
00:11:27,933 --> 00:11:30,500
I should've mentioned when 
we talked about proteins,

298
00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:32,700
me and just about 
anyone in the room,

299
00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:35,700
if you compared a protein 
in the same cell type

300
00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,366
in the same part of our body 
that does the same thing,

301
00:11:38,466 --> 00:11:40,700
we don't have exactly the 
same protein sequence.

302
00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:42,700
In fact, if you have 
an identical twin

303
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:44,500
and if you looked at 
all your proteins,

304
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:46,000
they're not exactly the same.

305
00:11:46,100 --> 00:11:48,600
Life experience changes the 
sequence of our proteins.

306
00:11:48,700 --> 00:11:51,133
It changes the 
expression of our DNA,

307
00:11:51,233 --> 00:11:52,866
and that's important because 
we're gonna talk about

308
00:11:52,966 --> 00:11:55,866
the wildly variable ways 
that alcohol affects people

309
00:11:55,966 --> 00:11:57,500
and that's part of the basis

310
00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,800
because this generic 
skeleton key of alcohol

311
00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:03,866
doesn't affect all 
proteins exactly the same.

312
00:12:03,966 --> 00:12:06,466
So this is a short list 
of neurotransmitters,

313
00:12:06,566 --> 00:12:08,933
the chemical signal 
between neurons

314
00:12:09,033 --> 00:12:11,733
that have been shown to be 
profoundly affected by alcohol,

315
00:12:11,833 --> 00:12:13,633
and at different doses,

316
00:12:13,733 --> 00:12:15,333
they have differential 
sensitivities,

317
00:12:15,433 --> 00:12:17,700
in different people with 
slightly different sequences

318
00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:19,833
of proteins, they're gonna 
have different effects,

319
00:12:19,933 --> 00:12:22,933
and so alcohol is a 
terrible medication

320
00:12:23,033 --> 00:12:24,833
because, I mean, what 
makes a good medication

321
00:12:24,933 --> 00:12:26,166
is when you take it.

322
00:12:26,266 --> 00:12:27,600
When anyone on Earth takes it,

323
00:12:27,700 --> 00:12:29,700
you want it to have 
a consistent effect.

324
00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:32,066
One like that is Valium.

325
00:12:32,166 --> 00:12:34,733
So Valium is a drug that 
you give to anyone on Earth,

326
00:12:34,833 --> 00:12:36,066
everyone has the same reaction.

327
00:12:36,166 --> 00:12:38,066
It's a very specific, 
it's an anxiolytic,

328
00:12:38,166 --> 00:12:39,566
it calms people down.

329
00:12:39,666 --> 00:12:41,033
It slows your brain down.

330
00:12:41,133 --> 00:12:42,666
Alcohol can do that

331
00:12:42,766 --> 00:12:45,166
but it can also do a 
lot of other things

332
00:12:45,266 --> 00:12:47,866
and it has to do with it affects 
so many different things,

333
00:12:47,966 --> 00:12:50,366
it's sometimes been called a 
pharmacological hand grenade.

334
00:12:50,466 --> 00:12:52,466
Cocaine is a 
pharmacological scalpel.

335
00:12:52,566 --> 00:12:53,866
It really affects one thing.

336
00:12:53,966 --> 00:12:55,966
Alcohol affects a lot of things,

337
00:12:56,066 --> 00:12:58,433
and so the outcome can 
be very unpredictable.

338
00:12:58,533 --> 00:13:00,000
So, one outcome.

339
00:13:00,100 --> 00:13:02,466
Why do people medicate 
themselves with alcohol?

340
00:13:02,566 --> 00:13:05,800
Well, very often, I mean, 
various words are used,

341
00:13:05,900 --> 00:13:08,066
to get a buzz, to get high.

342
00:13:08,166 --> 00:13:10,233
The word I'll use is euphoria.

343
00:13:10,333 --> 00:13:12,000
You know, you poll 
a college audience

344
00:13:12,100 --> 00:13:14,500
and you'll hear probably 
50 different word.

345
00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:15,933
This is real.

346
00:13:16,033 --> 00:13:17,566
This happens to most 
people who drink alcohol.

347
00:13:17,666 --> 00:13:19,600
So you have these pleasure 
centers in your brain

348
00:13:19,700 --> 00:13:21,100
that are there 
for a good reason.

349
00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:23,100
When you do something 
that increases

350
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,200
the likelihood of your survival

351
00:13:25,300 --> 00:13:27,400
or your species' survival, 
there's a pleasure center

352
00:13:27,500 --> 00:13:29,200
in your brain that lights up.

353
00:13:29,300 --> 00:13:31,566
You get this great feeling 
that reinforces it.

354
00:13:31,666 --> 00:13:33,066
It says, "Do that again."

355
00:13:33,166 --> 00:13:36,066
So if you get a big 
bowl of fatty ice cream, 
this center lights up.

356
00:13:36,166 --> 00:13:38,933
Do that again. 
You know, you'll survive 
the next famine.

357
00:13:39,033 --> 00:13:41,433
Someone tells you they love 
you and they really mean it

358
00:13:41,533 --> 00:13:44,100
and you know they mean it, 
this pleasure center lights up.

359
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,133
Interactions between people 
are really reinforced

360
00:13:46,233 --> 00:13:49,133
by this pleasure center 
and specifically dopamine.

361
00:13:49,233 --> 00:13:50,733
The neurotransmitter 
chemical dopamine

362
00:13:50,833 --> 00:13:52,500
is a very important one.

363
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,000
It turns out the way 
alcohol influences

364
00:13:55,100 --> 00:13:58,466
the dopamine pathway explains 
why binge drinking happens

365
00:13:58,566 --> 00:14:00,333
and it also can 
explain why some people

366
00:14:00,433 --> 00:14:04,400
become dependent on 
alcohol for enjoyment,

367
00:14:04,500 --> 00:14:06,333
and so I'm gonna explain 
this with a graph

368
00:14:06,433 --> 00:14:08,533
that I've kind of invented, 
a very simple graph,

369
00:14:08,633 --> 00:14:10,366
but follow my 
logic, if you will.

370
00:14:10,466 --> 00:14:11,766
So what we've got here

371
00:14:11,866 --> 00:14:13,733
is time flowing along 
the bottom axis.

372
00:14:13,833 --> 00:14:16,933
Your blood alcohol is 
on the vertical axis.

373
00:14:17,033 --> 00:14:20,733
And so if you have one drink, 
this is what it would look like.

374
00:14:20,833 --> 00:14:22,733
Your blood alcohol would rise 
while you were drinking it.

375
00:14:22,833 --> 00:14:25,833
When you stop drinking, 
your liver and stomach

376
00:14:25,933 --> 00:14:27,233
have enzymes we'll 
talk about later

377
00:14:27,333 --> 00:14:28,733
that can remove alcohol.

378
00:14:28,833 --> 00:14:31,533
About one drink an hour in an 
average person gets removed.

379
00:14:31,633 --> 00:14:33,900
So as soon as you stop drinking, 
the blood alcohol declines.

380
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:35,966
Well, if you just felt okay

381
00:14:36,066 --> 00:14:38,000
and you didn't have that drink 
for any particular reason,

382
00:14:38,100 --> 00:14:40,666
most people on Earth 
will experience

383
00:14:40,766 --> 00:14:42,800
a rush, a euphoria, 
a sudden mood

384
00:14:42,900 --> 00:14:44,933
that is better 
than their mood was

385
00:14:45,033 --> 00:14:47,566
before they started drinking.

386
00:14:47,666 --> 00:14:50,700
Dopamine, it turns out, 
is a double-edged sword.

387
00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:52,133
Dopamine is a great thing.

388
00:14:52,233 --> 00:14:54,566
It lights up your pleasure 
center, it makes you feel good,

389
00:14:54,666 --> 00:14:57,200
but there are many disease 
conditions like schizophrenia,

390
00:14:57,300 --> 00:14:59,800
excess of dopamine is one 
of the underlying factors

391
00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:02,433
in people who have the mental 
disorder of schizophrenia.

392
00:15:02,533 --> 00:15:04,933
So anything in the 
body in excess,

393
00:15:05,033 --> 00:15:07,900
that body has a, what I 
call, what physiologists call

394
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:09,266
a negative feedback response.

395
00:15:09,366 --> 00:15:11,066
They say, "Hey, that's 
too much of that,"

396
00:15:11,166 --> 00:15:13,033
and so there are mechanisms 
that will compensate,

397
00:15:13,133 --> 00:15:14,366
that will counter it.

398
00:15:14,466 --> 00:15:16,266
Turns out dopamine, 
this happens very fast.

399
00:15:16,366 --> 00:15:19,800
So you might think, you 
slide from a happy place

400
00:15:19,900 --> 00:15:22,200
back down to your okay 
place, but what happens is,

401
00:15:22,300 --> 00:15:25,733
as soon as your blood 
alcohol starts down,

402
00:15:25,833 --> 00:15:27,900
the dopamine receptors 
have been desensitized.

403
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:29,366
They've been hidden.

404
00:15:29,466 --> 00:15:32,466
What happens is your mood 
dips to below baseline level.

405
00:15:32,566 --> 00:15:34,033
People whose blood 
alcohol has fallen,

406
00:15:34,133 --> 00:15:36,066
even while it's still elevated,

407
00:15:36,166 --> 00:15:37,933
they're not happy anymore.

408
00:15:38,033 --> 00:15:39,633
I call this the 
rising phase effect

409
00:15:39,733 --> 00:15:41,866
'cause in the rising 
phase, we feel good,

410
00:15:41,966 --> 00:15:43,466
and then when we're 
in the falling phase,

411
00:15:43,566 --> 00:15:45,200
blood alcohol is still elevated,

412
00:15:45,300 --> 00:15:48,066
but we aren't as 
sensitive to it,

413
00:15:48,166 --> 00:15:51,766
and this, if you've 
ever observed

414
00:15:51,866 --> 00:15:53,766
the student body at 
a UW football game

415
00:15:53,866 --> 00:15:55,966
and, you know, thinking 
that they're like camels

416
00:15:56,066 --> 00:15:58,600
that can drink a bunch of water 
before they cross the desert,

417
00:15:58,700 --> 00:16:01,633
many of them will drink a lot of 
beer before going into the game,

418
00:16:01,733 --> 00:16:03,400
so it will last the 
whole game long.

419
00:16:03,500 --> 00:16:05,400
Those who have overindulged, 
what you'll see,

420
00:16:05,500 --> 00:16:08,466
is they're going crazy in 
the first half of the game,

421
00:16:08,566 --> 00:16:10,833
that's the rising phase, 
and then 3rd and 4th quarter

422
00:16:10,933 --> 00:16:12,566
regardless of what's 
happening in the game

423
00:16:12,666 --> 00:16:14,400
you start to see 
them sinking lower

424
00:16:14,500 --> 00:16:16,166
and you start to 
see the body posture

425
00:16:16,266 --> 00:16:17,833
of someone who's not 
having fun anymore,

426
00:16:17,933 --> 00:16:19,433
and if you've ever 
been in a setting

427
00:16:19,533 --> 00:16:21,066
where you've drank and 
then stopped drinking

428
00:16:21,166 --> 00:16:23,500
and stayed awake, you 
might've experienced that.

429
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:25,566
This is why binge 
drinking is gonna happen.

430
00:16:25,666 --> 00:16:27,600
It's inevitable, 
especially in young people.

431
00:16:27,700 --> 00:16:28,900
So binge drinking 
looks like this.

432
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,300
You go to a situation, 
social situation

433
00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:32,733
where there's alcohol

434
00:16:32,833 --> 00:16:34,700
and your blood alcohol 
rises after your first drink

435
00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,366
and you say, "That's it, I'm 
done, I just wanted one."

