Tuesday fitness fun fact

One beer will feel like two

Study Shows Patients Who Have Weight Loss Surgery May Need to Drink Carefully

June 14, 2007 -- Patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgery to lose weight already know they have to watch how much they eat after the operation to keep that weight off. Now, a new study suggests they better keep a close eye on their alcohol intake, too. 

After the surgery, patients get tipsier faster and take longer to sober up, says study researcher John M. Morton, MD, MPH, the director of bariatric surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.

"One drink could be enough to place them at risk for a DUI," Morton tells WebMD.

The new study supports what gastric bypass surgeons have long suspected, says Morton, who is presenting the findings this week at the 24th annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in San Diego.

So Morton's team of researchers decided to see if science supports the anecdotal observations that gastric bypass patients can't hold their liquor as well as before. The surgery patients had an average peak alcohol breath level of 0.08% -- enough to be declared drunk when driving a motor vehicle. The nonsurgery participants had a level of 0.05%. 

The bypass patients took 108 minutes, on average, to normalize back to a zero breath level of alcohol; the breath levels of alcohol of the nonsurgery group returned to zero after 72 minutes. WebMD

Boner, I rarely drink but the other night I went out with some family and friends to the local bar.  I had two beers in the first two hours we were there.  After another hour we left.  I felt fine but about half way home I kind of thought to myself, "I don't think I should be driving".  It was wierd since I hadn't had one in an hour.  I have to chalk it up to a learning experience. This past summer I went to a wedding with the intention of getting plastered and perhaps laid.  After about 10 beers in 4 hours I felt nothing.    Oh and I didn't get laid.