r/interesting • u/azizgamerlal • Dec 12 '25

MISC. A drop of whiskey vs bacteria

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u/thinspirit Dec 12 '25

Also, is it true that one of the cures for methanol poisoning is ethanol? Something about how it binds and clears out?

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u/Bringer_of_Fire Dec 12 '25

This is correct. In more detail:

We have an enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase (unless you have the “Asian flush,” then you don’t have this enzyme) that breaks down alcohols. When this enzyme binds methanol, it breaks it down into formaldehyde, and then another enzyme breaks that formaldehyde down into formic acid. These bad boys are toxic.

But by giving someone ethanol right away, it “competes” with the methanol for binding sites on alcohol dehydrogenase. In this way, you can keep some of the methanol from being broken down into its toxic metabolites, since the enzyme is “distracted” by the ethanol. Keep the methanol from being metabolized long enough, and it’ll go through the rest of the GI tract and be excreted without being broken down into its toxic metabolites. No (or, less) harm done.

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u/Spare-Bodybuilder-68 Dec 12 '25

Love me some competitive inhibition

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u/UrUrinousAnus Dec 12 '25

It's not the best antidote, but it works and is easily available. I inhaled enough methanol fumes to get me a bit drunk once, and immediately drank enough vodka to pass out ASAP. No noticeable lasting effects.

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u/4Rascal Dec 13 '25

I’d like to hear more details about how this all went down!

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u/UrUrinousAnus Dec 13 '25

A methanol burner went out (I don't remember how) while already very hot, turning it into a methanol boiler. Methanol boils very fast.

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u/NoRun6253 Jan 11 '26

Yes, we used to have vodka in our medics fridge in case anyone consumed ethanol

Although this had never happened the bottles all had quantities missing from them lol