436
00:16:37,466 --> 00:16:38,833
Well, as soon as it starts down,

437
00:16:38,933 --> 00:16:40,966
if you've got several 
hours of social yet to go

438
00:16:41,066 --> 00:16:42,933
and your blood alcohol 
is on the way down,

439
00:16:43,033 --> 00:16:44,600
the social situation isn't fun.

440
00:16:44,700 --> 00:16:47,266
Your pleasure center 
is turned down,

441
00:16:47,366 --> 00:16:48,933
and so people will 
reach for another one.

442
00:16:49,033 --> 00:16:52,266
As long as the rising 
phrase is maintained,

443
00:16:52,366 --> 00:16:54,833
the euphoria, the mood 
boost is maintained,

444
00:16:54,933 --> 00:16:56,500
and so in our 
culture, people tend

445
00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:58,500
to start drinking in the evening

446
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,366
and they drink as many as it 
takes to get them to the end,

447
00:17:01,466 --> 00:17:03,466
and I say people, I'm talking 
about the young people

448
00:17:03,566 --> 00:17:05,400
that I normally speak to.

449
00:17:05,500 --> 00:17:07,666
Apologies to those of you who

450
00:17:07,766 --> 00:17:10,633
don't necessarily fit the 
profile of my typical talk,

451
00:17:10,733 --> 00:17:12,933
but binge drinking does occur 
and that's why it occurs,

452
00:17:13,033 --> 00:17:14,600
and they do it in the evening

453
00:17:14,700 --> 00:17:17,400
and then they stop 
drinking and go home, 
and what do they do?

454
00:17:17,500 --> 00:17:20,366
They lie in bed for eight hours 
or 10 hours or 12 hours,

455
00:17:20,466 --> 00:17:22,833
and they are not aware 
but they're feeling horrible.

456
00:17:22,933 --> 00:17:25,833
Their mood is terrible, 
but they're unconscious, 
and so they're not aware of it.

457
00:17:25,933 --> 00:17:27,333
People don't drink 
from eight to noon

458
00:17:27,433 --> 00:17:28,833
and then go about their day

459
00:17:28,933 --> 00:17:31,000
because you would have the 
worst day of your life.

460
00:17:31,100 --> 00:17:33,133
Pharmacologically, if that's 
when we drank, in the morning,

461
00:17:33,233 --> 00:17:34,933
you could not feel 
good all day long

462
00:17:35,033 --> 00:17:36,900
and I think it would be 
a negative reinforcement

463
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:38,233
of drinking.

464
00:17:38,333 --> 00:17:40,633
So we drink in the evening 
so that we're unconscious.

465
00:17:40,733 --> 00:17:43,033
I'm not an 
anti-alcohol crusader.

466
00:17:43,133 --> 00:17:45,266
My version of what 
responsible drinking is

467
00:17:45,366 --> 00:17:47,233
is the following.

468
00:17:47,333 --> 00:17:50,533
It's be aware that high doses 
of alcohol has side effects,

469
00:17:50,633 --> 00:17:52,366
negative side effects 
you don't want.

470
00:17:52,466 --> 00:17:55,866
So aim for a number of 
drinks that's okay to have,

471
00:17:55,966 --> 00:17:58,300
and find a way to slow the 
rate of the rising phase

472
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,100
so that you get that 
buzz, that euphoria

473
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,666
without ever reaching the 
range where vomiting occurs

474
00:18:02,766 --> 00:18:05,666
and crashing of cars occurs 
and that kind of thing.

475
00:18:05,766 --> 00:18:08,400
And then there's 
a short time frame where 
you don't feel well.

476
00:18:08,500 --> 00:18:10,066
The rate of removal is the same.

477
00:18:10,166 --> 00:18:11,566
In my book, that's 
responsible drinking

478
00:18:11,666 --> 00:18:13,466
and having food in your stomach

479
00:18:13,566 --> 00:18:15,766
slows the rate of 
rise by three fold

480
00:18:15,866 --> 00:18:18,366
versus drinking on 
an empty stomach.

481
00:18:18,466 --> 00:18:21,066
Also, the type of liquor 
makes a big difference.

482
00:18:21,166 --> 00:18:22,566
So somebody who does a shot,

483
00:18:22,666 --> 00:18:24,666
a one and a half 
ounce shot of whiskey,

484
00:18:24,766 --> 00:18:26,900
it starts up just like 
the red pattern there

485
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,766
and it starts going 
down very quickly

486
00:18:28,866 --> 00:18:30,766
to people who drink low alcohol,

487
00:18:30,866 --> 00:18:32,833
beer, wine, that kind of thing.

488
00:18:32,933 --> 00:18:34,533
You know, alcoholism 
as we know it

489
00:18:34,633 --> 00:18:36,533
didn't exist until the 1600s

490
00:18:36,633 --> 00:18:38,966
when distillation 
was discovered.

491
00:18:39,066 --> 00:18:41,433
So basically the ability 
to make the percent alcohol

492
00:18:41,533 --> 00:18:45,333
in the beverage go up into 
the 40 and 50 and 60% range,

493
00:18:45,433 --> 00:18:48,033
that's when alcoholism 
really became a problem.

494
00:18:48,133 --> 00:18:49,433
Did I see a question back there?

495
00:18:49,533 --> 00:18:51,866
- [Audience Member] Particularly 
at this point dopamine,

496
00:18:51,966 --> 00:18:55,666
then are you prepared 
at all to tell us about

497
00:18:55,766 --> 00:18:59,300
binge drinking's effects 
on somebody's judgement?

498
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:00,633
- [Kevin] Oh, absolutely.

499
00:19:00,733 --> 00:19:02,466
- [Bassam] Can you repeat 
the question slightly?

500
00:19:02,566 --> 00:19:03,966
- Yeah, so the question was,

501
00:19:04,066 --> 00:19:06,233
am I going to talk about the 
effects of binge drinking,

502
00:19:06,333 --> 00:19:07,800
especially on judgement?

503
00:19:07,900 --> 00:19:10,900
And that's exactly the 
point I'm about to make.

504
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:12,566
You lead me to the point

505
00:19:12,666 --> 00:19:14,800
that I really need to make 
with my young audiences

506
00:19:14,900 --> 00:19:16,366
when I talk about 
this, so thank you.

507
00:19:16,466 --> 00:19:17,833
Yes, that's where we're going.

508
00:19:17,933 --> 00:19:20,133
So dopamine tolerance, think of 
it in two different time frames.

509
00:19:20,233 --> 00:19:21,666
In one bout of drinking, 
you desensitize

510
00:19:21,766 --> 00:19:23,133
and so you want more.

511
00:19:23,233 --> 00:19:25,300
It explains why people 
drink too much in a bout.

512
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,266
Over time, the dopamine 
system can become

513
00:19:28,366 --> 00:19:31,033
desensitized to the point 
where someone chronically,

514
00:19:31,133 --> 00:19:33,800
to feel normal, to feel happy, 
and this is the definition

515
00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:36,500
of an alcoholic or an 
alcohol dependent person,

516
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:40,033
they need something boosting 
their dopamine to feel normal,

517
00:19:40,133 --> 00:19:42,500
to feel happy, and it has to do

518
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,600
with the dopamine system 
and related systems.

519
00:19:45,700 --> 00:19:47,933
So young people are 
going to binge drink

520
00:19:48,033 --> 00:19:49,666
if you give them 
access to alcohol.

521
00:19:49,766 --> 00:19:51,100
It's not their fault.

522
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,800
It will happen because the 
left frontal lobe of the brain,

523
00:19:53,900 --> 00:19:55,766
which is where our 
impulse control center is,

524
00:19:55,866 --> 00:19:57,966
it doesn't mature until 
someone's in their 20s.

525
00:19:58,066 --> 00:20:00,600
If you put a M&M in 
front of a three year old

526
00:20:00,700 --> 00:20:02,933
and you say, "All right, 
I'm gonna leave the room,

527
00:20:03,033 --> 00:20:04,433
"and if you leave that there,

528
00:20:04,533 --> 00:20:06,433
"when I come back, I'll 
give you three M&Ms."

529
00:20:06,533 --> 00:20:08,766
They'll eat it anyway the 
minute you're outta the room.

530
00:20:08,866 --> 00:20:10,166
As we get older,

531
00:20:10,266 --> 00:20:12,366
we can delay gratification 
better and better

532
00:20:12,466 --> 00:20:14,033
and in our 20s is really when

533
00:20:14,133 --> 00:20:15,800
that left frontal 
lobe is developed,

534
00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:17,566
and so younger 
drinkers are gonna be

535
00:20:17,666 --> 00:20:19,700
more susceptible to 
the inability to say no

536
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,900
to a second drink than 
someone who's in their 20s.

537
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,300
We can control those 
impulses better,

538
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,466
and of the people who 
binge drink early,

539
00:20:27,566 --> 00:20:29,566
by age 14 that data suggests,

540
00:20:29,666 --> 00:20:31,700
they have a 50-50 
shot at some point

541
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,433
being identified as someone 
who's alcohol dependent.

542
00:20:34,533 --> 00:20:36,166
People who don't 
drink until their 20s,

543
00:20:36,266 --> 00:20:39,566
until early 20s, 
only an 8% chance,

544
00:20:39,666 --> 00:20:42,133
still a chance, but the 
odds go way, way down.

545
00:20:42,233 --> 00:20:45,033
So early exposure to 
alcohol desensitizes

546
00:20:45,133 --> 00:20:47,400
the dopamine system in 
some people permanently

547
00:20:47,500 --> 00:20:51,333
and it makes them 
susceptible to alcoholism.

548
00:20:51,433 --> 00:20:56,100
CDC statistic, 17% of 
US adults binge drink,

549
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:57,933
and if you take it 
to the college age,

550
00:20:58,033 --> 00:20:59,700
the group that I 
talk to most often,

551
00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,300
50% binge drink regularly,

552
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:05,200
and it's nine 
drinks at a sitting.

553
00:21:05,300 --> 00:21:07,000
I mean, I can't walk 
after three drinks,

554
00:21:07,100 --> 00:21:08,333
not that I've ever tried that.

555
00:21:08,433 --> 00:21:10,066
Well, I mean, I've tried that.

556
00:21:10,166 --> 00:21:12,133
Nine drinks, it's 
amazing the tolerance,

557
00:21:12,233 --> 00:21:13,600
the tolerance of youth,

558
00:21:13,700 --> 00:21:14,933
and there is a 
physiological difference

559
00:21:15,033 --> 00:21:16,400
between young and old people.

560
00:21:16,500 --> 00:21:18,733
I don't know if you've noticed, 
if you're scanning the newspaper

561
00:21:18,833 --> 00:21:20,766
and you see drunk 
driving arrest reports,

562
00:21:20,866 --> 00:21:24,866
very frequently you'll see 
people in their 40s and 50s

563
00:21:24,966 --> 00:21:27,166
being arrested 
fro drunk driving,

564
00:21:27,266 --> 00:21:30,400
and if it's a first offense, 
very often that person

565
00:21:30,500 --> 00:21:32,333
has been drunk driving 
for years and years,

566
00:21:32,433 --> 00:21:35,700
but our motor tolerance 
goes down as we get older.

567
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:37,266
An 18 year old who is drunk

568
00:21:37,366 --> 00:21:39,633
is a better drink than a 
50 year old who is drunk.

569
00:21:39,733 --> 00:21:42,300
Neither are good drivers, 
but if I had to compare them,

570
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,733
the 18 year old is 
the better driver. 
Question?

571
00:21:44,833 --> 00:21:46,533
- [Audience] As you know,

572
00:21:46,633 --> 00:21:51,700
the Lewis and Clark 
expedition was,

573
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:56,600
as you know, the Lewis 
and Clark expedition

574
00:21:56,700 --> 00:21:59,633
was fueled by copious 
amounts of alcohol.

575
00:21:59,733 --> 00:22:02,600
It was the most important thing 
they had on their journey.

