Heme Review is my new podcast. If you want to learn more about the early
2020 outbreak, check it out in the link in description below. CB is a 35 year old man, presenting to the
emergency room, unconscious. His mom tells the admitting nurse that she
found him on the floor, with an empty bottle of rubbing alcohol in his hand. CB had read on the internet that alcohol disinfects
the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Afraid that he had been infected after touching
his face at the grocery store, CB found a bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol, and started
drinking it. Immediately after drinking the entire bottle,
CB felt confident. He wasnāt going to be infected this time. Someone on the internet said itāll burn
a little on the way down, but in his mind, the benefits of disinfecting himself, outweighed
that burn. As the minutes passed, CB started feeling
dizzy. The floor started spinning. He collapsed. His mom heard the noise and found him unconscious
on the floor. She called for 911, as heās brought to the
emergency room where we are now. Rubbing alcoholās real name is isopropyl
alcohol. Iso meaning equal. Propyl from propan, which is a prefix denoting
the quantity of 3, and referring to the number of carbons. And alcohol meaning a chemical moiety of 1
Oxygen bound to 1 hydrogen. 3 carbons, balanced, relative to the position
of an alcohol Long chains of carbon, are oil. Oil doesnāt mix with water at all. But ALCOHOL GROUPS interact with water, because
water is also made of hydrogen and oxygen. Both the name isopropyl alcohol, and its structure,
not only tells us everything we need to know about whatās happening to DM, but it also
tells us why drinking disinfectant isnāt gonna cure anyone of any virus. So how do alcohols disinfect? Well, they disturb proteins. On the surface of the SARS2 virus, are crown
shaped spikes. The word corona, means crown. Crown virus. These spikes are how SARS2 virus infects people,
AND theyāre made of protein. So if alcohols interfere with proteins, and
SARS2 infects people using a protein, then rubbing alcohol SHOULD disinfect SARS2 virus. ā 70% rubbing alcohol is a better disinfectant
on surfaces than 91%. More doesnāt appear to be better here. If 70% is alcohol, then the other 30% is water. Extra water helps target proteins. But while 70% isopropanol disinfects viruses
on surfaces, itās not going to disinfect viruses inside the body. And hereās why: Anything you swallow, goes into your stomach,
then absorbs into your liver. The liver breaks things down into forms that
the body can handle. This is called metabolism. Humans evolved a very specific way of metabolizing
alcohols. In the liver, thereās something called alcohol
dehydrogenase. De meaning the removal of, hydrogen, and ase
describing an enzyme, which is a protein that does chemical reactions. -Ase is like lactase, which is an enzyme that
breaks down milk sugar. The body has no use for rubbing alcohol. It wants to get rid of it. To do that, it needs to make it easier to
react with, in the hopes that the final product easily dissolves in water and is collected
by the kidneys to be urinated out. When alcohol dehydrogenase processes isopropanol,
it becomes acetone, which is the chemical name for nail polish remover. OK, so if someone is exposed to SARS2 virus
and they get infected, it ends up in both their lungs. Weāve already established that drinking
rubbing alcohol is going to pass it into the liver where itās broken down to acetone. Acetone is a disinfectant too, so why wouldnāt
it end up in the lungs to fight the virus? Well, this brings us to a concept called distribution. Once something is broken down by the liver,
it enters the circulation. Human body has a large volume of water and
blood, so that acetone is going to get diluted in that huge volume. Drinking a bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol will
overload the alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver, and the acetone floating around will
cause temporary brain problems, but it wonāt be concentrated enough to hit any virus in
the lungs. OK, so thatās rubbing alcohol. How about, 60% liquor, like vodka or rum? Well, the alcohol that humans drink for fun,
is different. Itās named ethanol. Ethan means two. The CDC says that 120 proof, or 60% alcohol
can disinfect SARS2 virus. But that disinfection happens outside the
body not inside. Ethanol is broken down by alcohol dehydrogenase
in the liver. Anything with an alcohol group, gets processed
by this ENZYME. The result is acetaldehyde. This is what causes someone to become red
when they drink, and it causes hang overs. Acetaldehyde isnāt a disinfectant. But itās also not very water soluble, and
the body wants to get rid of it. So acetaldehyde is broken down again into
acetate, which is a very weak vinegar, and also not a disinfectant. Vinegar can be a disinfectant, but when itās
weakened like this, it isnāt. Drinking 60% liquor, wonāt cure anyone of
