15 March 2022 – Schalk van Zyl
Did you know there's a mushroom that's only poisonous when you drink alcohol?
Alcoholism is bad, the word conjures images of people beating their wives, of drunk drivers killing innocent bystanders, of yellow-skinned patients on their deathbeds as their livers fail. No other drug has ever taken so massive a toll on human lives in terms of sickness and death. Around 380 million people are addicted to alcohol, that’s around 5% of everyone.
Break the Cycle
One of the reasons alcoholism is so prevalent and damaging is because of the difficulty people experience when trying to stop drinking. Alcohol withdrawal is easily one of the most dangerous kinds of drug-withdrawal, with seizures and even death being a possibility when abstaining for the first time in a long time. After this obstacle has been overcome and the patient is finally sober the real battle begins – constant cravings for alcohol.
These cravings are what many people end up giving-in to, and what ultimately leads to their relapse into their destructive alcoholic behaviours. Because of this long-term treatment of alcoholism is composed of trying to keep these cravings at bay. One way to do this is by making the body react negatively when it drinks alcohol – this kind of negative reaction is thought to help to reinforce a desire to avoid alcohol in the future.
That’s where the power of the Ink Cap Mushroom comes in – it’s a poisonous mushroom, but only when alcohol is ingested.
Tippler’s Bane
So how on earth does the Ink Cap (known since medieval times as tippler’s bane) make alcohol poisonous? The answer lies in how the body usually deals with alcohol, and in how a substance known as coprine (the active ingredient in Ink Caps) changes that metabolic process. Normally alcohol is broken down in the liver into a chemical known as acetaldehyde – this process is done by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. The acetaldehyde which is formed is then broken down into acetate by an enzyme known as aldehyde dehydrogenase.
This breaking down of acetaldehyde into acetate is very important because acetaldehyde is somewhat toxic to the human body. In fact, it’s one of the main causes of the hangovers people experience after drinking too much. Ink Caps interfere with the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme’s working and this causes acetaldehyde to build up in the body as the alcohol starts getting broken down.
This build up effectively means that the person trying to get drunk is hit with an instant and overwhelming hangover which brings their binge to a grinding halt. The fact that this allows for an episode of drinking to come to an end in such way is thought to help imprint upon the mind the idea that alcohol leads to negative reactions. This can, in theory, help to condition the brain to want to avoid alcohol instead of seeking it out. This reaction is so effective that a man-made version of it is regularly used to help people break the habit – this drug is known as Disulfiram (or Antabuse) and functions by inhibiting those very same aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes.
It’s worth noting that the mushroom is perfectly safe under any other circumstances, so Ink Caps can be added to any diet free of alcohol without showing its mean side. Just remember that the mushrooms remains in the system for 12 to 18 hours, so any alcohol taken in that time would still end up with projectile vomit and stomach cramps.