576
00:22:02,700 --> 00:22:05,333
- [Kevin] Yeah, yeah.

577
00:22:05,433 --> 00:22:07,666
- [Audience Member] 
Why has it become,

578
00:22:07,766 --> 00:22:10,600
why did we adopt a more 
Calvanistic attitude

579
00:22:10,700 --> 00:22:13,366
towards alcohol in 
our society now?

580
00:22:13,466 --> 00:22:14,700
- That's an excellent question,

581
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,333
and if you can just 
hold off gratification,

582
00:22:17,433 --> 00:22:19,500
your left frontal lobe, 
if you can just dampen it,

583
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,266
that's exactly what the finish 
line of this talk is about.

584
00:22:22,366 --> 00:22:24,333
There is a great book 
I'm gonna refer you to.

585
00:22:24,433 --> 00:22:26,400
I mean, every military 
campaign in history

586
00:22:26,500 --> 00:22:27,900
has been fueled by alcohol.

587
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,066
It is such a part 
of our culture,

588
00:22:30,166 --> 00:22:32,900
the politics, war, religion.

589
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,300
You can't extricate 
alcohol from our culture,

590
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,300
and you're not wrong 
about Lewis and Clark,

591
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,100
and there's a trade off that 
I'll talk about at the end

592
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:41,933
having to do with, 
do you wanna die

593
00:22:42,033 --> 00:22:43,900
in your 20s of cholera 
or do you wanna die

594
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:45,633
of your 40s of 
cirrhosis of the liver?

595
00:22:45,733 --> 00:22:48,766
And that's often been the 
choice that's had to been made 
throughout history, so.

596
00:22:48,866 --> 00:22:50,000
- [Audience] 
Think of the achievements.

597
00:22:50,100 --> 00:22:51,666
- Oh, but lots of 
great achievements.

598
00:22:51,766 --> 00:22:53,133
I agree with that completely.

599
00:22:53,233 --> 00:22:55,700
Some of the greatest artists 
and writers of our time,

600
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:58,100
alcohol fueled, and this 
book I'm gonna refer you to

601
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,200
tells the story eloquently 
and beautifully.

602
00:23:01,300 --> 00:23:03,466
So great question.

603
00:23:03,566 --> 00:23:05,933
People drink, 
especially young people,

604
00:23:06,033 --> 00:23:08,333
to overcome inhibitions, and 
this same left frontal lobe

605
00:23:08,433 --> 00:23:10,300
of your brain that 
I talked about being

606
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,000
your impulse control center, 
it also makes you shy.

607
00:23:13,100 --> 00:23:16,700
It keeps you from, say, some 
of you in an audience like this

608
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,666
might have a very 
insightful question,

609
00:23:18,766 --> 00:23:20,800
but you're just a 
little bit too inhibited

610
00:23:20,900 --> 00:23:22,333
to raise your hand and ask it.

611
00:23:22,433 --> 00:23:25,866
That's normal, acceptable, 
important social behavior.

612
00:23:25,966 --> 00:23:28,600
It stops us from doing 
inappropriate things socially.

613
00:23:28,700 --> 00:23:31,233
Alcohol, that's one of 
the first centers it hits,

614
00:23:31,333 --> 00:23:34,700
and it increases our 
social confidence.

615
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:36,733
To think normally, you 
need a normal balance

616
00:23:36,833 --> 00:23:38,300
of two neurotransmitters 
in particular.

617
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,200
90% of the neurotransmitters 
in your brain

618
00:23:40,300 --> 00:23:41,800
are either glutamate or GABA.

619
00:23:41,900 --> 00:23:43,433
Glutamate is the main gas pedal.

620
00:23:43,533 --> 00:23:45,233
It's the main excitatory 
neurotransmitter system

621
00:23:45,333 --> 00:23:47,300
and GABA is the 
main inhibitory one.

622
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,466
Valium, by the way, 
stimluates the GABA system.

623
00:23:50,566 --> 00:23:52,166
The GABA system slows 
your brain down.

624
00:23:52,266 --> 00:23:53,766
It calms your brain.

625
00:23:53,866 --> 00:23:55,366
The glutamate system 
excites your brain,

626
00:23:55,466 --> 00:23:58,100
and for you to be normal and 
make normal good decisions,

627
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,600
you need to have a good balance.

628
00:24:01,700 --> 00:24:05,000
So things happen to you 
and you have thoughts

629
00:24:05,100 --> 00:24:06,566
and you do something.

630
00:24:06,666 --> 00:24:08,533
You have some behavior, 
some external behavior

631
00:24:08,633 --> 00:24:11,533
in response to thoughts and 
to experiences that you have,

632
00:24:11,633 --> 00:24:15,200
and a lot goes in, this amazing 
100 billion neuron processor

633
00:24:15,300 --> 00:24:19,233
you have is capable of 
accessing a lot of things

634
00:24:19,333 --> 00:24:21,000
in milliseconds before 
it makes a decision.

635
00:24:21,100 --> 00:24:22,966
I mean, you have a 
basic personality.

636
00:24:23,066 --> 00:24:25,533
Is the glass half full 
to you or half empty?

637
00:24:25,633 --> 00:24:26,866
You have an empathy compassion.

638
00:24:26,966 --> 00:24:28,966
They found neutrons in 
the brain now, by the way,

639
00:24:29,066 --> 00:24:30,400
that are the empathy neurons,

640
00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:32,166
that stimulating that 
neuron makes you understand

641
00:24:32,266 --> 00:24:34,300
how another person feels,

642
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:36,233
but we all have an 
empathy and compassion

643
00:24:36,333 --> 00:24:38,566
with the exception of a 
few sociopaths probably.

644
00:24:38,666 --> 00:24:41,266
We have a sense of 
what's just, what's fair.

645
00:24:41,366 --> 00:24:43,600
We all have an understanding 
of cause and effect.

646
00:24:43,700 --> 00:24:46,466
If I touch an electrode to 
a bottle full of ethanol,

647
00:24:46,566 --> 00:24:48,000
what's gonna happen?

648
00:24:48,100 --> 00:24:49,933
And then much more 
complicated situations

649
00:24:50,033 --> 00:24:51,033
in the real world.

650
00:24:51,133 --> 00:24:53,633
If I use this racial slur

651
00:24:53,733 --> 00:24:55,466
to this person standing 
in front of me,

652
00:24:55,566 --> 00:24:57,966
what's likely to happen?

653
00:24:58,066 --> 00:25:00,300
Biological drives, we 
have parts of our brains

654
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,233
that are programmed 
in sexual ways,

655
00:25:03,333 --> 00:25:04,866
in appetitive ways.

656
00:25:04,966 --> 00:25:06,933
We had this hedonistic 
appetite for salt

657
00:25:07,033 --> 00:25:08,666
that's a biological drive,

658
00:25:08,766 --> 00:25:10,566
and that goes into the 
decisions that we make.

659
00:25:10,666 --> 00:25:12,066
Situational memories,

660
00:25:12,166 --> 00:25:14,300
you've not only 
experienced life,

661
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:16,133
but you've seen other 
people exerience lives

662
00:25:16,233 --> 00:25:19,366
and cause and effect, and 
you can access memories

663
00:25:19,466 --> 00:25:21,066
like that before 
you make a decision

664
00:25:21,166 --> 00:25:23,100
about what to say, 
what to do, how to act,

665
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:24,866
and then cultural learning,

666
00:25:24,966 --> 00:25:26,500
things that are 
acceptable in one culture

667
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:28,833
are not in another, and it 
takes a lifetime sometimes

668
00:25:28,933 --> 00:25:31,000
to learn exactly what's 
appropriate in a context,

669
00:25:31,100 --> 00:25:32,400
in the cultural context.

670
00:25:32,500 --> 00:25:34,866
So somebody says 
something to me,

671
00:25:34,966 --> 00:25:37,066
all of these different 
centers of my brain,

672
00:25:37,166 --> 00:25:39,733
I can access them, I can 
come up with a net judgment,

673
00:25:39,833 --> 00:25:42,000
and this is all synapses 
talking to each other,

674
00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:44,733
and then a behavior, 
an outcome results.

675
00:25:44,833 --> 00:25:46,166
Question?

676
00:25:46,266 --> 00:25:47,633
- [Audience Member] 
So glut GABA circuits

677
00:25:47,733 --> 00:25:49,800
are feedback loops then?

678
00:25:49,900 --> 00:25:53,066
- So glutamate and GABA 
circuits are related

679
00:25:53,166 --> 00:25:54,366
in a negative feedback.

680
00:25:54,466 --> 00:25:56,766
So if you get too much 
glutamate activity,

681
00:25:56,866 --> 00:25:59,200
and someone who's like 
that might have anxiety

682
00:25:59,300 --> 00:26:01,333
and shaky hands, might 
not be able to sleep,

683
00:26:01,433 --> 00:26:03,433
and so there are negative 
feedback built in

684
00:26:03,533 --> 00:26:05,900
on both of those, so 
too much glutamate

685
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,000
will tell the glutamate neurons 
to stop releasing so much,

686
00:26:09,100 --> 00:26:11,000
and also when the glutamate 
neurons release too much,

687
00:26:11,100 --> 00:26:12,633
GABA neurons will ramp up

688
00:26:12,733 --> 00:26:14,633
and they'll tell the glutamate 
neurons, "Calm down."

689
00:26:14,733 --> 00:26:16,466
That's how you stay balanced

690
00:26:16,566 --> 00:26:19,133
and feel normal.

691
00:26:19,233 --> 00:26:21,333
So it's well known 
pharmacologically

692
00:26:21,433 --> 00:26:24,500
that alcohol is bad 
for glutamate synapses,

693
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,966
it inhibits them, and it's 
good for GABA synapses

694
00:26:27,066 --> 00:26:28,633
like Valium is.

695
00:26:28,733 --> 00:26:30,933
And so someone who has 
alcohol in their system,

696
00:26:31,033 --> 00:26:32,866
as the dose goes up effectively,

697
00:26:32,966 --> 00:26:34,300
if their brain was a computer,

698
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:35,966
the processing speed gets slower

699
00:26:36,066 --> 00:26:37,866
and slower and slower 
as the dose rises,

700
00:26:37,966 --> 00:26:40,233
and so think of a computer 
with a slow processor.

701
00:26:40,333 --> 00:26:42,233
You can only have one 
window open at a time

702
00:26:42,333 --> 00:26:43,866
or a few windows open at a time,

703
00:26:43,966 --> 00:26:47,433
and effectively the human 
brain becomes like that.

704
00:26:47,533 --> 00:26:50,466
There's a very eloquent model by 
a scientist named Claude Bernard

705
00:26:50,566 --> 00:26:53,333
who used this really 
simple basic thing

706
00:26:53,433 --> 00:26:55,566
that alcohol does, slow 
the processor, to explain

707
00:26:55,666 --> 00:26:58,833
a lot of the unpredictability

708
00:26:58,933 --> 00:27:01,333
in the behavioral 
effects of alcohol,

709
00:27:01,433 --> 00:27:02,800
and the model's called myopia,

710
00:27:02,900 --> 00:27:04,633
and if you don't know, 
myopia means near sighted,

711
00:27:04,733 --> 00:27:07,066
and so alcohol myopia 
means basically

712
00:27:07,166 --> 00:27:10,200
on high doses of 
alcohol, a person becomes

713
00:27:10,300 --> 00:27:11,866
cognitively near sighted.

714
00:27:11,966 --> 00:27:15,000
All they can think about 
is what's right in fron 
of them at that moment.