COVID-19 if SARS2 virus is already in the body. Inhaling it, wonāt cure the disease either. It would bypass the liver. It would bring a first pass of alcohol right
to the brain. We donāt have good data on this, but at
60%, thatās going to negatively impact your brain, provided it doesnāt damage the mucous
membranes and lungs in the first place. Alcohol inhalation misuse can cause Acute
Respiratory Distress syndrome, which is what happens in severe COVID19 disease. The only analogy I have for inhaling really
concentrated ethanol in the hopes of disinfecting SARS2 virus in your lungs is that itās like
lopping off your leg to clip a toenail. No benefit, and all risk, so donāt do it. And the final alcohol. There were news reports of people in Iran
drinking industrial strength alcohol. A prominent one being Methanol. Methan being the prefix meaning one. In the body, alcohol dehydrogenase turns methanol
into formaldehyde. This was the chemical used to embalm mummies. Formaldehyde is a disinfectant, but itās
a poison. And instead of a weak vinegar, formaldehyde
gets broken down a second time to become methanoic acid, which causes blindness. The acid part spills into the blood, causing
acidemia, acid presence in blood. In high enough amounts in blood, acids can
cause the heart to stop beating, meaning no alcohols are good enough for curing COVID-19
inside humans. They should be good enough to disinfect surfaces
outside the body, in the right concentrations, which brings us back to CB. Acetone, nail polish remover, causes mild
nervous system effects. The body canāt break it down any further
because of the balance part from the word ISO. The chemistry says these bonds are too hard
to break, in humans. So itās a matter of time for CBās body
to work to eliminate it in his urine. With supportive care, he came out of his coma,
and was sent home a day later. Itās good that he ended up being ok. But itās not good that the hospital had
to use those resources during this pandemic. Thereās other patients who come in critically
ill, and then thereās CB who came in because he drank rubbing alcohol. Donāt be like CB. But how about another common disinfectant? AC is a 40 year old man, presenting to the
emergency room, with drooling and vomiting. He tried to speak, but couldnāt. An exam of his mouth and his throat found
swelling, redness, and ulcers inside. In the operating room, doctors immediately
stick a tube with a camera down his throat. Swelling and inflammation were so bad, that
they couldnāt find his vocal cords. A longer tube was stuck down his throat to
look at his stomach. Burns and dead tissue were found in the inner
lining of his esophagus confirming that AC is suffering from caustic burn injury because
he accidentally swallowed industrial strength bleach thinking that it would cure him of
virus. He later claimed he thought it was dilute
and watered down before drinking it, which is plausible, and hereās why. Bleach is a really good disinfectant. Household bleach is sodium hypochlorite. If you take away the hypo, sodium chlorite
is industrial strength bleach. This brings us to a concept called equilibrium. Household bleach is around 6% sodium hypochlorite,
the rest is mostly water. In this mixture, water interacts with the
sodium and the hypochlorite. If we break it down, bleach is multiple chemicals
living together in a balanced state called equilibrium. These chemicals are Sodium hydroxide, which
is a base. A base is something that takes hydrogens. This is opposite to an acid, which gives hydrogens. And this balance is complete because, bleach
has hypochlorous acid. These quickly kill bacteria and viruses, but
theyāre not the only thing bleach kills. Human cells are enclosed by a layer of molecules
that have long chains of fats. Sodium hydroxide from the bleach, doesnāt
just take a hydrogen from these fats, it strips off long chains of it. Doing this, actually makes soap. Immediately on contact, bleach rips open cells,
spilling their contents out. But itās not done here. Proteins live on the surface of cells, meaning
they are freed once the fat layer is stripped off. Sodium hydroxide and Hypochlorous acid from
bleach neutralize these proteins. All of this immediately consuming the bleach
solution. By the time it gets to the stomach, itās
not really bleach anymore, itās a mix of soap, salt, and dead liquefied tissue. And this is why it doesnāt cure COVID19. It consumes itself on the way down because
it reacts with everything it touches. It never gets to the lungs. If it did because someone inhaled it somehow,
itāll strip off the cells in your windpipe and lungs causing burns there too. Again, lopping off your leg, to clip a toenail. AC developed a narrowing in his esophagus
because scar tissue grew over time. He had to undergo multiple procedures where
a balloon was put into his esophagus and inflated, to keep it open and was maintained on a liquid
diet because there were permanent scars. Alcohol and bleach are surface disinfectants. They donāt disinfect inside the body. They cause only harm, without any benefit
