Editorial

Researchers Confirm Best Way For Humans To Drink Alcohol

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Drinking beer, American fans painted in

(GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Kay Smythe News and Commentary Writer
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A study publicized Tuesday found that social drinking boosts our sense of euphoria.

Researchers from the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), may have finally figured out why drinking alone can often lead to feelings of depression, the school said in an August news release. In a study published in June, the team used fruit flies to determine the impact of ethanol on the dopamine system and how this shifted in response to different social settings.

Fruit flies share about 75% of the same genes that cause human diseases, UTEP biologist Kyung-An Han said in the news release, which is why they were chosen for the study. It turns out that fruit flies exposed to ethanol vapor in an empty setting displayed only a slight increase in movement. Those in social settings went all out with substantial movements, suggesting one’s social setting plays a huge role in your emotional response to drinking.

“We demonstrated that both social settings and dopamine act together for the flies’ heightened response to ethanol,” Han continued. Basically, get drunk with friends. Not on your own.

Future research is focused on figuring out how this data contributes to our understanding of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The disease impacted some 29.5 million people in the last 12 months, with that number likely being higher due to the underreported nature of addiction. (RELATED: Die Of Cringe At Trudeau’s Seemingly Drunken Singing Caught On Camera)

“Our work is providing scientific knowledge to support the idea that the brain interprets and processes a person’s social surrounding and has that signal converge into the dopamine system that is also activated by alcohol consumption,” said study co-author Paul Rafael Sabandal. “It gives us as researchers an idea of which brain area and components may serve as the meeting point for all the signals that contribute to AUD.”

Since the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been so much easier to stay home and do nothing. Couple this mindset with the soaring cost of going out, and we’ve lost our third place between our houses and work where we’re meant to blow off steam. (RELATED: The World’s Drunkest Country Officially Crowned By Science)

I hope this study serves as a reminder to everyone that getting together to socialize in large groups, even if its at someone’s home, is healthy and important. You don’t have to drink. But if you do, do it responsibly. Don’t end up puking off the porch because you mixed cheap beer with even cheaper seltzers, which I’ve totally never done ever …