715
00:27:15,100 --> 00:27:17,466
They can't, you know, a myopia 
person can see right here

716
00:27:17,566 --> 00:27:19,166
but they can't see 
in the distance

717
00:27:19,266 --> 00:27:22,166
and so as your brain 
becomes simplified

718
00:27:22,266 --> 00:27:23,800
by high doses of alcohol,

719
00:27:23,900 --> 00:27:25,166
something may happen to you

720
00:27:25,266 --> 00:27:27,500
and you may only 
access one or another

721
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,866
but not all of the complex 
decision making circuits

722
00:27:29,966 --> 00:27:31,200
you have in your brain.

723
00:27:31,300 --> 00:27:33,000
So it's been shown 
very convincingly

724
00:27:33,100 --> 00:27:35,300
that people can be more 
empathetic and compassionate

725
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:36,900
when they're drunk.

726
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,466
If you've ever been 
to a fundraiser,

727
00:27:38,566 --> 00:27:41,433
one of the first things they 
do is they hand you a glass 
of champagne.

728
00:27:41,533 --> 00:27:43,000
People tip more, 
people donate more

729
00:27:43,100 --> 00:27:45,333
when there's alcohol 
in their system.

730
00:27:45,433 --> 00:27:48,433
It's also very clear 
that sexual assault,

731
00:27:48,533 --> 00:27:50,433
alcohol is a major factor 
on college campuses

732
00:27:50,533 --> 00:27:53,633
and elsewhere in sexual 
assault, basic human drives.

733
00:27:53,733 --> 00:27:55,300
Any kind of domestic violence,

734
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,466
very often alcohol and 
basic biological drives

735
00:27:58,566 --> 00:28:01,266
override thoughts 
of cause and effect,

736
00:28:01,366 --> 00:28:04,200
consequences, 
situational memories,

737
00:28:04,300 --> 00:28:06,333
and so very simple 
model to explain,

738
00:28:06,433 --> 00:28:09,133
why does alcohol have 
such dispart effects?

739
00:28:09,233 --> 00:28:11,100
So here's a study 
that I'm gonna use

740
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,933
to demonstrate that and 
also to debunk a myth.

741
00:28:14,033 --> 00:28:15,900
Alcohol is not an 
anti-anxiety drug.

742
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,266
This study proves it.

743
00:28:17,366 --> 00:28:18,800
So this is how the study goes.

744
00:28:18,900 --> 00:28:20,433
Volunteers invited to a party

745
00:28:20,533 --> 00:28:22,066
and they're told, 
"Free alcohol,"

746
00:28:22,166 --> 00:28:23,733
and this is college aged crowd,

747
00:28:23,833 --> 00:28:26,566
so it's very easy to 
get volunteers for 
a study like this.

748
00:28:26,666 --> 00:28:28,100
Half are given drinks.

749
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:29,900
The other half have drinks

750
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,800
and they smell like 
there's alcohol

751
00:28:31,900 --> 00:28:33,100
but there's not really alcohol.

752
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:34,533
Everybody has to 
think they're drinking

753
00:28:34,633 --> 00:28:37,066
to have a perfect control, 
scientific control.

754
00:28:37,166 --> 00:28:39,066
So they all drink 
for half an hour

755
00:28:39,166 --> 00:28:42,600
and then the researchers say, 
"Oh, we forget to tell you.

756
00:28:42,700 --> 00:28:44,933
"In about 15 minutes, 
you have to go on stage

757
00:28:45,033 --> 00:28:46,466
"and give an impromptu speech,

758
00:28:46,566 --> 00:28:50,166
"what I most dislike about my 
body and physical appearance."

759
00:28:50,266 --> 00:28:52,700
So snakes, spiders, 
and public speaking

760
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:54,933
are the things 
people fear the most,

761
00:28:55,033 --> 00:28:56,533
and so this was a 
stimulus designed

762
00:28:56,633 --> 00:28:58,733
to make these people anxious

763
00:28:58,833 --> 00:29:01,633
and so then they're gonna 
have to sit for 15 minutes

764
00:29:01,733 --> 00:29:03,300
and their speech 
is gonna happen.

765
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:04,866
They're gonna have 
a crowd of strangers

766
00:29:04,966 --> 00:29:07,066
looking at their body as 
they discuss their body.

767
00:29:07,166 --> 00:29:10,066
I mean, what could be more 
anxiety-inducing than that?

768
00:29:10,166 --> 00:29:12,300
But then to make this experiment 
a little more complicated,

769
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:13,600
so they got these two groups,

770
00:29:13,700 --> 00:29:16,400
the drinkers and the 
think they're drinkers,

771
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:18,533
they divide them 
into four groups

772
00:29:18,633 --> 00:29:20,600
and one group just 
sits and does nothing,

773
00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:22,200
they're just waiting 
for their speech,

774
00:29:22,300 --> 00:29:23,800
and then there's three 
groups that are kept

775
00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:25,366
busier and busier 
sorting slides,

776
00:29:25,466 --> 00:29:29,566
an intellectual task that takes 
more and more mental effort,

777
00:29:29,666 --> 00:29:31,100
and then they measure anxiety,

778
00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,100
and they use physiological 
and psychotropic measures

779
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,800
to see how anxious they got 
over the next 15 minutes.

780
00:29:36,900 --> 00:29:39,366
The data are very simple. 
This is what they look like.

781
00:29:39,466 --> 00:29:41,866
On the left, you see 
the people who thought

782
00:29:41,966 --> 00:29:44,233
they were drinking but were 
not, the placebo group.

783
00:29:44,333 --> 00:29:46,133
Any bar that goes 
up from the midline,

784
00:29:46,233 --> 00:29:47,466
they got more stressed,

785
00:29:47,566 --> 00:29:49,666
and any bar that goes down, 
they got less stressed,

786
00:29:49,766 --> 00:29:52,100
and you'll see they didn't 
experience a lot of stress,

787
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:53,766
increase in stress 
during the 15 minutes.

788
00:29:53,866 --> 00:29:55,700
I mean, the ones 
in the black bar

789
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,766
that were really kept 
busy sorting slides,

790
00:29:58,866 --> 00:30:00,333
they actually 
become less nervous

791
00:30:00,433 --> 00:30:02,833
because they didn't have 
time to think or worry

792
00:30:02,933 --> 00:30:05,733
about this speech, 
this impending speech.

793
00:30:05,833 --> 00:30:07,266
Look at the group on the right.

794
00:30:07,366 --> 00:30:10,566
The only group that 
became more anxious

795
00:30:10,666 --> 00:30:12,500
are the ones that had 
alcohol in their system

796
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:14,866
and had nothing to do.

797
00:30:14,966 --> 00:30:17,300
Alcohol doesn't 
make you relaxed.

798
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,666
Alcohol exaggerates 
whatever mood you're in.

799
00:30:20,766 --> 00:30:22,200
Whatever's happening to you,

800
00:30:22,300 --> 00:30:24,966
you're myopically responding 
to whatever is in your world.

801
00:30:25,066 --> 00:30:27,400
If there's a death in your 
family and you get drunk,

802
00:30:27,500 --> 00:30:29,633
that will become the only 
thing you can think about.

803
00:30:29,733 --> 00:30:31,333
If you're out at a 
party with your friends

804
00:30:31,433 --> 00:30:32,500
and somebody says 
something funny,

805
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:33,900
you'll laugh uproariously

806
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,933
because that's the only 
thing you think about.

807
00:30:36,033 --> 00:30:37,500
You become myopic.

808
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:41,066
And in this case, 
anxiety was the situation

809
00:30:41,166 --> 00:30:43,400
and anxiety is enhanced,

810
00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:45,300
is intensified by alcohol.

811
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:49,233
It doesn't relax you unless 
you're in a relaxing situation,

812
00:30:49,333 --> 00:30:51,266
then it does.

813
00:30:51,366 --> 00:30:52,733
And it boosts self-confidence,

814
00:30:52,833 --> 00:30:55,233
so I told you young people 
drink for self-esteem reasons.

815
00:30:55,333 --> 00:30:57,366
So here's where I'm a 
little bit irreverent,

816
00:30:57,466 --> 00:30:59,800
I apologize, but 
The Onion is funny

817
00:30:59,900 --> 00:31:02,300
because it's so often true,

818
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,700
and alcohol beverage consumer 
confidence does skyrocket

819
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:08,833
as the evening goes on very 
often because of myopia.

820
00:31:08,933 --> 00:31:11,566
When someone who's drinking 
can only think about

821
00:31:11,666 --> 00:31:14,233
what a great dancer they are 
or how good looking they are

822
00:31:14,333 --> 00:31:15,933
and they don't stop and 
think about all the times

823
00:31:16,033 --> 00:31:17,566
that there's been 
someone much good looking

824
00:31:17,666 --> 00:31:20,466
or better dancer next to them, 
their confidence skyrockets,

825
00:31:20,566 --> 00:31:22,366
and often they have 
brilliant epiphanies

826
00:31:22,466 --> 00:31:26,266
like this young man coming 
up with this brilliant tactic

827
00:31:26,366 --> 00:31:28,366
for being attractive to women,

828
00:31:28,466 --> 00:31:32,133
and not to sort of bias things 
from a gender standpoint,

829
00:31:32,233 --> 00:31:33,966
I mean, ladies, they 
have their own version

830
00:31:34,066 --> 00:31:38,166
of bad things arising from 
excess of social confidence.

831
00:31:38,266 --> 00:31:40,466
Here's to the question 
that I was asked earlier.

832
00:31:40,566 --> 00:31:41,933
Not only does confidence go up

833
00:31:42,033 --> 00:31:44,333
but because of the 
simplification of the processor

834
00:31:44,433 --> 00:31:46,833
and all of the things that 
you're not able to access

835
00:31:46,933 --> 00:31:48,933
at high doses of alcohol,

836
00:31:49,033 --> 00:31:51,900
bad ideas galore begin to spawn.

837
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,433
So let me just flash 
a few bad ideas

838
00:31:54,533 --> 00:31:57,866
that you might spawn at 
high doses of alcohol.

839
00:31:57,966 --> 00:31:59,900
That's a bad idea, 
if you know anything

840
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,700
about electricity at all.

841
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,200
This is a bad idea

842
00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:06,966
if you're a doctor who works 
in the burn unit, for example.

843
00:32:07,066 --> 00:32:09,466
Halloween parties should 
never end this way.

844
00:32:09,566 --> 00:32:11,033
(audience laughs)

845
00:32:11,133 --> 00:32:15,700
According to the CDC, 38% 
of emergency room visits,

846
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:17,200
alcohol's involved.

847
00:32:17,300 --> 00:32:19,566
Now stop and think how 
much emergency room visits

848
00:32:19,666 --> 00:32:21,900
there must be 
across this country.

849
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,366
38%, bad judgment and 
also motor coordination.

850
00:32:26,466 --> 00:32:28,600
Car accidents are a large 
part of that number,

851
00:32:28,700 --> 00:32:31,766
but bad ideas often 
leading to injury

852
00:32:31,866 --> 00:32:33,866
are because of 
the poor judgment,

853
00:32:33,966 --> 00:32:37,200
because of people whose 
normally brilliant minds

854
00:32:37,300 --> 00:32:38,533
are not functioning

855
00:32:38,633 --> 00:32:42,133
with all of their RAM intact.

856
00:32:42,233 --> 00:32:45,666
So another important 
thing is that in adults

857
00:32:45,766 --> 00:32:48,066
those proteins fold 
and then they unfold

858
00:32:48,166 --> 00:32:51,033
and you don't have necessarily 
irreversible cognitive effects

859
00:32:51,133 --> 00:32:53,133
until you get really, 
really high doses.

860
00:32:53,233 --> 00:32:56,933
So binge drinkers by the age 
of 14 have smaller brains

861
00:32:57,033 --> 00:32:59,066
and they're not 
as smart as people

862
00:32:59,166 --> 00:33:00,733
who didn't binge drink 
when they were young.

