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galacticspark t1_jd6jt9r wrote

Reply to comment by big_sugi in Can you extract a fully concentrated liquid out of an ice cube (like Coca Cola) until there's almost no water left? by Froggiebuns

You’re correct. The gist is methanol in itself isn’t great for you, but it’s not terrible. The problem is the same enzyme in your body that detoxifies ethanol will actually change methanol into something incredibly toxic. The solution is to tie up as many of the ethanol-detoxifying enzymes as possible so that they never have a chance to interact with the methanol molecules, and you end up peeing out the methanol.

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mikk0384 t1_jd7ocbt wrote

>The solution is to tie up as many of the ethanol-detoxifying enzymes as possible so that they never have a chance to interact with the methanol molecules, and you end up peeing out the methanol.

I thought it worked by slowing down the conversion of methanol to the more toxic compound so the body could keep up with the removal - keeping the concentration low by flattening the curve.

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Indemnity4 t1_jdaez3d wrote

Competitive inhibition.

Both methanol and ethanol compete for access the limited amount of enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase.

Methanol is converted to a toxic compound formic acid or formate. That's nasty stuff and your body can't really clear it. It needs to effectively kill the affected tissue and remove that, which takes days to weeks.

Ethanol is slightly better at binding to the enzyme compared to methanol. So if you have 95% ethanol and 5% methanol, practically close to zero methanol is being converted by the enzyme.

Silly analgoy: myself and a really attractive woman are both trying to buy a drink at a bar from the same bartender. A long enough queue of attractive women and I'm never getting a drink. So I give up and go home.

Methanol and ethanol are both removed by urine (and breathing + sweating). So long as the methanol is still circulating and not reacting with the enzyme, you simply urinate it out.

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