Binge 'led to 4 week hangover'

[Legba]

It may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking.

When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of "wavy" vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported today.

The unnamed patient "had no history of head injury or loss of consciousness; his past medical record was unremarkable, and he was taking no medications," Zia Carrim and two other physicians from Southern General Hospital said in a case report.

Body temperature and blood pressure were both normal, and a neurological exam scanned negative.

But when an eye specialist was called in, the fog began to clear, at least for the doctors.

The patient, said the ophthalmologist, had swollen optical discs, greatly enlarged blind spots and what eye doctors call "flame haemorrhages," or bleeding nerve fibres.

"We sought a more detailed history" from the patient, noted one named Zia.

That is when the man revealed he had consumed 60 pints - roughly 35 litres - of beer over a four day period, following a domestic crisis.

Severe dehydration caused the alcohol, the doctors guessed, had led to a rare condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

A scan of the brain's blood vessels confirmed the diagnosis.

CVST - which can cause seizures, impaired consciousness, loss of vision and neurological damage - strikes three or four people per million, mainly children, every year in Britain.

The cause is generally unknown.

It took more than six months of long-term blood-thinning treatment to restore the man's normal vision - and to get rid of the headache, the doctors reported.

[Vertmorpheus]

The worst part of it all is that, having received such terrible news, he couldn't even go out and have half a bottle of rum to cheer himself up!

Booze is bad n plants are good, n the legality thing, n all that....

VM

[MrBumpy]

Only a four day binge? f'in lightweight

;)

-bumpy

[devance]

His drink was spiked with methanol?

http://www-clinpharm.medschl.cam.ac.uk/pag...on/poison9.html

http://www.antizol.com/mpoisono.htm

I got spiked and had a month and a half severe headache.

[paradesend]

His drink was spiked with methanol?

http://www-clinpharm.medschl.cam.ac.uk/pag...on/poison9.html

http://www.antizol.com/mpoisono.htm

I got spiked and had a month and a half severe headache.

Aren't the effects of methanol on the body essentially the same as ethanol? I think methanol just is more toxic so you need less to make you sick. 1.75 litres of ethanol would be pretty potent in a 4 day period.

[occidentalis]

Aren't the effects of methanol on the body essentially the same as ethanol? I think methanol just is more toxic so you need less to make you sick. 1.75 litres of ethanol would be pretty potent in a 4 day period.

Methanol is much more toxic and cannot be broken down as easily as ethanol, so it stays in the body for longer

it causes blindness and other problems.

but yes, i think ethanol alone is accountable for this person's symptoms

[Monk]

Only a four day binge? f'in lightweight

4Real. Check this out:

Will Lager-Beer Intoxicate?--The Questions Answered by a Jury in Lockport

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/...FBE66838D679FDE

Couldn't copy/paste the pdf 'cuz it's a friggin' old article written in typeset. It's a little laborious to read due to this, but is f'n hilarious. I originally saw it in "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher (great book) and dug it up on the net

Favorite parts: "drank 75 glasses in one day; he don't drink water; it don't agree with him...believes lager beer don't intoxicate him or anyone he has met."

Are humans getting soft or what?