Raising Awareness of Alcohol Intolerance

At this point, my "Raising Awareness" series of blog posts is getting rather long. I'll post links to all the others at the bottom of this post.

Really, the only reason I'm writing this one is that the symptoms of alcohol intolerance can be the same as a person with a hangover (some differences I'll get into in a bit), so I think that there could be a number of people out there thinking they're just suffering from a hangover when it's actually an alcohol intolerance. 

Now, on the one hand, I know two people personally who have the kind of alcohol intolerance that comes up most when you google symptoms, which is basically a "red, flushed face", and potentially hives. That, to me, sounds like an allergic reaction and should really be classified under "alcohol allergy". They are not the same thing. An allergy is an immuno-reaction to a substance, while an "intolerance" is generally classified as a gastrointestinal reaction. It was the exact same thing with my avocado intolerance. I was getting stomach cramps, not anaphylaxis. 

There are also articles out there that tend to point out that alcohol intolerance is only genetic, which is obviously not the case. Sure, like lactose intolerance, Asians seem to get the worst of it by also genetically not having the enzymes to break down alcohol. It is definately possible to be born with it. But, like with my avocados, you can develop it over time.

The other symptoms of alcohol intolerance include headaches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and diahrrea. Sounds a lot like a hangover, doesn't it? So the difference between the two is the amount of time it takes to develop symptoms. For someone with an intolerance, it could take less than an hour to begin to feel shitty, even when you only had a small amount of alcohol. My intolerance developed over the course of several months (because I did go many months without drinking any alcohol at all due to the fact that I didn't feel good). I would drink a glass of wine, get what's known as a "wine headache", and not even feel a buzz. That's the main difference between these two - I don't get drunk, I just get sick. 

But lately, it's gotten even more unpleasant. Now I check almost all the boxes.

People with alcohol intolerance can't process alcohol in the normal way. Generally, this is what happens when you drink alcohol:

"The enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) metabolizes the ethanol (that's the type of alcohol in alcohol) into toxic acetaldehyde. From there the liver enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) metabolizes acetaldehyde into acetate, a less toxic compound that breaks down into water and carbon dioxide."

So essentially, my liver is not making, or making enough of, ALDH because it's the toxic actaldehyde that is causing my body to feel sick. And that is certainly worrisome, as the word "toxic" is being thrown in.

I have a couple options to explore in pill or liquid form which might help my liver matabolize some of the alcohol if I wish to partake, but really the only cure is to no longer drink alcohol. Well, it only took 3+ years of not eating avocado before my body reset, so maybe I can do the same with alcohol. 

Oh boy. Wish me luck.

My Raising Awareness series:

Dyspaurunia

Gallstones

Blepharitis

PVCs

BAM

Fintech Banks

Define Fintech: Fintech refers to the integration of technology into offerings by financial services companies in order to improve their use and delivery to consumers.

I am all in in Fintech banks (aka neobanks), but they are just as bad as Uber, Grubhub and the like. If you follow financial news at all (which I don't, but I still hear about this stuff), apps like Uber, where they base their business on an app and then employ people to maintain it, bleed money out the wazoo. They stay afloat only by convincing investors to give them money, and then bleed it all away because the costs are too high to maintain. All apps are like this, and Fintech Bank apps seem to be no exception. 

I used to be a regular bank user, and even though I always maintained a good balance, never went overdraft etc, the fees they charge are nuts. If you go below a minimum balance; if you don't do direct deposit; if you overdraft etc etc. I actually left Wells Fargo in my early 20s after the scandal of their team members signing people up for accounts they never asked for in order for them to meet quotas. Plus, they were all up in the housing market crash. Banks are shady as shit.

But now I understand why. I found an online bank called Simple. It was revolutionary. It wasn't just a website that showed your balance and maybe the last few things you bought. It had features. Features I didn't even know I needed. Like Expenses and Goals. I could automate my paycheck and put $300 per paycheck into an Expense folder and my bills would come out of it instead of my spending money. I could send a % per paycheck into specific goals to save up for things. (Which, I use for just about everything. I save up all year to pay my car tabs, which can be like $400 for a new car). It gave me budgeting tools, which admittedly I never used, but it was cool that they were there. It would automatically catrogorize everything I bought, like Groceries or Gas, and then you could look them up to see how much you spent on each catagory, and set a limit if you wanted to. It also had immediate notifications; every time I bought something, within seconds I could get a notification of the transaction. It really came in handy once when I was sitting on my couch at home and got a notification that I had spent $20 at a gas station in West Virginia. Um, no?? And I was immediately able to pause/cancel my card in the app and get sent a new one. The amount of things it could do was crazy and I loved it. But not only that, fees were non-existant. They didn't charge overdraft, or low balance, or any of those things.

But then, the worst happened. Simple was bought about by BBVA.
They were shutting their doors and giving people a chance to either switch, or get integrated into BBVA. During this impending doom, you will find many articles that sprang up - if you google "what banks are like Simple?" because people wanted a good alternative since Simple was so cool. 

I decided to give BBVA a chance, since I wasn't sold on any of the alternatives that I read about. But it was a horrible transition. Not only did they have many issues with Simple customers, but they were just a traditional bank that had fees and no features. I jumped ship as soon as I could. I found a neobank called Douugh, and waited for almost a year for them to get an Android app before switching over. (Apparently there's a monthly fee now?! I had no idea; I am assuming grandfathered accounts like mine aren't being charged.)

But I am so done with them. I think they're gonna go under soon. They had features that they then took away (Like Peer2Peer instant transfers between Douugh users), features they promised to add a year ago and still haven't (like mobile deposit; anticipated December 2021) and are beginning to have issues with their app that are driving me nuts. My money is literally stuck; since I began using them I have never been able to connect with my other bank, BECU, to be able to transfer funds into it. I have never been able to use Zelle to pay Patrick, I even just signed up for Venmo but I get an error every time I try to send someone money. They still haven't added mobile deposit so if I ever get a check for something I have to deposit it into BECU, which is completely unnacceptable. If I didn't still have BECU I'd have no way to get that money into my account.

I finally decided enough was enough. Even though transfering banks is awful, I just had to find something else. But the problem was Fintech. Simple went under because they bled money, just like Douugh is bleeding money. Just like I read Varo is bleeding money. Chime had many complaints and attracted the attention of state regulators. As many as are available now, they're all pretty much in trouble. And I didn't want to sign up for another one just to have them go under like Simple did.

Click here to read the article on neobanks

I had to find something that not only had all the features I wanted, like Goals (or Jars, or Vaults, or Envelopes... every app calls them something different), but had maybe been around for a while and still had traditional bank features, such as credit cards, a line of credit, loans etc. Because then that is something else they can make money off of and not just interchange/transaction fees like traditional Fintechs.

Enter SoFi. You may have heard of them; they own a stadium in Los Angeles. They have a lot of traditional bank stuff, but the app is also feature rich. I'm really hoping I'm going to like this one because I'm getting tired of jumping ship and having to switch all my stuff around. I'll let you know how it goes!