863
00:33:00,833 --> 00:33:03,600
So one interpretation 
of those data might be,

864
00:33:03,700 --> 00:33:06,666
oh, then maybe it's just 
the kids with small brains

865
00:33:06,766 --> 00:33:08,233
who are dumb to being with

866
00:33:08,333 --> 00:33:10,266
are the ones that are 
binge drinking so early.

867
00:33:10,366 --> 00:33:12,566
Animal studies have 
very convincingly shown

868
00:33:12,666 --> 00:33:14,866
that if you take identical 
groups of animals

869
00:33:14,966 --> 00:33:16,766
and one group drinks 
as adolescents

870
00:33:16,866 --> 00:33:18,466
and the other group 
doesn't drink until later,

871
00:33:18,566 --> 00:33:20,000
you see exactly the same thing.

872
00:33:20,100 --> 00:33:22,433
A big part of this 
is cause and effect.

873
00:33:22,533 --> 00:33:23,933
It shrinks.

874
00:33:24,033 --> 00:33:26,766
So I like to use this 
analogy to explain that.

875
00:33:26,866 --> 00:33:29,800
Think of your body's proteins 
as construction workers.

876
00:33:29,900 --> 00:33:34,000
So if a construction 
worker basically

877
00:33:34,100 --> 00:33:35,766
drinks in the evening, 
drinks on the weekend

878
00:33:35,866 --> 00:33:37,433
when they're not 
actually building,

879
00:33:37,533 --> 00:33:39,366
the building they're 
working on is gonna be fine.

880
00:33:39,466 --> 00:33:40,600
They're building 
when they're sober.

881
00:33:40,700 --> 00:33:43,166
But if they're drunk 
while they are building,

882
00:33:43,266 --> 00:33:45,500
a young person's nervous 
system is being built,

883
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,133
those proteins are 
part of the building,

884
00:33:47,233 --> 00:33:49,166
the synapses are 
part of the building,

885
00:33:49,266 --> 00:33:51,366
twisting those proteins 
during the construction

886
00:33:51,466 --> 00:33:54,133
is gonna make for 
poor construction

887
00:33:54,233 --> 00:33:55,600
of the nervous system,

888
00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:58,200
and in the extreme, you 
get fetal alcohol syndrome,

889
00:33:58,300 --> 00:34:00,666
but you get more subtle 
measurable effects

890
00:34:00,766 --> 00:34:03,433
even in kids who just 
start binge drinking

891
00:34:03,533 --> 00:34:05,400
when they're 14.

892
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,766
Okay. another 
self-medication mode,

893
00:34:09,866 --> 00:34:12,300
to forget, to escape 
from problems,

894
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:13,600
and sleep and forgetting

895
00:34:13,700 --> 00:34:16,133
is gonna be part of the 
theme that runs here.

896
00:34:16,233 --> 00:34:17,833
So when people drink,

897
00:34:17,933 --> 00:34:19,866
if they're in a 
boring situation,

898
00:34:19,966 --> 00:34:22,100
dark quiet room, a nightcap 
will make you sleepy.

899
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,166
It changes the brain 
chemistry in the direction

900
00:34:24,266 --> 00:34:25,866
that sleep becomes more likely,

901
00:34:25,966 --> 00:34:29,733
but alcohol induced 
sleep is not true sleep.

902
00:34:29,833 --> 00:34:31,833
It looks very relaxing.

903
00:34:31,933 --> 00:34:33,566
Somebody might seem 
difficult to rouse

904
00:34:33,666 --> 00:34:35,466
like they're in a 
deep, deep sleep.

905
00:34:35,566 --> 00:34:37,433
What it is is it's 
surgical anesthesia.

906
00:34:37,533 --> 00:34:40,400
Natural sleep, in natural 
neurological sleep,

907
00:34:40,500 --> 00:34:42,400
people's brains have time frames

908
00:34:42,500 --> 00:34:45,433
when they are much more active 
than even the waking brain.

909
00:34:45,533 --> 00:34:47,166
There are very important 
functions that happen,

910
00:34:47,266 --> 00:34:50,166
especially in a mode of sleep 
called rapid eye movement sleep.

911
00:34:50,266 --> 00:34:51,766
It's when you're dreaming.

912
00:34:51,866 --> 00:34:54,000
The brain has very 
important job to do

913
00:34:54,100 --> 00:34:56,166
and it has to do 
with going through

914
00:34:56,266 --> 00:34:58,500
the whole day's worth of 
data you've just lived,

915
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:01,100
all the thoughts you had, 
everything you saw and heard,

916
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:02,766
and it decides which 
of these things

917
00:35:02,866 --> 00:35:05,733
need to be encoded in a synapse 
that I want with me tomorrow

918
00:35:05,833 --> 00:35:07,433
and which was just 
superfluous detail

919
00:35:07,533 --> 00:35:10,433
that I might go crazy 
if I remembered.

920
00:35:10,533 --> 00:35:13,333
So that's happening 
when a person sleeps.

921
00:35:13,433 --> 00:35:15,766
When someone is in an 
alcohol induced slumber,

922
00:35:15,866 --> 00:35:17,533
or any level of 
alcohol, is gonna reduce

923
00:35:17,633 --> 00:35:19,433
the ability of the 
brain to do that.

924
00:35:19,533 --> 00:35:22,566
So very simplistically, 
short term memory,

925
00:35:22,666 --> 00:35:23,900
what's you're thinking about now

926
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,433
becomes a memory through 
a process called LTP,

927
00:35:26,533 --> 00:35:29,433
long term potentiation,

928
00:35:29,533 --> 00:35:31,633
and that happens in REM sleep.

929
00:35:31,733 --> 00:35:33,300
Alcohol doesn't let 
you do REM sleep.

930
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:35,066
You may be unconscious 
for eight or nine hours

931
00:35:35,166 --> 00:35:36,466
but you're not refreshed.

932
00:35:36,566 --> 00:35:38,700
REM sleep is what you 
need to feel refreshed,

933
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:41,233
and people often feel 
very tired after a night

934
00:35:41,333 --> 00:35:43,100
in bed after a night of drinking

935
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:45,133
because they didn't 
actually get REM sleep.

936
00:35:45,233 --> 00:35:48,700
The next night, you'll 
have to get catch up sleep.

937
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:50,866
So this memory formation process

938
00:35:50,966 --> 00:35:53,066
does not happen as 
well or normally

939
00:35:53,166 --> 00:35:54,900
when someone lays down with 
alcohol in their system,

940
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,633
so you can't drink to 
forget past memories.

941
00:35:58,733 --> 00:36:00,733
You can drink to forget 
what you did last night

942
00:36:00,833 --> 00:36:02,266
and people who 
drink to the point

943
00:36:02,366 --> 00:36:03,866
where they have 
blackouts, walk around,

944
00:36:03,966 --> 00:36:05,800
young people especially 
often walk around

945
00:36:05,900 --> 00:36:08,133
and function and do things 
and have conversations

946
00:36:08,233 --> 00:36:11,300
and pictures of them 
show up on Facebook 
and they have no memory.

947
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:12,800
There was no recording.

948
00:36:12,900 --> 00:36:15,366
While alcohol is in your 
system, you can't form memory,

949
00:36:15,466 --> 00:36:17,033
but escaping past 
problems doesn't work,

950
00:36:17,133 --> 00:36:18,600
and people often 
become depressed

951
00:36:18,700 --> 00:36:21,033
because that alcohol 
myopia might focus

952
00:36:21,133 --> 00:36:23,833
their mind only on the 
depressing thing in their life.

953
00:36:23,933 --> 00:36:25,633
They can't escape from it.

954
00:36:25,733 --> 00:36:27,466
It consumes them.

955
00:36:27,566 --> 00:36:30,500
It becomes the only 
thing in their world.

956
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,600
So relevant to my 
college student crowd,

957
00:36:34,700 --> 00:36:37,133
drinking goes on at colleges 
in great quantities.

958
00:36:37,233 --> 00:36:38,933
50% of college 
students binge drink.

959
00:36:39,033 --> 00:36:40,966
Many college students fail 
out their freshman year.

960
00:36:41,066 --> 00:36:42,533
This is a big reason.

961
00:36:42,633 --> 00:36:44,266
They don't understand 
the relationship

962
00:36:44,366 --> 00:36:47,566
between learning, 
sleep, and alcohol.

963
00:36:47,666 --> 00:36:49,866
So they'll study for six 
hours on a Thursday night,

964
00:36:49,966 --> 00:36:51,433
they have a test on Friday,

965
00:36:51,533 --> 00:36:52,900
and they'll say, 
"Yeah, that's it.

966
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:54,700
"I've studied it all, 
I'm done, I'm ready,"

967
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,200
and then rather 
than go to sleep,

968
00:36:56,300 --> 00:36:57,666
they go out with their friends.

969
00:36:57,766 --> 00:36:58,933
So they drink for three hours,

970
00:36:59,033 --> 00:37:01,100
they lay in bed for 
eight hours or 10 hours.

971
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:02,733
They take the test and 
they find they have

972
00:37:02,833 --> 00:37:04,133
very little memory 
of what they studied

973
00:37:04,233 --> 00:37:06,166
during that six hour time frame.

974
00:37:06,266 --> 00:37:08,366
They don't understand 
that you need the sleep

975
00:37:08,466 --> 00:37:09,866
to concretize the memory.

976
00:37:09,966 --> 00:37:12,566
I tell my students, "If 
you study for six hours,

977
00:37:12,666 --> 00:37:14,100
"sleep that night."

978
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:15,866
If you drink the next night,

979
00:37:15,966 --> 00:37:17,666
memories of the past are secure.

980
00:37:17,766 --> 00:37:19,200
You're not gonna ruin 
your college career

981
00:37:19,300 --> 00:37:23,400
if you can separate learning 
and sleeping from drinking.

982
00:37:23,500 --> 00:37:27,066
You can live the college 
experience to some extent.

983
00:37:27,166 --> 00:37:30,533
I urge moderation, 
don't get me wrong,

984
00:37:30,633 --> 00:37:33,533
but I'm not unrealistic 
enough to believe

985
00:37:33,633 --> 00:37:35,733
that I could ever 
get a college crowd

986
00:37:35,833 --> 00:37:37,933
to stop drinking because 
of anything I say

987
00:37:38,033 --> 00:37:39,333
no matter how scary,

988
00:37:39,433 --> 00:37:41,433
but if they can learn 
about the physiology

989
00:37:41,533 --> 00:37:43,400
of memory and alcohol and sleep,

990
00:37:43,500 --> 00:37:44,966
maybe I can save 
some college careers

991
00:37:45,066 --> 00:37:47,233
by spreading this message.

992
00:37:47,333 --> 00:37:49,966
Okay, and now to the question 
that we wanna get to,

993
00:37:50,066 --> 00:37:52,300
so sort of the little final 
phase I'm wanna talk about.

994
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,900
So people drink because 
they're self-medicating

995
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,400
for the reasons that 
we just talked about

996
00:37:57,500 --> 00:38:00,500
and with the mechanisms 
that we just talked about.

997
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,400
Here we are in Wisconsin. 
We have a rich cultural history.

998
00:38:03,500 --> 00:38:06,666
We have an history of 
alcohol, drinking and alcohol,

999
00:38:06,766 --> 00:38:10,333
I mean, drinking in our 
culture in Wisconsin.

1000
00:38:10,433 --> 00:38:13,100
I'm gonna quickly go 
through some animal studies

1001
00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:17,100
that prove alcohol preference

1002
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,266
and alcohol behavior effects 
are, they're highly generic.

1003
00:38:20,366 --> 00:38:21,766
They're highly producible.

1004
00:38:21,866 --> 00:38:23,366
So for example, 
fruit fly studies.

