Advice For the College Set

Anonymous asks:

How can I increase my drinking tolerance? I want to be able to become buzzed without getting sick right afterwards. I was thinking of drinking a little each day and gradually increasing the amount, but I don't know if that will make me alcolic. Thanks.

I can't decide if I'm highly amused, or highly concerned by this question. Let's get the annoying preachy stuff out of the way: drinking is generally bad for you. Getting better at drinking really isn't a good goal.

Phew. Okay. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. Drinking is fun. Being drunk feels awesome. Puking afterwards is not awesome. So the goal is to maximize the drunk feeling while minimizing the later effects.

Drinking more isn't going to help you. What you need to do is drink smarter (and more responsibly).

A quick Google search provided me with lots of tips for increasing your tolerance. Some were good, some not so much.

Drinkplanner.com and Crunkish.com both provide lists of things you can do. I've culled the best and the worst from these lists and a few others:

Do:

• Eat before you drink. Having a full stomach will slow the absorption of alcohol into your system. This will allow you to drink more before you start feeling tipsy, and will prevent the alcohol from irritating your stomach lining, which causes vomiting.

• Stay hydrated. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that when you drink you're actually losing more water than you're taking in. This is why you feel the need to pee every 10 minutes during a night of heavy drinking. Dehydration causes headaches, which are to me one of the worst hangover symptoms. Consuming at least 1 glass of water per serving of alcohol is a good ratio to keep.

• Pace yourself. When you start to feel tipsy, you might be tempted to drink more to make that feeling even better. You need to resist that urge. Find your sweet spot and maintain. The average person metabolizes about 1 drink per hour. So once you reach a nice pleasant buzz, reduce your consumption to keep the level of alcohol in your system consistent. If you notice you're starting to have trouble keeping your balance, slurring words, or can no longer taste the alcohol in whatever you're drinking, start cutting back. If someone else tells you you're cut off, respect the fact that they have a better understanding of how you're acting than you do right now.

• Avoid mixing drinks. When the night begins, decide if you're drinking beer, wine or liquor and stick to it. When you switch throughout the night your stomach is more likely to revolt against the combinations of sugars and acids and whatever else is in what you're drinking.

Don't:

• Drink more often. Sorry, your current plan of attack is not a good one. Sure, "studies say" that one or two drinks a day is good for your heart and could prevent cancer. But those benefits don't start to outweigh the risks until you're in your 40s.
  

• Boot and Rally. Yes, if you vomit up the alcohol that is currently in your system, you make room for more alcohol. But the goal here is NOT to get sick.

• Avoid mixed drinks. Yeah, liquor is going to get you drunker (and sicker) faster, but mixed drinks taste good. As long as you're following the "pace yourself," rule above drink what you want.

Happy drinking!