at all. So how about other things? Some people say eating garlic will help fight
SARS2 virus. Well, itās probably not going to. Garlic probably has some antimicrobial properties,
and this could be because of a chemical named allicin. There could be more chemicals, and thatās
fine. When you see something like this in a chemical,
you can assume itāll interact with sulfur in the body. Whereās sulfur? Itās in proteins. Just like the SARS2 virus spike. But inside the body, itās going to get broken
down when you eat it. You might say that garlic can boost the immune
system. Ok, suppose thatās real, maybe it is. How are you gonna measure that? And it has no role in treating a critically
ill patient today. I donāt need to wash my hands because I
ate garlic today? No, stop. The only documented case of garlic doing anything
for COVID19 is a report from Zhejiang province in China, where a woman ate 3 pounds of garlic
in 3 weeks. This is what happened to her throat: she couldnāt
speak because it was inflamed. Thatās it. Donāt get me wrong, I like my garlic. But if I have a fever, and im starting to
become short of breath right now in March 2020, im not gonna be eating more garlic hoping
that it all goes away, and neither should you. Thereās also talk about ginger. Look, SARS2 virus broke out in China. Chinese people today, still practice traditional
Chinese medicine, mixed with variations on Western standards of care. If ginger worked, they would have used it. And SARS2 virus wouldnāt have spread like
this. But it did spread like this. And finally, essential oils. These have become the butt of jokes. And I know people want me to rag on them,
but they actually have compounds in them that have demonstrated some antimicrobial activity. But the game changes once these things are
inside the body. Thatās the overarching theme for everything
im talking about in this video. The scientific phrase for this is in vivo,
from latin meaning āinside life.ā These things are broken down into things that
donāt disinfect, and if they do, theyāre not in the right amounts to disinfect. They end up causing more harm than good in
the body. And for essential oils, the reality is the
manufacturers of these oils have wide variability in how much of the active chemicals are in
their formulation. One manufacturer might have more of one thing
than other, one may have less than the other. Itās not reliable, and itās not enough
to cure COVID19 disease and it could do harm in falsely elevating your confidence that
it has eliminated a virus when it hasnāt. Oh and I canāt say the name of this in a
YouTube video. But thereās nothing disinfectant about this. Thereās nothing disinfectant about any of
its metabolites. The ending of itās name -caine actually
refers to anesthetics, meaning they usually function on nerves to numb an area. And vitamin C. There isnāt great evidence for it on cold
and flu. If youāre gonna take it, follow the directions
on the label. Donāt double up. So the general consensus is this. Lots of things can kill SARS2 virus outside
the body. They donāt kill the virus inside the body,
because the game changes in vivo. At best, they donāt mess with COVID19 disease
like garlic and ginger, and at worst, they cause blindness and someoneās heart to stop
beating like methanol. At worst, it liquefies and strips off the
inner lining of your throat and stomach, like bleach. Or at worst, it does nothing and gives someone
self confidence that theyāre clear of the infection, when theyāre actually not. And they go out and spread it around the community
because they think theyāre virus free. Donāt be that person. Wash your hands after you come back home. Wash them after you touch anything that came
from outside your house. When you wash, keep the soap on your hands
for 20 seconds while rubbing them together thoroughly. Itās even better if you wash them a second
time again for another 20 seconds right after and then dry your hands with a clean towel. Thatās all benefit for prevention and little
risk. But if you feel fever, and cough, and body
aches, then get that checked out. Donāt pretend nothing is wrong if you feel
sick, it doesnāt matter what age you are. This is very important. #Alertnotanxious. Check out Heme Review. Take care of yourself. And Be Well.
I can feel his contempt for the stupid people necessitating the creation of this video.
Burn a little going down? Man that shit must have been fire.
Got it, gotta drink more of the stuff for it to work.
There's a ā on the bottle for a reasonā¦
I love how this guy is trying his best to explain the chemical processes behind what happens when you drink rubbing alcohol but I can just tell, hes a second or two away from just going "FUCKING IDIOTS, DONT DRINK IT, IT'LL KILL YOU"
The fact someone needed to make this video is concerning
Nobody noticed the classic Doom music?!
I have a rule. If it's stored in my garage, my bathroom, or under the sink, I don't consume it.
Why didn't he just drink whiskey or rum or vodka...
I feel my IQ dropping just thinking about the logic in this.