1005
00:38:23,466 --> 00:38:24,900
Many years ago, 40 years ago,

1006
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,133
fruit flies, you give 'em 
a little alcohol vapor

1007
00:38:27,233 --> 00:38:29,333
and they do what humans do 
after they've been drinking,

1008
00:38:29,433 --> 00:38:30,733
they tend to fall down,

1009
00:38:30,833 --> 00:38:33,133
and it turns out if you 
take a bunch of flies

1010
00:38:33,233 --> 00:38:34,700
and you expose them to a vapor

1011
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,033
and the first few who 
fall, you sweep 'em aside,

1012
00:38:37,133 --> 00:38:39,566
and then later on, 
you introduce those

1013
00:38:39,666 --> 00:38:42,633
and you introduce those 
and they have offspring,

1014
00:38:42,733 --> 00:38:45,900
their offspring will 
be even more likely

1015
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:47,366
to fall down quickly.

1016
00:38:47,466 --> 00:38:49,600
The fly line is called cheap 
date sort of humorously

1017
00:38:49,700 --> 00:38:51,166
by the scientist 
who developed it

1018
00:38:51,266 --> 00:38:53,600
because a low, low 
dose of alcohol,

1019
00:38:53,700 --> 00:38:55,966
these flies become 
effectively inebriated

1020
00:38:56,066 --> 00:38:57,900
or whatever passes for 
inebriated in a fly.

1021
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,033
So you can breed into 
them lightweightness,

1022
00:39:01,133 --> 00:39:03,666
if that is a characteristic.

1023
00:39:03,766 --> 00:39:06,166
There is a lab, it 
started in Stanford,

1024
00:39:06,266 --> 00:39:07,666
now it's in Boulder, Colorado.

1025
00:39:07,766 --> 00:39:10,266
1960s, they took a 
bunch of mice and they,

1026
00:39:10,366 --> 00:39:13,166
animals don't like to drink, so 
often they vaporize the alcohol,

1027
00:39:13,266 --> 00:39:16,133
sometimes they inject it, but 
they get a bunch of mice drunk

1028
00:39:16,233 --> 00:39:17,866
and they see how they behave,

1029
00:39:17,966 --> 00:39:19,866
and then they'll say, 
"Well, these two both,

1030
00:39:19,966 --> 00:39:22,100
"when they get drunk, 
they sleep a long time.

1031
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:23,633
"Let's breed them."

1032
00:39:23,733 --> 00:39:25,800
And then breed their kids 
and then breed their kids,

1033
00:39:25,900 --> 00:39:28,333
and you can 
selectively breed mice

1034
00:39:28,433 --> 00:39:31,300
to have the entire 
range of behaviors

1035
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:33,700
that you might see in 
yourself or in your friends

1036
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:35,333
or in your families 
or in your culture.

1037
00:39:35,433 --> 00:39:38,333
So some mice fall asleep 
after a little bit of drinking

1038
00:39:38,433 --> 00:39:39,866
and they sleep for hours.

1039
00:39:39,966 --> 00:39:42,166
Some mice fall immediately 
to sleep and they wake up

1040
00:39:42,266 --> 00:39:43,466
with their heart 
pounding and sweaty,

1041
00:39:43,566 --> 00:39:46,733
if you can interpret 
the mice behavior,

1042
00:39:46,833 --> 00:39:48,566
and many people do this 
after heavy drinking.

1043
00:39:48,666 --> 00:39:51,100
They'll only sleep a few hours. 
They have this rebound effect.

1044
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:52,600
They're wide awake.

1045
00:39:52,700 --> 00:39:55,666
Some of these mice act like 
they're at a party, at a rave.

1046
00:39:55,766 --> 00:39:57,000
They go crazy.

1047
00:39:57,100 --> 00:39:58,766
They run around the 
cage when they're drunk.

1048
00:39:58,866 --> 00:40:00,266
They don't fall asleep at all.

1049
00:40:00,366 --> 00:40:02,000
Some them, the body 
temperature falls.

1050
00:40:02,100 --> 00:40:03,866
Some of them, the body 
temperature skyrockets.

1051
00:40:03,966 --> 00:40:06,633
Some are very 
degenerative tremor prone.

1052
00:40:06,733 --> 00:40:09,133
When they sober up, 
they shake violently,

1053
00:40:09,233 --> 00:40:11,966
which happens to 
many human alcoholics

1054
00:40:12,066 --> 00:40:14,333
after a long binge when you 
deprive them of alcohol,

1055
00:40:14,433 --> 00:40:18,533
and then there's also a super 
strain of college-aged mice

1056
00:40:18,633 --> 00:40:20,733
that no matter how much 
alcohol you give them,

1057
00:40:20,833 --> 00:40:22,566
they pass all the 
coordination tests.

1058
00:40:22,666 --> 00:40:24,900
They'll have these 
rotating wooden bars

1059
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,033
and they'll have 
the mice walk across

1060
00:40:27,133 --> 00:40:29,666
and how far they get says 
how coordinated they are,

1061
00:40:29,766 --> 00:40:32,166
and so a sober mouse will 
make it all the way across.

1062
00:40:32,266 --> 00:40:34,666
One that's a little drunker 
will fall off earlier

1063
00:40:34,766 --> 00:40:36,433
and one that's drunker 
will fall off earlier.

1064
00:40:36,533 --> 00:40:39,033
Well, this resistant 
strain of mice,

1065
00:40:39,133 --> 00:40:42,533
they bred into their DNA, 
into their protein structure

1066
00:40:42,633 --> 00:40:45,000
the ability to handle 
enormous amounts of alcohol,

1067
00:40:45,100 --> 00:40:46,566
and they walk right 
across that bar

1068
00:40:46,666 --> 00:40:48,700
and they don't fall down,

1069
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:50,700
and you see that maybe 
in people you know.

1070
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,000
There are some people you 
know who drink a little bit

1071
00:40:53,100 --> 00:40:54,266
and they're silly 
and they're tipsy

1072
00:40:54,366 --> 00:40:56,233
and they fall down and 
they slur their words,

1073
00:40:56,333 --> 00:40:58,700
and others you might know 
who, after their ninth drink,

1074
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,400
might be hard to tell that 
they've been drinking,

1075
00:41:01,500 --> 00:41:03,266
and I'm about to go into 
the cultural history

1076
00:41:03,366 --> 00:41:05,233
why that might be.

1077
00:41:05,333 --> 00:41:08,600
But more crossbreeding 
experiments have been done

1078
00:41:08,700 --> 00:41:10,666
and these last two are 
kind of interesting.

1079
00:41:10,766 --> 00:41:13,300
Animals don't like to 
drink alcohol usually,

1080
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,800
but if you can find a couple 
of animals that don't mind it

1081
00:41:16,900 --> 00:41:19,800
and crossbreed them and 
then take their offspring

1082
00:41:19,900 --> 00:41:22,100
and find ones that don't 
mind it or even like it

1083
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:23,900
and crossbreed them, 
you can breed in

1084
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,333
a love for drinking 
alcohol over water

1085
00:41:26,433 --> 00:41:28,166
or fruit juice or anything else.

1086
00:41:28,266 --> 00:41:31,366
So the love of the feeling 
of drinking alcohol

1087
00:41:31,466 --> 00:41:33,300
is also genetic and can be bred

1088
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:36,600
into a population of monkeys.

1089
00:41:36,700 --> 00:41:40,000
Another thing that can 
create alcohol preference,

1090
00:41:40,100 --> 00:41:42,566
and this one is a 
little bit sad to me,

1091
00:41:42,666 --> 00:41:44,266
it's an important 
experiment that was done

1092
00:41:44,366 --> 00:41:46,066
and it's one you 
can't do in humans,

1093
00:41:46,166 --> 00:41:49,400
but it is the natural 
experiment sadly is done.

1094
00:41:49,500 --> 00:41:51,900
This group at NIH took 
a bunch of baby monkeys

1095
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:53,800
and they took 'em away 
from their mothers

1096
00:41:53,900 --> 00:41:55,666
and they gave 'em all 
to foster mothers,

1097
00:41:55,766 --> 00:41:57,900
half of which were known 
to be very good mothers.

1098
00:41:58,000 --> 00:41:59,900
They cuddled the babies. 
They groomed them.

1099
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:01,400
They feed them well.

1100
00:42:01,500 --> 00:42:03,966
And then half were known to 
be not very good mothers.

1101
00:42:04,066 --> 00:42:06,000
They abused the children. 
They neglected them.

1102
00:42:06,100 --> 00:42:08,300
They didn't feed them. 
They never groomed them.

1103
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,633
The equivalent of giving 
a monkey a bad childhood.

1104
00:42:10,733 --> 00:42:13,466
And then later on, these big 
community cages they put 'em in

1105
00:42:13,566 --> 00:42:16,633
and they had a choice, 
water, fruit juice, alcohol.

1106
00:42:16,733 --> 00:42:18,800
Inevitably, the 
monkeys who were raised

1107
00:42:18,900 --> 00:42:21,900
in stressful, 
abusive environments

1108
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:24,066
willingly, happily 
went after the alcohol

1109
00:42:24,166 --> 00:42:26,500
and the ones that had 
good childhoods did not.

1110
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,900
So the DNA in your body,

1111
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,866
the proteins it expresses 
aren't automatic.

1112
00:42:31,966 --> 00:42:34,166
What you're exposed 
to in your life

1113
00:42:34,266 --> 00:42:36,666
has a lot to do with which 
proteins get expressed

1114
00:42:36,766 --> 00:42:40,166
and in the alcohol 
abuse preference system,

1115
00:42:40,266 --> 00:42:42,533
it turns out you can 
breed in effectively

1116
00:42:42,633 --> 00:42:44,900
someone who's got 
a predisposition 
to be an alcoholic

1117
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,266
or to abuse alcohol.

1118
00:42:48,666 --> 00:42:51,033
So this book is fantastic.

1119
00:42:51,133 --> 00:42:53,500
If you like history, 
if you like culture,

1120
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,566
sociology, science, 
this book starts

1121
00:42:55,666 --> 00:42:57,800
at the beginning of civilization

1122
00:42:57,900 --> 00:43:00,433
and it studies the cultural, 
sociological effects

1123
00:43:00,533 --> 00:43:02,100
of alcohol throughout history.

1124
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:03,766
It talks about 
alcohol and warfare.

1125
00:43:03,866 --> 00:43:06,500
The Romans, how the Romans 
would invade territories.

1126
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,166
So the territory were drinking 
weak beer at the time.

1127
00:43:09,266 --> 00:43:12,466
The Romans were sipping 
their high-alcohol wine 
for about a month

1128
00:43:12,566 --> 00:43:14,466
and they turned them 
all into drunken sots,

1129
00:43:14,566 --> 00:43:16,400
and then they had no problem 
overwhelming the populace

1130
00:43:16,500 --> 00:43:18,933
because they were all 
a bunch of alcoholics

1131
00:43:19,033 --> 00:43:21,233
had just been created and they 
weren't capable of fighting.

1132
00:43:21,333 --> 00:43:23,400
But that being said, 
the Roman soldiers,

1133
00:43:23,500 --> 00:43:26,100
they got regular 
doses of alcohol.

1134
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:27,933
When they went into battle, 
it made them courageous,

1135
00:43:28,033 --> 00:43:30,533
it made them brave, and 
there's fabulous quotes

1136
00:43:30,633 --> 00:43:32,733
from Ancient Greece 
and Roman and China,

1137
00:43:32,833 --> 00:43:36,666
every civilization that 
has developed alcohol.

1138
00:43:36,766 --> 00:43:38,833
So just quick 
snapshots of this book.

1139
00:43:38,933 --> 00:43:42,666
The first evidence of humans 
producing intentionally alcohol,

1140
00:43:42,766 --> 00:43:44,400
10,000 years ago.

1141
00:43:44,500 --> 00:43:48,200
8,000 BC, they find 
residue of alcohol in pots,

1142
00:43:48,300 --> 00:43:50,433
and it happens 
after humans start,

1143
00:43:50,533 --> 00:43:53,533
they take up argiculture 
and they start living in cities, 
in groups.

