Ethanol is converted into toxic acetaldehyde, which damages cells, and then into acetate, which the body can use as fuel.

“Goes into the stomach, the liver immediately starts this conversion that we talked about before of ethanol to acetaldehyde to acetate, and some amount of acetaldehyde and acetate are making it into the brain, it crosses the blood-brain barrier.”

“And the place where it does that is within the liver, and cells within the liver are very good at this conversion process, but they are cells and they are exposed to the acetaldehyde in the conversion process, and so cells within the liver really take a beating in the alcohol metabolism events.”

“What does that mean for you? What that means is that if your body can't do this conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde to acetate fast enough, well, acetaldehyde will build up in your body and cause more damage, so it's important that your body be able to do this conversion very quickly.”