[Kim Jaeho's Life Story]<216> The Pride of Being Good at Drinking

If there were a bragging contest, how highly would bragging about being good at drinking be rated? Considering our society often evaluates people by stories related to alcohol, such as calling someone a "heavy drinker" or sharing anecdotes about drinking experiences, proudly boasting about drinking a lot at gatherings, and subtly envying those who drink well, could bragging about drinking skills place someone in the top ranks, if not the champion?

Alcohol has been loved by many people for a long time, regardless of time and place. Although alcohol, the main component of liquor, plays no essential nutritional role in the body, the only reason it has been consistently loved is its special ability to make people feel good when consumed. Alcohol activates genes in brain cells that produce happiness chemicals such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin, increasing their production and allowing people to feel joy, pleasure, and happiness without much effort.

Besides alcohol, substances like cocaine, heroin, morphine, ecstasy, marijuana, and caffeine also help release happiness chemicals. While these drugs stimulate the secretion of happiness chemicals in brain cells, they have much stronger addictive properties and health-damaging side effects than alcohol. Once addicted to the pleasure these drugs provide, it is difficult to escape despite knowing the serious health problems they cause.

Research shows that the happiness effect of alcohol peaks at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05?0.06%. Beyond this level, feelings of happiness gradually decrease, leading to depression, blurred vision, slurred speech, and loss of control. At higher alcohol concentrations, temporary memory loss occurs, followed by unconsciousness and even death.

Alcohol has no beneficial functions other than making one feel good. It is not used as a building material for the body, and while it remains in the body, it causes all sorts of harm. Our body's top experts work tirelessly from the moment alcohol enters, prioritizing breaking it down into harmless substances like water and carbon dioxide and expelling it quickly.

Life is not always rational, but since drinking enough to reach a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05?0.06% is sufficient to feel good, there is little reason to drink more. As research shows, drinking excessively eliminates pleasure and instead harms the body. Therefore, competing to drink more or boasting about drinking a lot is not wise at all.

Abusing one's body and causing discomfort to others sharing the occasion should be a source of shame and reflection, not pride. Yet, why has our society repeatedly engaged in drinking competitions and made drinking well a bragging right? If the goal is to feel good, wouldn't it be wiser to stop at a pleasant level?

Happiness chemicals like dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin are normally secreted under special conditions, and people tend to long for the ecstatic feelings they produce. For example, dopamine is released when scoring in sports, achieving goals, completing tasks, or performing kind acts. Since alcohol allows people to experience these feelings without effort, they come to like it.

People tend to remember only the small happiness alcohol provides among its many effects. To put it bluntly, alcohol has many more negative effects than positive ones, but people ignore the negatives and focus only on the pleasant feeling from "one drink." Thus, they disregard WHO warnings that 3 million people worldwide, or 5.3% of all deaths annually, die from alcohol-related causes, and that 13.5% of deaths among people in their 20s and 30s are due to alcohol.

Even without WHO warnings, many people are well aware of how harmful alcohol is to health because they encounter numerous related problems around them. Ignoring these issues is not bold but reckless.

Since happiness chemicals like dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin are not easily secreted in daily life, alcohol can be appreciated for allowing people to easily experience happiness with a few drinks. Nevertheless, drinking culture that forces consumption beyond this range, causing harm rather than help to anyone, must be improved.

Kim Jae-ho, Independent Researcher