1144
00:43:53,633 --> 00:43:55,066
That's when alcohol 
production begins.

1145
00:43:55,166 --> 00:43:57,733
By 1,000 BC, all over the world

1146
00:43:57,833 --> 00:43:59,833
where people were 
living in cities,

1147
00:43:59,933 --> 00:44:01,233
alcohol was being produced.

1148
00:44:01,333 --> 00:44:02,733
It was an important commodity.

1149
00:44:02,833 --> 00:44:04,433
It was being drank 
in large quantities.

1150
00:44:04,533 --> 00:44:06,966
Now early on, it wasn't like 
the alchol we have today.

1151
00:44:07,066 --> 00:44:09,500
I mean, it wasn't distilled 
spirits of high concentration.

1152
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:11,733
It was relatively 
weak beer and wine

1153
00:44:11,833 --> 00:44:14,566
that doesn't even approach 
what today's wines are.

1154
00:44:14,666 --> 00:44:16,500
So Iain Gately 
attests in this book

1155
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,133
most modern humans, 
people alive today

1156
00:44:19,233 --> 00:44:22,466
are descendants of people 
who lived in cities

1157
00:44:22,566 --> 00:44:23,766
who were exposed to alcohol

1158
00:44:23,866 --> 00:44:26,066
as part of their 
religious systems,

1159
00:44:26,166 --> 00:44:27,866
as part of their 
political systems.

1160
00:44:27,966 --> 00:44:30,100
He goes into Prohibition.

1161
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,466
I mean, this book is a tour 
de force if you find alcohol

1162
00:44:33,566 --> 00:44:37,100
and its effects or its use 
in our culture interesting.

1163
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:38,433
So he sets the stage.

1164
00:44:38,533 --> 00:44:40,300
Then a beautiful book,

1165
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:42,533
one of the best 
books I've ever read

1166
00:44:42,633 --> 00:44:45,166
and I highly recommend 
is The Ghost Map,

1167
00:44:45,266 --> 00:44:47,400
and in this book, Steven Johnson

1168
00:44:47,500 --> 00:44:50,866
really puts together 
the bottleneck

1169
00:44:50,966 --> 00:44:54,766
that makes alcohol use an 
evolutionary selection pressure.

1170
00:44:54,866 --> 00:44:58,033
So this is the story, and so 
just read the little subtitle,

1171
00:44:58,133 --> 00:45:00,000
the story of London's 
most terrifying epidemic

1172
00:45:00,100 --> 00:45:03,200
and how it changed science, 
cities, and the modern world.

1173
00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:04,833
This is a profound book.

1174
00:45:04,933 --> 00:45:07,100
It really tells us about how 
the modern world was shaped,

1175
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:09,766
everything from public 
healthy, sewer systems

1176
00:45:09,866 --> 00:45:12,800
to what we understand about the 
germ theory, and science.

1177
00:45:12,900 --> 00:45:15,766
This is a tour de force 
in science as well.

1178
00:45:15,866 --> 00:45:17,433
This is a detective novel.

1179
00:45:17,533 --> 00:45:19,266
It's the story of 
an anesthesiologist,

1180
00:45:19,366 --> 00:45:21,066
brilliant man named John Snow

1181
00:45:21,166 --> 00:45:23,366
and a clergyman 
named Henry Whitehead

1182
00:45:23,466 --> 00:45:25,133
who independently are 
trying to figure out

1183
00:45:25,233 --> 00:45:27,566
why is cholera killing 
people in London.

1184
00:45:27,666 --> 00:45:29,466
Periodically, these 
outbreaks happen

1185
00:45:29,566 --> 00:45:31,400
and hundreds of people die,

1186
00:45:31,500 --> 00:45:33,533
and then the outbreak goes 
away and it comes back,

1187
00:45:33,633 --> 00:45:35,800
and at the time, people 
thought it was bad humors,

1188
00:45:35,900 --> 00:45:37,133
it was bad air.

1189
00:45:37,233 --> 00:45:39,233
The germ theory, people 
didn't have any idea

1190
00:45:39,333 --> 00:45:40,733
that there would be 
something in water

1191
00:45:40,833 --> 00:45:43,266
that could make people sick.

1192
00:45:43,366 --> 00:45:44,766
So this book is great.

1193
00:45:44,866 --> 00:45:46,400
Read this book please.

1194
00:45:46,500 --> 00:45:48,400
Well, here's the 
ghost map itself

1195
00:45:48,500 --> 00:45:51,966
or one version of the ghost map, 
and so what you see on this map,

1196
00:45:52,066 --> 00:45:54,466
so what Henry Whitehead 
and John Snow did

1197
00:45:54,566 --> 00:45:56,766
is they basically, one of 
the pieces of evidence is

1198
00:45:56,866 --> 00:45:58,633
they drew a map of the city.

1199
00:45:58,733 --> 00:46:00,500
The orange circles are pumps

1200
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,000
and there's one called 
the Broad Street pump

1201
00:46:03,100 --> 00:46:04,933
you'll see right in the middle.

1202
00:46:05,033 --> 00:46:08,000
All the black dots are records 
of somebody died in that house,

1203
00:46:08,100 --> 00:46:09,466
somebody died in that location.

1204
00:46:09,566 --> 00:46:12,033
700 people died in two weeks

1205
00:46:12,133 --> 00:46:14,666
and if you drew this map, 
you'd see that it radiates.

1206
00:46:14,766 --> 00:46:16,933
It's very dense around 
the Broad Street pump

1207
00:46:17,033 --> 00:46:19,633
and around the other pumps, 
it's less and less,

1208
00:46:19,733 --> 00:46:21,466
and some of the outlying cases,

1209
00:46:21,566 --> 00:46:23,800
there were cases that 
people died in houses

1210
00:46:23,900 --> 00:46:26,466
very never other pumps, but 
Henry Whitehead interviewed

1211
00:46:26,566 --> 00:46:28,933
the family and they said, 
"Oh, he hated the taste

1212
00:46:29,033 --> 00:46:30,466
"of the water from our pump.

1213
00:46:30,566 --> 00:46:32,433
"He used to walk 
over to Broad Street

1214
00:46:32,533 --> 00:46:33,933
"and drink from that pump,"

1215
00:46:34,033 --> 00:46:36,966
and so they traced, 
they figured out

1216
00:46:37,066 --> 00:46:39,100
it was the well, 
it was the water

1217
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:41,933
where cholera lives and it 
was causing this outbreak.

1218
00:46:42,033 --> 00:46:43,500
But there's a cool fact

1219
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:46,133
that is kind of a little 
subscript in the book

1220
00:46:46,233 --> 00:46:49,033
but I jumped on 
because it's so cool.

1221
00:46:49,133 --> 00:46:50,866
Literally feet from that pump,

1222
00:46:50,966 --> 00:46:53,400
there's a brewery where 
there are 70 workers.

1223
00:46:53,500 --> 00:46:57,366
Not a single one of them 
died, not a single one,

1224
00:46:57,466 --> 00:46:59,033
and on interviewing, 
well, why is that?

1225
00:46:59,133 --> 00:47:02,200
None of them walked to the pump 
because they get free beer 
with their lunch hour

1226
00:47:02,300 --> 00:47:03,933
and they get free 
beer all day long,

1227
00:47:04,033 --> 00:47:06,633
and so people who drink alcohol,

1228
00:47:06,733 --> 00:47:08,433
alcohol was a safe 
thing to drink

1229
00:47:08,533 --> 00:47:09,866
in the Middle Ages 
in these cities.

1230
00:47:09,966 --> 00:47:12,400
In any city, alcohol was 
a safe thing to drink

1231
00:47:12,500 --> 00:47:15,566
because the process of 
producing it was sterile.

1232
00:47:15,666 --> 00:47:19,000
You didn't have cholera, 
you didn't have dysentery.

1233
00:47:19,100 --> 00:47:21,533
So just really, really 
cool fact in there.

1234
00:47:21,633 --> 00:47:25,233
So this is how Steven 
Johnson's scenario goes

1235
00:47:25,333 --> 00:47:29,000
as far as human history, 
culture, and alcohol.

1236
00:47:29,100 --> 00:47:32,100
Water in cities is 
inevitably gonna get tainted.

1237
00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:33,866
Where large numbers of 
people come together

1238
00:47:33,966 --> 00:47:36,966
in the era prior to us 
understanding sewage

1239
00:47:37,066 --> 00:47:39,566
and public health and bacteria,

1240
00:47:39,666 --> 00:47:41,366
epidemics of cholera, 
dysentery and other things

1241
00:47:41,466 --> 00:47:42,800
are gonna break out.

1242
00:47:42,900 --> 00:47:45,766
Those who preferred 
alchol to water

1243
00:47:45,866 --> 00:47:47,733
and could handle its toxicity

1244
00:47:47,833 --> 00:47:49,900
are gonna survive more often 
and have more children.

1245
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:51,533
Their genes are gonna 
be passed along.

1246
00:47:51,633 --> 00:47:53,766
So you can imagine there 
are three groups of people,

1247
00:47:53,866 --> 00:47:56,133
if there were an experiment, 
three groups of people.

1248
00:47:56,233 --> 00:47:59,300
There's one group 
that likes alcohol

1249
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:01,133
but they get really 
drunk and unruly

1250
00:48:01,233 --> 00:48:03,433
and they fall down and 
they can't function.

1251
00:48:03,533 --> 00:48:04,966
There's another group 
that drinks alcohol

1252
00:48:05,066 --> 00:48:06,466
and they're high functioning.

1253
00:48:06,566 --> 00:48:09,233
They can drink it, tolerate it, 
detoxify it, and move on,

1254
00:48:09,333 --> 00:48:11,300
and then there's a group 
that just don't like

1255
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,233
the taste of alcohol, 
they're gonna drink water.

1256
00:48:13,333 --> 00:48:15,366
one of those groups is 
gonna be selected for,

1257
00:48:15,466 --> 00:48:17,066
the one that can drink alcohol

1258
00:48:17,166 --> 00:48:19,833
and can handle their alcohol.

1259
00:48:19,933 --> 00:48:22,000
There are a couple of 
cultures on this Earth

1260
00:48:22,100 --> 00:48:24,500
so I don't know if you're aware,

1261
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:26,766
in the scientific 
reports, it's very clear,

1262
00:48:26,866 --> 00:48:29,633
sociological reports, there 
are a couple of populations

1263
00:48:29,733 --> 00:48:31,700
of people on the planet 
who don't do well

1264
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,633
in the modern world with the 
alcohol we have access to,

1265
00:48:34,733 --> 00:48:36,933
Native Americans and 
Australian Aborigines.

1266
00:48:37,033 --> 00:48:39,166
Those are 
hunter-gatherer cultures

1267
00:48:39,266 --> 00:48:40,800
that never gathered into cities.

1268
00:48:40,900 --> 00:48:45,166
They never came up with a 
regular fermentation product

1269
00:48:45,266 --> 00:48:46,833
that they got alcohol from,

1270
00:48:46,933 --> 00:48:49,500
and so now in the modern world 
with the alcohol so present,

1271
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:50,966
the rates of alcoholism,

1272
00:48:51,066 --> 00:48:52,866
the rates of all sorts 
of alcohol related issues

1273
00:48:52,966 --> 00:48:56,566
in those groups are sky high, 
not because of,

1274
00:48:56,666 --> 00:48:58,633
many racist theories 
have come out,

1275
00:48:58,733 --> 00:49:00,133
you know, weak constitution

1276
00:49:00,233 --> 00:49:02,366
and you just can't believe 
that there's the history

1277
00:49:02,466 --> 00:49:04,366
where things like that, 
theories like that

1278
00:49:04,466 --> 00:49:06,300
were actually given 
scientific credence.

1279
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,400
I think this is a 
very good explanation.

1280
00:49:08,500 --> 00:49:09,900
They have been through a culture

1281
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:11,600
where they were not selected

1282
00:49:11,700 --> 00:49:14,433
for their ability 
to handle alcohol.

1283
00:49:16,633 --> 00:49:19,500
Not only do brain proteins 
and behavior get selected

1284
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:20,966
but very interesting phenomenon,

1285
00:49:21,066 --> 00:49:22,966
not I won't go too much 
into alcohol detoxification

1286
00:49:23,066 --> 00:49:25,333
but there is an enzyme 
we have in our body

1287
00:49:25,433 --> 00:49:26,933
called alcohol dehydrogenase.

1288
00:49:27,033 --> 00:49:29,866
Ethanol is turned into harmless 
acetic acid in two steps

1289
00:49:29,966 --> 00:49:32,800
and that first enzyme, 
this is all it seems to do

1290
00:49:32,900 --> 00:49:34,366
in the body.

1291
00:49:34,466 --> 00:49:36,266
It starts the process 
of detoxifying alcohol.

1292
00:49:36,366 --> 00:49:38,533
It's in your stomach. 
It's in your liver.

1293
00:49:38,633 --> 00:49:41,166
There is no reason for 
that molecule to be there

1294
00:49:41,266 --> 00:49:43,866
if it hadn't been 
bred into there

1295
00:49:43,966 --> 00:49:46,300
by many, many generations 
of exposure to alcohol.

1296
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:47,966
It's the reason why 
people on average

1297
00:49:48,066 --> 00:49:50,033
can get rid of one 
drink in an hour,

1298
00:49:50,133 --> 00:49:52,366
and people who have lots 
of it can get rid of

1299
00:49:52,466 --> 00:49:53,900
faster than that, 
getting rid of alcohol,

1300
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:55,833
so someone of Irish ancestry

1301
00:49:55,933 --> 00:49:57,800
or northern European 
ancestry might be able

1302
00:49:57,900 --> 00:50:00,133
to get rid of alcohol 
faster, much faster

1303
00:50:00,233 --> 00:50:02,933
than someone who's, 
let's say, from Korea.

1304
00:50:03,033 --> 00:50:06,300
In Japan, turns out 50% 
of the population or so

1305
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,366
has mutations in the 
enzyme, the second enzyme,

1306
00:50:09,466 --> 00:50:12,100
the aldehyde dehydrogenase, 
so that it doesn't work,

1307
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:14,700
and when they drink, their 
skin turns bright red

1308
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,166
because the chemical 
acetaldehyde skyrockets.

1309
00:50:17,266 --> 00:50:19,033
It's very toxic, and they vomit.

1310
00:50:19,133 --> 00:50:21,366
A very low dose of alcohol, 
they become violently ill.

1311
00:50:21,466 --> 00:50:23,533
So that's an example 
of a human population

1312
00:50:23,633 --> 00:50:26,333
where those proteins are 
expressed differentially.

1313
00:50:28,933 --> 00:50:31,533
Now let's come back 
to the state we love.

1314
00:50:31,633 --> 00:50:32,933
When you say Wisconsin,

1315
00:50:33,033 --> 00:50:36,400
you've said a lot about 
the alcohol culture.

1316
00:50:36,500 --> 00:50:38,466
This ia compile 
from Google Maps.

1317
00:50:38,566 --> 00:50:40,100
Everywhere you 
see an orange dot,

1318
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:42,733
that pixel has more 
grocery stores than bars

1319
00:50:42,833 --> 00:50:44,233
and everywhere 
there's a red dot,

1320
00:50:44,333 --> 00:50:46,200
there are more bars than 
there are grocery stores,

1321
00:50:46,300 --> 00:50:48,866
and you don't have to be 
very good at geography

1322
00:50:48,966 --> 00:50:51,000
to be able to pick 
out Wisconsin.

1323
00:50:51,100 --> 00:50:54,500
The upper Midwest is a highly 
red place to be.

1324
00:50:55,933 --> 00:50:59,000
And if you stop and think 
about what I just told you,

1325
00:50:59,100 --> 00:51:01,266
these profound books 
about the cultural history

1326
00:51:01,366 --> 00:51:03,766
of alcohol use, who 
settled the upper Midwest?

1327
00:51:03,866 --> 00:51:07,866
It was settlers from 
large cities in Europe

1328
00:51:07,966 --> 00:51:09,600
where if you didn't 
drink alcohol

1329
00:51:09,700 --> 00:51:11,566
and if you weren't good 
at drinking alcohol,

1330
00:51:11,666 --> 00:51:13,800
you would've died of 
cholera or dysentery,

1331
00:51:13,900 --> 00:51:16,766
and so our culture is 
one that's been selected

1332
00:51:16,866 --> 00:51:19,000
and now there's different, 
it's not just genetic.

1333
00:51:19,100 --> 00:51:20,466
There are different 
kinds of culture.

1334
00:51:20,566 --> 00:51:21,933
There's sociological cultures.

1335
00:51:22,033 --> 00:51:24,533
There are ideas, 
the Wisconsin Idea, we hope

1336
00:51:24,633 --> 00:51:26,466
to pass down good 
ideas to people.

1337
00:51:26,566 --> 00:51:27,933
So there's also 
cultural learning

1338
00:51:28,033 --> 00:51:29,800
that doesn't have 
to do with genetics,

1339
00:51:29,900 --> 00:51:31,933
and that's part of this too.

1340
00:51:32,033 --> 00:51:35,366
But Wisconsin has 
a drinking problem.

1341
00:51:35,466 --> 00:51:37,733
I don't know if 
you're aware of that.

1342
00:51:37,833 --> 00:51:40,166
We have clean water here.

1343
00:51:40,266 --> 00:51:42,066
I mean, history has 
completely turned things.

1344
00:51:42,166 --> 00:51:45,633
We understand the germ theory. 
We understand public sanitation.

1345
00:51:45,733 --> 00:51:47,266
Not everyone has access 
to good drinking water,

1346
00:51:47,366 --> 00:51:49,833
but for the most part 
in America, we do.

1347
00:51:49,933 --> 00:51:52,133
But we also have 
access to alcohol

1348
00:51:52,233 --> 00:51:56,933
and have bred into us I think 
this love of drinking it,

1349
00:51:57,033 --> 00:51:59,233
and the public health 
problems are enormous.

1350
00:51:59,333 --> 00:52:01,733
Six billion dollars 
a year in Wisconsin

1351
00:52:01,833 --> 00:52:04,300
is what it costs to deal 
with alcohol issues.

1352
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:07,000
Alcoholism is a leading 
cause of domestic violence

1353
00:52:07,100 --> 00:52:08,733
and other types of violence.

1354
00:52:08,833 --> 00:52:12,000
One in 10 deaths are attributed 
to alcohol use in Wisconsin

1355
00:52:12,100 --> 00:52:14,300
and an alcohol related car 
crash every two minutes

1356
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:16,366
and in every 30 minutes, 
somebody dies in the crash,

1357
00:52:16,466 --> 00:52:18,633
and I think you it's frequently 
not the drunk driver.

1358
00:52:18,733 --> 00:52:21,266
Frequently, it's the sober 
driver that they hit head on

1359
00:52:21,366 --> 00:52:23,566
and I don't know if 
you know why that is,

1360
00:52:23,666 --> 00:52:26,966
but a drunk driver, 
their reflexes are slow.

1361
00:52:27,066 --> 00:52:28,700
They go into the other lane

1362
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:31,400
and they're so slow 
they're basically rubbery

1363
00:52:31,500 --> 00:52:33,233
when they hit the steering 
wheel and dashboard,

1364
00:52:33,333 --> 00:52:35,500
and any of you who knows 
about martial arts,

1365
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,733
if you relax into a fall, 
you don't break bones.

1366
00:52:37,833 --> 00:52:40,800
A sober person will quick 
reflexes sees the crash,

1367
00:52:40,900 --> 00:52:42,633
they stiffen their arms, 
they stiffen their legs,

1368
00:52:42,733 --> 00:52:44,700
they stiffen their 
torso, and bones break

1369
00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:46,100
and they penetrate organs,

1370
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,400
and it's just horrifically 
worse for somebody

1371
00:52:48,500 --> 00:52:50,700
who reacts and 
braces for a crash

1372
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:53,133
than somebody who 
relaxes into a crash.

1373
00:52:53,233 --> 00:52:55,233
So that's another sad fact 
about drunk driving accidents.

1374
00:52:55,333 --> 00:52:56,700
Yes?

1375
00:52:56,800 --> 00:53:00,233
(audience member 
speaking off microphone)

1376
00:53:00,333 --> 00:53:01,933
Ah, no, thank you 
for point that out.

1377
00:53:02,033 --> 00:53:04,766
No, the third statistic 
is a national statistic.

1378
00:53:04,866 --> 00:53:06,333
First one is Wisconsin specific.

1379
00:53:06,433 --> 00:53:09,333
The last two are 
national statistics.

1380
00:53:09,433 --> 00:53:11,366
Thank you.

1381
00:53:11,466 --> 00:53:15,133
So I have a habit when I 
talk to my young audiences,

1382
00:53:15,233 --> 00:53:18,366
I mean, I'm sure if you've 
ever heard someone speak

1383
00:53:18,466 --> 00:53:20,400
about public health and alcohol

1384
00:53:20,500 --> 00:53:22,666
and Wisconsin and 
the deplorable record

1385
00:53:22,766 --> 00:53:24,133
we have for how we drink,

1386
00:53:24,233 --> 00:53:26,966
you'll hear something 
like, "We are number one.

1387
00:53:27,066 --> 00:53:29,233
"Wisconsin is number one when 
it comes to binge drinking,

1388
00:53:29,333 --> 00:53:31,466
"number one when it comes to

1389
00:53:31,566 --> 00:53:34,533
"alcohol use per person."

1390
00:53:34,633 --> 00:53:37,333
When I say that to a group 
of Wisconsin students,

1391
00:53:37,433 --> 00:53:40,166
when I say, "We are number one," 
they didn't let me finish.

1392
00:53:40,266 --> 00:53:42,466
They're like, "Yeah! Wisconsin 
is number one!"

1393
00:53:42,566 --> 00:53:44,433
So I don't say that 
in my talks anymore.

1394
00:53:44,533 --> 00:53:45,900
I say we are number 50.

1395
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:48,066
Wisconsin is the least 
responsible state

1396
00:53:48,166 --> 00:53:49,633
when it comes to 
drinking and driving,

1397
00:53:49,733 --> 00:53:51,033
when it comes to binge drinking,

1398
00:53:51,133 --> 00:53:53,133
when it comes to the 
responsible use of alcohol.

1399
00:53:53,233 --> 00:53:54,700
It's a sad fact,

1400
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:58,000
but I think there might 
be some explanations

1401
00:53:58,100 --> 00:54:00,200
in the literature,

1402
00:54:00,300 --> 00:54:03,600
in the evidence 
we have out there.

1403
00:54:03,700 --> 00:54:06,266
Not that this makes it 
okay, understanding it.

1404
00:54:06,366 --> 00:54:08,566
I think we are,

1405
00:54:08,666 --> 00:54:12,533
I think it's really a goal

1406
00:54:12,633 --> 00:54:14,000
to overcome our biology.

1407
00:54:14,100 --> 00:54:16,633
It might be our biology, 
but I think society I think,

1408
00:54:16,733 --> 00:54:19,733
the Wisconsin idea is about 
overcoming our biology

1409
00:54:19,833 --> 00:54:23,100
with learning, and I'm hoping 
that we can learn better.

1410
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:25,166
- [Bassam] Please join 
me in thanking Dr. Strang

1411
00:54:25,266 --> 00:54:27,100
for this presentation, 
thanks so much.

1412
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:28,466
Thank you very much.

1413
00:54:28,566 --> 00:54:30,566
(audience applauds)